Obituary of Janet Spragens: "Extraordinary Advocate Who Changed Face of Tax Clinical Education"

Following up on our post yesterday on the untimely death of Janet Spragens:  the Washington College of Law at American University has posted Janet's obituary:

Janet R. Spragens, 62, professor of law at American University Washington College of Law, passed away in her Washington, D.C. home on Sunday, Feb., 19, after an extended battle with cancer.

Professor Spragens joined the faculty of the Washington College of Law in the fall of 1973. In 1990, she founded the Federal Tax Clinic, which the ABA Tax Section has called one of the earliest and most successful low-income taxpayer clinics in the country. She was director of that clinic since its inception.

Prof. Spragens was on the forefront of issues involving the rights of underserved taxpayers, and her testimony before the National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service in 1997 is widely considered to have been instrumental in achieving federal funding for non-profit low-income taxpayer clinics. In 2006, she was given the ABA Section on Taxation's Pro Bono Award for her work on behalf of low-income tax payers. This award recognizes her immense contributions to the field of clinical legal education and the importance of her work on behalf of underserved tax payers. Her work included training and supervising law students who represent low-income taxpayers in federal and state tax controversies before the Tax Court, and teaching tax law classes.

From 1996 to 2001, she served as executive director of the American Tax Policy Institute, and she was active in the ABA Section of Taxation, as a member of the council, and former chair, of the section's Low-Income Taxpayer and Teaching Taxation committees. Prof. Spragens was also director of WCL's Israel Program and was visiting professor of law at University of Haifa Faculty of Law in 2000 where she taught tax law.

She held expertise in income taxation, federal personal income tax, federal corporate income tax and federal tax policy. She was executive director of the American Tax Policy Institute since 1996, and a member of the council for the ABA Section on Taxation since 1999. In 1997, she served as an expert witness for the Department of Justice; she served as a consultant to the Department of Labor on a study on the taxation of human capital; and as a consultant to the Department of the Treasury on fundamental tax reform. Throughout her career, Prof. Spragens was called upon to offer expert testimony before various government agencies and IRS committees and boards.

She authored Tax Aspects of Forming and Operating Closely Held Corporations (Shepard's/McGraw-Hill, 1992, 1993) and co-authored How You Can Get the Most From the New Tax Law (Bantam, 1981). She also authored many journal and law review articles in IRS modernization, tax reform, tax clinics in law schools, the savings and loan industry and other tax-related issues. She has been quoted extensively in the Washington Post, Legal Times, National Law Journal, the ABA's Tax Lawyer and others.

Prior to joining the faculty of WCL, Prof. Spragens clerked for D.C. Federal District Court Judge Oliver Gasch, and then was an attorney with the Appellate Section of the Justice Department's Tax Division. She has served as visiting professor at Northwestern University, University of San Diego, and law schools in Israel, Chile and China.

Prof. Spragens received her B.A. from Wellesley College in 1964, and her J.D. from George Washington University National Law Center in 1968.

She is survived by a daughter Robin Spragens Trapanier of Washington, D.C.; a daughter Lee Spragens of Los Angeles; her mother Sophie R. Altman of D.C., two sisters, Susan Altman of D.C. and Nancy Altman of Bethesda, and a brother, Robert Altman of Potomac.

Prof. Spragens, who devoted much of her professional life to WCL, was regarded by faculty, students and staff as a warm and supportive colleague, a tireless mentor and an extraordinary advocate whose contributions changed the face of legal education tax clinics in America.