USC Law Taps Top Tax Scholar

Edward D. Kleinbard of Joint Committee on Taxation will join faculty this summer

—By Gilien Silsby

University of Southern California Gould School of Law has recruited Edward D. Kleinbard, chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation in Washington, D.C., to join the USC Law faculty this summer. 

“Ed is one of the nation’s top tax scholars and attorneys,” said USC Law Dean Robert K. Rasmussen. “He is a valued addition to the highly regarded corporate and tax program at USC Law.”

As chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, Kleinbard oversees an office of nearly 70 lawyers, economists, accountants and administrative staff. The non-partisan Joint Committee assists Congress in every aspect of the tax legislative process, including the development and analysis of tax proposals for lawmakers, preparation of comprehensive hearing pamphlets and other papers on tax legislative topics, the drafting of tax bills, estimations of all revenue legislation considered by the Congress, and investigations of various aspects of the federal tax system.

Kleinbard was a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School in 2007, where he taught Taxation of Financial Products and Markets. He has lectured on tax topics in academic and professional settings.

“I am thrilled with the opportunity to join USC Law,” said Kleinbard, who will teach tax law. “USC has one of the best tax faculties in the country, and the larger Los Angeles community of tax scholars and practitioners is as deep and as strong as that found anywhere. I am very lucky to consider myself a member of this extraordinary institution.”

Kleinbard has published extensively on tax matters in academic and professional journals, including “Rehabilitating the Business Income Tax,” for the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, and “Designing an Income Tax on Capital,” a chapter in the book Taxing Capital Income (Urban Institute 2007). He received a 2006 Burton Award for Legal Writing for his article on the Business Enterprise Income Tax.

Prior to his appointment to the Joint Committee, Mr. Kleinbard was a partner in the office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in New York. His focus covered federal income tax matters, including taxation of new financial products, financial institutions and international mergers and acquisitions. Kleinbard was widely regarded as one of the elite tax lawyers in the United States when he was in private practice. He was listed in The International Who’s Who of Corporate Tax Lawyers, which named him one of the top 15 tax lawyers worldwide, calling him an "outstanding" practitioner and "one of the very best in the USA." He was also distinguished in The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers (2007) as a leading tax lawyer, both in his current capacity and while he was in private practice.

USC Law is Southern California’s oldest and most prominent law school. It is ranked number 18 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Recognized as the most diverse top law school in the United States, USC Law offers a rigorous and interdisciplinary learning environment that includes a wide range of public interest programs and free law clinics.