A Slow But Steady Demise For Tax Exceptionalism

Monday, February 10th, 2020
4:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Add to Calendar: Add to Calendar: 2020-02-10 16:30:00 2020-02-10 17:30:00 A Slow But Steady Demise For Tax Exceptionalism Event Description Some courts and commentators have suggested that tax law is so different from other areas of law that general requirements, doctrines, and norms of administrative law and procedure do not and should not apply to the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service when they administer the tax laws.  Other courts and commentators strongly disagree with this notion of tax exceptionalism. This lecture, by a distinguished scholar of both administrative law and tax law, examines the growing body of case law and other governmental efforts that are driving tax regulatory actions and administrative practices increasingly to conform to general administrative law requirements, doctrines and norms. Speaker Information Professor Kristin E. Hickman is a leading authority in the fields of tax administration and administrative law. Her articles on these topics have appeared in the Columbia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, and Duke Law Journal, among other publications. She co-authors the Administrative Law Treatise and a casebook on federal administrative law with Richard J. Pierce, Jr. Her scholarly work has been cited several times in opinions of the United States Supreme Court and as well as regularly in lower court judicial opinions and court briefs. In 2018-19, Professor Hickman served as Special Adviser to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in Washington, D.C.  She presently serves as one of forty public members and chair of the judicial review committee for the Administrative Conference of the United States.  She is a member of the Governing Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, and she is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. Professor Hickman joined the Law School in 2004. She held the Law School’s Julius E. Davis Chair in Law in 2010-11, was the Donald C. Alexander Visiting Professor in Tax Law at Harvard Law School for the 2012-13 academic year, and also taught at Northwestern University School of Law as a Visiting Assistant Professor in 2003-04. She was the Stanley V. Kinyon Tenured Teacher of the Year for the 2016-17 academic year. Professor Hickman received her B.S. degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting and a second major in history from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. After practicing for several years as a certified public accountant, she earned her J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law, where she was awarded the Raoul Berger Prize and the Lowden-Wigmore Prize. Following law school, Professor Hickman clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and practiced law as an associate with the Chicago office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, concentrating on corporate and international tax transactions and matters. CLE Reading Materials Moot Courtroom (A59) School of Law School of Law America/New_York public

The Norman A. Sugarman Tax Lecture

the event is free

1 hour of CLE credit has been approved

Event Description

Some courts and commentators have suggested that tax law is so different from other areas of law that general requirements, doctrines, and norms of administrative law and procedure do not and should not apply to the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service when they administer the tax laws.  Other courts and commentators strongly disagree with this notion of tax exceptionalism.

This lecture, by a distinguished scholar of both administrative law and tax law, examines the growing body of case law and other governmental efforts that are driving tax regulatory actions and administrative practices increasingly to conform to general administrative law requirements, doctrines and norms.

Speaker Information

Professor Kristin E. Hickman is a leading authority in the fields of tax administration and administrative law. Her articles on these topics have appeared in the Columbia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, and Duke Law Journal, among other publications. She co-authors the Administrative Law Treatise and a casebook on federal administrative law with Richard J. Pierce, Jr. Her scholarly work has been cited several times in opinions of the United States Supreme Court and as well as regularly in lower court judicial opinions and court briefs.

In 2018-19, Professor Hickman served as Special Adviser to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in Washington, D.C.  She presently serves as one of forty public members and chair of the judicial review committee for the Administrative Conference of the United States.  She is a member of the Governing Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, and she is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.

Professor Hickman joined the Law School in 2004. She held the Law School’s Julius E. Davis Chair in Law in 2010-11, was the Donald C. Alexander Visiting Professor in Tax Law at Harvard Law School for the 2012-13 academic year, and also taught at Northwestern University School of Law as a Visiting Assistant Professor in 2003-04. She was the Stanley V. Kinyon Tenured Teacher of the Year for the 2016-17 academic year.

Professor Hickman received her B.S. degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting and a second major in history from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. After practicing for several years as a certified public accountant, she earned her J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law, where she was awarded the Raoul Berger Prize and the Lowden-Wigmore Prize. Following law school, Professor Hickman clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and practiced law as an associate with the Chicago office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, concentrating on corporate and international tax transactions and matters.

CLE Reading Materials

Event Location

Moot Courtroom (A59)

headhsot of Kristin Hickman

Kristin Hickman, Distinguished McKnight University Professor; Harlan Albert Rogers Professor in Law; Associate Director, Corporate Institute