Richard C.E. Beck
Professor of Law and Codirector

B.A. 1963, University of Chicago
Ph.D. 1973, University of Chicago
J.D. 1980, Yale Law School
LL.M. (Taxation) 1984, New York University

Professor Beck is an expert in federal individual income tax. He has testified before the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Ways & Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee on spousal liability for income taxes. Professor Beck teaches Individual Income Tax, Tax Policy, International Tax, Corporate Tax, and Taxation of Property Transactions.

Pamela R. Champine
Professor of Law and Director of Core Curriculum

B.S. 1985 highest honors, University of Illinois
J.D. 1988 cum laude, Northwestern University
LL.M. (Taxation) 1990, New York University

Professor Champine’s expertise in personal affairs planning, the tax and non-tax issues that arise in estate planning and management of personal affairs generally, is based upon more than a decade of experience. After earning her LL.M. in Taxation, she practiced first at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, and later served as principal Court Attorney and Law Secretary to Manhattan Surrogate Eve Preminger. Her scholarship ranges from articles addressing intricate tax issues to policy-based articles analyzing fundamental doctrines in the law of wills to a treatise addressing tax and non-tax aspects of drafting wills and trusts. Professor Champine teaches Problems of Timing, Federal Income Taxation of Trusts and Estates, Property, and Wills, Trusts & Future Interests.

A.B. 1973 summa cum laude, Harvard University
A.M. 1975, Harvard University
J.D. 1978 cum laude, Harvard University
Ph.D. 1987, Harvard University

A noted historian and expert in tax law, Professor LaPiana is the author of Logic and Experience (Oxford, 1994), an important analysis of the intellectual roots of the case method used in legal education. In addition to his extensive academic experience, Professor LaPiana spent four years as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the Supervisory Council of the Real Property Probate and Trust Section of the ABA, and was the Reporter for the Uniform Disclaimer of Property Interests Act. He is also an Academic Fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estate Counsel. He teaches American Legal History, Estate Planning, Federal Wealth Transfer Taxation, Property, Wills, Trusts & Future Interests, and Advanced Wealth Transfer Planning.

Ann F. Thomas
Professor of Law and Managing Director

A.B. 1973 magna cum laude, Harvard-Radcliffe
J.D. 1976, Yale Law School

Professor Thomas brings to the classroom 17 years of practice experience—10 as a partner—working in the tax department at Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, where she specialized in mergers and acquisitions. She is a past member of the Tax Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (1984–87) and the Executive Committee of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association (1996–98). Her scholarship focuses on comparative systems of entity taxation, the tax treatment of women and the history of the federal income tax. Professor Thomas teaches Individual Income Tax, Corporate Tax, Comparative Tax Law, Business Law Issues in Structuring the Closely Held Enterprise and the Graduate Tax Program Research and Writing Seminar.

Diane L. Fahey
Associate Professor of Law

B.A. 1979, Cleveland State University
J.D. 1983 cum laude, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
LL.M. (Taxation) 2000, Georgetown University Law Center

After receiving her LL.M. in Taxation, Professor Fahey served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable James Halpern of the United States Tax Court from 2000 to 2002. At New York Law School she teaches Federal Income Tax: Corporate, and Federal Income Tax: Individual.