Tax Program Adjunct Profs Include Heavy Hitters

In addition to its three full-time tax professors, the tax program at Lewis & Clark Law School has long been blessed with gifted adjunct professors who bring priceless real-world perspectives into the classroom. Portland is home to a number of nationally recognized tax lawyers, and most of them have taught advanced tax classes at the law school at one time or another over the years. Two of the strongest teachers from this group are currently part of the tax faculty lineup: Philip Jones teaches Federal Tax Procedure, and Gersham Goldstein teaches Advanced Corporate Taxation. Both do so with great skill, enthusiasm, and caring.

Jones is a partner in the law firm Duffy Kekel LLP, where he has worked since his graduation from Lewis & Clark Law School in 1976. His busy practice includes resolving disputes with the Internal Revenue Service, both administratively and in court; estate planning; and estate and trust administration and litigation. He has tried and argued many tax cases at all levels of state and federal trial and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, and he has a keen interest in education for tax professionals. Jones is a frequent speaker at all sorts of continuing education seminars, and he has written more than a dozen articles for The Journal of Taxation, a leading national professional journal. Among the topics he likes to write and talk about is the burden of proof in tax disputes -- to win a tax dispute, who has the obligation of persuading the judge or jury of the correctness of its side of the facts, the taxpayer or the government? Jones is also a graduate of Lewis & Clark's College of Arts and Sciences, where he majored in economics, and he has been a great friend of his alma mater ever since. When not immersed in the tax law, he can be found enjoying the great outdoors of the Northwest, where he is an accomplished mountaineer and cyclist.

Goldstein is a partner in law firm Stoel Rives LLP, where he has been the leading tax attorney for 30 years. Known throughout the country as an authority on corporate taxation, he is a collaborator of the most recent edition of Federal Taxation of Corporations and Shareholders. Originally authored by Goldstein's friends and colleagues, James Eustice and the late Boris Bittker, this work is perhaps the most influential tax treatise ever written. Goldstein is also the editor-in-chief of Corporate Taxation, a national quarterly journal that he helped to found 35 years ago. A much sought-after lecturer to tax institutes and bar groups, he was the Charles S. Lyon Visiting Professor of Taxation from Practice at N.Y.U. Law School in the fall of 1991, and has also been a faculty member of the N.Y.U. Law School Graduate Tax Workshop for many years. He received his advanced degree in taxation from N.Y.U. in 1964, and he found his way to Oregon to become the first law clerk to the Oregon Tax Court. Early in his career, he taught for several years at the University of Cincinnati Law School. Goldstein's intellect and sense of humor are legendary among tax lawyers around the nation, and he is generous with his time for the handful of students who are lucky enough to enroll in his intensive course on corporate reorganization and consolidated returns.

Volunteer Tax Assistance Program Wraps Up 14th Year

The 2008 Lewis & Clark Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program has wrapped up another successful year. Three clients still have their returns outstanding awaiting further documentation -- all three filed extension documents to meet the April 15 deadline - and they are expected to get their returns filed within a week or two.

This was our 14th annual VITA program at Lewis & Clark. Around 30 clients were served. As always, noting that "charity begins at home," the program devoted its efforts to helping international students comply with their sometimes-onerous tax filing obligations in the United States. To participate, law student volunteers must undergo training on foreign student tax problems; do a few hours of additional reading and thinking on their own; and be available on one or more afternoons, when international students from the undergraduate campus come to the law school for tax form preparation assistance.

The training gives volunteers the skills they need to participate, and all work will be done in two-person teams. Each international student "client" will meet with a law faculty supervisor and one or two law student volunteers, and together they prepare the client's federal and state tax returns and related forms.

In addition to helping their fellow students, volunteers are guaranteed to learn some things about U.S. international taxation. More information is available on the VITA web page, here.