Faculty

Thomas D. Griffith specializes in studies of income tax and in criminal law. He teaches Contracts, Corporate Taxation, Criminal Law, Topics in Criminology and Federal Income Taxation.

Griffith is the author of Federal Income Tax: Examples and Explanations (with Joseph Bankman and Katherine Pratt, Aspen Law & Business, 2002); “Gangs, Schools and Stereotypes” (with Linda S. Beres, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, 2004); and “Progressive Taxation and Happiness” (“The State of Federal Income Tax Symposium: Rates, Progressivitiy, and Budget Processes,” Boston College Law Review, 2004).

A magna cum laude graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School, Griffith was an editor on the Harvard Law Review and was an associate at Hill & Barlow in Boston, MA, before joining the USC Gould School of Law faculty in 1984. He also taught at New York University. He is a past subcommittee chair of the American Bar Association Committee of Problems of Low Income Taxpayers and lecturer at the USC Tax Institute. In 2009, Griffith received the William A. Rutter Distinguished Teaching Award.

Books

• Federal Income Tax: Examples and Explanations, 7th ed. (with Joseph Bankman and Katherine Pratt) (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2014).
• Federal Income Tax: Examples and Explanations, 5th ed. (with Joseph Bankman and Katherine Pratt) (Aspen Publishers, 2008).
• Federal Income Tax: Examples and Explanations, 4th ed. (with Joseph Bankman and Katherine Pratt) (Aspen Publishers, 2005).
• Federal Income Tax: Examples and Explanations, 3d ed. (with Joseph Bankman and Katherine Pratt) (Aspen Law & Business, 2002).
• Federal Income Tax: Examples and Explanations, 2d ed. (with Joseph Bankman and Katherine Pratt) (Aspen Law & Business, 1998).
• Federal Income Tax: Examples and Explanations (with Joseph Bankman and Katherine Pratt) (Little Brown & Co., 1996).

Articles and Book Chapters

• "Gangs, Schools and Stereotypes" (with Linda S. Beres). 37 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 935 (2004). - (Hein)
• "Progressive Taxation and Happiness" (The State of Federal Income Tax Symposium: Rates, Progressivity, and Budget Processes). 45 Boston College Law Review 1363 (2004). - (Hein)
• "Taxing Sunny Days: Adjusting Taxes for Regional Living Costs and Amenities" (with Michael S. Knoll). 116 Harvard Law Review 987 (2003). - (Hein)
• "Habitual Offender Statutes and Criminal Deterrence" (with Linda S. Beres). 34 Connecticut Law Review 55 (2001). - (Hein)
• "Demonizing Youth" (with Linda S. Beres). 34 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 747 (2001). - (Hein)
• "Diversity and the Law School." 74 Southern California Law Review 169 (2000). - (Hein)
• "Did 'Three Strikes' Cause the Recent Drop in California Crime?: An Analysis of the California Attorney General's Report" (with Linda S. Beres). 32 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 101 (1998). - (Hein)
• "Do Three Strikes Laws Make Sense? Habitual Offender Statutes and Criminal Incapacitation" (with Linda S. Beres). 87 Georgetown Law Journal 103 (1998). - (Hein)
• "Efficient Taxation of Mixed Personal and Business Expenses." 41 UCLA Law Review 1769 (1994). - (Hein)
• "Should 'Tax Norms' be Abandoned? Rethinking Tax Policy Analysis and the Taxation of Personal Injury Recoveries." 1993 Wisconsin Law Review 1115. - (Hein)
• "Tribute to David Carroll" (with others). 67 Southern California Law Review 1 (1993). - (Hein)
• "Is the Debate Between an Income Tax and a Consumption Tax a Debate About Risk? Does it Matter?" (with Joseph Bankman). 47 Tax Law Review 377 (1992). - (Hein)
• "Theories of Personal Deductions in the Income Tax." 40 Hastings Law Journal 343 (1989). - (Hein)
• "Social Welfare and the Rate Structure: A New Look at Progressive Taxation" (with J. Bankman). 75 California Law Review 1905 (1987). - (Hein)

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

Inverse
April 20, 2018
Re: Jody David Armour

Jody Armour was quoted about the racist enforcement of marijuana-related crimes. “The 4/20 celebrations should be tempered by a sober recognition that many disproportionately black lives have been sacrificed on the altar of a failed drug war that was racist at its inception and in its execution,” Armour said. “More than just a day of celebration, 4/20 should be a day of reckoning in which liberal and progressive politicians are called out for their many years of support for a racist and wasteful war on drugs.”

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Robert K. Rasmussen
January, 2018

"Puerto Rico and the Netherworld of Sovereign Debt Restructuring," Workshop, Duke Law School, Durham, NC. 

Edward Kleinbard
January, 2018

"The Right Tax at the Right Time," Florida Tax Review 21 (2017): 208.

Edward Kleinbard
January, 2018

“The Perversion of the Tax Policy Process,” Keynote Address at the USC Tax Institute, Los Angeles, CA.