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 William P. LaPiana
Rita and Joseph Solomon
Professor of Wills, Trusts,
and Estates
Director, Estate Planning,
Graduate Tax Program
William P. LaPiana believes that one of the best ways to analyze a society is to examine how its legal system deals with people’s lawsuits.
And what is more basic, he asks, than how people choose to pass on their assets?
“I view trusts and estates as one of the most dynamic areas of law today. In many ways, the trust and estates laws of any given society can be said to provide a social history of how that society functions. Property law is constantly changing and we are facing all kinds of fascinating questions such as the claims of posthumously conceived children,” he explains, adding that trusts and estates is a very didactic area of law and that its practitioners can function as educators for their clients.
Professor LaPiana holds both a Ph.D. in History and a law degree from Harvard, where he also received his B.A. and an M.A. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1978 Professor LaPiana, who is originally from suburban Buffalo, spent four years as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. It was, he explains, all part of a plan to enable him to someday obtain an academic position.
“I figured every law school would need professors who had actual practice experience,” he recalls. “The only hard part was getting hired by a law firm when I told them that basically, I just wanted the experience of working in a firm to be able to use it when I began teaching!”
After four years spent at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, Professor LaPiana joined the faculty at New York Law School in 1987. In 1993, he was named the Rita and Joseph Solomon Professor of the Law of Wills, Trusts and Estates.
His doctoral dissertation grew into an important analysis, still used by scholars, of the intellectual roots of the case method and why it has been a successful tool of legal education. It was published as, Logic and Experience: The Origins of Modern American Legal Education (Oxford University Press, 1994).
Professor LaPiana also has been active with the trusts and estates sections of both the New York State and the American Bar Associations, and is an academic fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, serving on its Committees on State Laws and Legal Education.
In 1999, he served as the reporter for the revised Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act, which was adopted by the National Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. The disclaimer law he drafted has already been enacted by a number of states, and many others are in the process of reviewing it. He presented “Disclaimers: The Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interest Act (1999)” at an annual meeting of the American Bar Association.
Professor LaPiana has been a regular participant since 1987 in the New York University Law School Legal History Colloquium.
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Contact information:
T: 212-431-2883
F: 212-431-1830
E: wlapiana@nyls.edu
O: B406
Assistant: Katrice Ayarza
T: 212.431.2305
E: kayarza@nyls.edu
O: B209
Photo (print quality):
Prof. LaPiana (6MB)
Education:
Harvard, A.B. 1973 summa cum laude, A.M. 1975, J.D. 1978 cum laude, Ph.D. 1987.
Courses:
American Legal History
Estate Planning
Federal Taxation of Gifts
& Estates
Property
Wills, Trusts & Future Interests
At New York Law School since 1987.
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