Ariel Jurow Kleiman is a nationally recognized expert on tax law and policy. Her research explores how tax and fiscal policies affect low-income and vulnerable households at the local, state, and federal levels. Her publications have appeared in top legal journals including the Georgetown Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Iowa Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, University of Minnesota Law Review, Tax Law Review, and Yale Law Journal, among others. She regularly advises journalists, think tanks, and public interest organizations and is a frequent contributor to national news outlets, including the Associated Press, Bloomberg, The Hill, NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Vox, Washington Post, and others.

In 2023, Jurow Kleiman was selected to serve as the sole academic member of a Congressionally mandated independent task force evaluating the feasibility of the IRS creating “Direct File,” a system that allows taxpayers to file their tax returns for free directly to the IRS. The work, which directly informed the Treasury Department’s decision to pilot a Direct File system, received significant media coverage, including in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Vox, and other major media outlets.

Prior to teaching, Jurow Kleiman was awarded a Skadden Fellowship to work at Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles, where she founded and directed the Bet Tzedek Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic.  The program, which continues to thrive in her absence, represents low-income taxpayers against the IRS and California Franchise Tax Board. Since its founding, the clinic has earned millions of dollars in savings and refunds for its clients. Jurow Kleiman also serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Responsive Government Action, an organization that advocates for solutions that make government more efficient, accessible, and responsive to the needs of real human beings.

In 2023, Jurow Kleiman was a Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and a Hugh Ault Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance. Before joining USC, she worked as a Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, an Associate Professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, and an Acting Assistant Professor of Tax Law at NYU. She received a BA, summa cum laude, from UCLA; MS in development studies from the London School of Economics; and JD from Yale Law School, where she was awarded the Florence M. Kelley Prize for her writing on taxation of migrant families.