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Jennifer Bird-Pollan

Jennifer Bird-Pollan

Professor of Law and Alan S. Schenk Chair in Taxation

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Room 3229

Jennifer Bird-Pollan

  • Biography

    Jennifer Bird-Pollan joined the Wayne State University Law faculty in 2024, after 14 years at the University of Kentucky Rosenberg College of Law. Professor Bird-Pollan is a nationally recognized expert in federal tax law, especially regarding matters of distributive justice, wealth transfer taxation, and international tax. Before joining the academy, Bird-Pollan worked in the Tax Department of the law firm of Ropes & Gray in Boston. In addition to the introductory course in Taxation, Professor Bird-Pollan has taught courses in Partnership Tax, Corporate Tax, Tax Policy, Estate & Gift Tax, International Tax, and Law & Literature. Before law school, she taught undergraduate philosophy courses at Vanderbilt University and Harvard College.

    Professor Bird-Pollan's research interests lie at the intersection of tax law and philosophy, with a particular focus on questions of fairness in the tax system. Her research has been published in the Boston College Law Review, the Pepperdine Law Review, the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy, and the Wayne Law Review, among other journals. Professor Bird-Pollan received the 2023 University of Kentucky Great Teacher Award, a campus-wide award, as well as the 2017 UK College of Law Duncan Teaching Award. While at UK she served as the Chair of the UK University Senate, and the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Law. Bird-Pollan was the 2014-2015 Fulbright Scholar at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and has also taught at Indiana University, Fordham University, and the University of Cologne. Professor Bird-Pollan is a Kentucky Colonel, a bourbon drinker, and a long-time Detroit Lions fan, not necessarily in that order.

  • Degrees and Certifications

    J.D., Harvard Law School
    Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
    B.A., Penn State University

    Bar Admissions: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States Supreme Court

  • Selected publications

    Articles

    • Taxing the Ivory Tower: Evaluating the Excise Tax on University Endowments, 48 Pepperdine Law Review 101 (2021).
    • Revising the Tax Law: The TCJA and Its Place in the History of Tax Reform, 45 Ohio Northern Law Review 501 (2019).
    • The Sovereign Right to Tax: How Bilateral Investment Treaties Threaten Sovereignty, 32 Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy 107 (2018).
    • Utilitarianism and Wealth Transfer Taxation, 69 Arkansas Law Review 695 (2016).
    • Why Tax Wealth Transfers? 57 Boston College Law Review 859 (2016).

    Books

    • Federal Taxes on Gratuitous Transfers: Law and Planning, Dodge, Gerzog,
      Crawford, Bird-Pollan, and Haneman, Wolters Kluwer (2023).

    Book Chapters

    • Rewritten Opinion of Magdalin v. Commissioner, in Feminist Tax Judgments (Cambridge University Press 2017).
    • Philosophical Foundations of Wealth Transfer Taxation, in Philosophical Foundations of Tax Law (Oxford University Press 2017).
       

     

  • Accomplishments
    • University of Kentucky Great Teacher Award, 2023
    • Fulbright Scholar at Vienna University of Economics and Business, 2014-2015
  • Social Science Research Network
    View SSRN Profile
  • Recent courses taught

    Fall Term 2024 (current)

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