The Most-Cited Tax Faculty At The 64 Most-Cited Law Schools

Following up on last week's post, The 64 Most-Cited Law Faculties:  here are the 13 Tax Profs among the 10-most cited faculty at the Top 64 law schools:

3. Harvard: Louis Kaplow
4. NYU: Daniel Hemel
14. Michigan: Reuven Avi-Yonah
18. UC-Davis: Darien Shanske
22. UC-Irvine: Victor Fleischer
23. Minnesota: Kristin Hickman
34. Cardozo: Edward Zelinsky; Florida State: Steve Johnson
42. BYU: Cliff Fleming
47. San Francisco: Joshua Rosenberg
56. Boston College: Diane Ring
60. Pittsburgh: Anthony Infanti; Santa Clara: Patricia Cain

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2023 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Law Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2

Washington & Lee has just released the 2023 tax law review rankings of six major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Elder Law Review ("Illinois")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes Federal ("Tax Notes")
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on citations to articles published in 2019-2023 (methodology):

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

	Combined	Impact	Journals	Cases	Currency
1. NYU	10.84	0.80	117	1.43	0
2. Virginia	9.31	0.65	112	1.57	1
3. Columbia	7.98	0.72	45	1.13	0
4. Tax Notes	7.05	0.01	235	0.01	0
5. Illinois	6.17	0.42	78	0.84	1
6. ABA	4.81	0.28	74	0.64	2

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2024-25 U.S. News Tax Rankings

The new 2024-25 U.S. News Tax Rankings include the tax programs at 196 law schools (the faculty survey had a 59% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	NYU
2	Georgetown
3	Florida
3	Northwestern
5	Virginia
6	Columbia
6	UCLA
8	Michigan
8	UC-Irvine
10	Chicago
10	Duke
10	Harvard
13	Loyola-L.A.
13	Texas
15	Boston College
15	Boston University
15	Stanford
15	USC
15	Yale
20	North Carolina
20	San Diego
20	UC-Berkeley
23	Indiana (Maurer)
23	Penn
25	Fordham
25	Minnesota
25	UC-Davis
28	Florida State
28	George Washington
28	Pepperdine Caruso
28	Temple
32	Cornell
32	Houston
32	UC-San Francisco
32	Washington Univ.
36	Alabama
36	Georgia
36	University of Washington
36	Villanova
40	Arizona State
40	BYU
40	Cardozo
40	Colorado
40	Miami
40	Pittsburgh
40	SMU
40	Vanderbilt
40	Wisconsin
49	Brooklyn
49	Emory
49	Notre Dame
49	Ohio State
49	UNLV

Among the law schools in the tax rankings last year, here are the biggest upward moves:

• 14: Georgia (#36)
• 12: Houston (#32)
• 10: Colorado (#40), SMU (#40)
• 9: USC (#15) 
• 8: Florida State (#28), Washington University (#32), University of Washington (#36) 
• 7: Yale (#15) 
• 6: UC-Davis (#25), Cardozo (#40) 

Here are the biggest downward moves:

• -16: Denver (#62) 
• -14: UC-San Francisco (#32), Washington & Lee (#54) 
• -12: Loyola-Chicago (#62), Seton Hall (#62), Tulane (#62) 
• -9: BYU (#40), Pittsburgh (#40), Wisconsin (#40), Brooklyn (#49) 
• -5: Indiana-Maurer (#23), Penn (#23), Villanova (#36) 
• -4: George Washington (#28), Arizona State (#40), American (#54), Iowa (#54), Georgia State (#54), Richmond (#54), South Carolina (#54)
• -3: Chicago (#10), Loyola-L.A. (#13), Minnesota (#25), Notre Dame (#49), UNLV (#49)

Here are the rankings of law schools with graduate tax programs:

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Exclusive Article Submission Window For The Tax Lawyer

The Tax Lawyer is offering an exclusive submission window for articles to be published in the Spring issue of the Tax Lawyer through December 1, 2023. If you’ve got a completed or almost completed draft of an article on any tax issue of 12,000-35,000 words, please submit it to Editor, Publications, at [email protected]. You can also submit via Scholastica if you prefer. Your article will be published by May 2024.

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2003-2022 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Law Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2

Following up on yesterday's post, 2022 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Law Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2:  here are the Washington & Lee 2003-2022 tax law review combined rankings of eight major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Houston Business & Tax Review ("Houston")
• Pittsburgh Tax Review ("Pittsburgh")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes Federal ("Tax Notes")
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on the annual combined rankings in 2003-2022 among these eight journals by:

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

Ave	Journal	22	21	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	09	08	07	06	05	04	03
1.6	1. NYU	1	1	3	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2.5	2. Virginia	2	2	2	4	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	4	4	4	4	4
2.8	3. Florida	3	3	1	1	1	2	3	4	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	3	2	2	3	2
3.3	4. Tax Notes	4	5	4	3	2	4	4	3	4	4	4	3	3	3	2	2	3	3	2	3
5.4	5. ABA	6	6	NR	6	NR	5	5	5	5	5	6	5	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5
7.9	6. Houston	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	10	9	7	6	6	7	7	7	8	8	9	8	8	9	9
7.9	7. Pittsburgh	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	8	8	8	7	8	5	6	5	5	5	22	NR	NR	NR	NR
10.1	8. Columbia	5	4	5	5	NR	6	6	10	10	13	14	33	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

As I have previously noted, Tax Notes fares poorly in the Impact Factor category (citations/number of articles published) because W&L apparently counts as "articles" all of the advance sheet material in Tax Notes Federal.

Tax Notes Federal is #1 by a wide margin in the number of citations in law reviews:

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2022 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Law Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2

Washington & Lee has just released the 2022 tax law review rankings of six major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes Federal ("Tax Notes")
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on citations to articles published in 2018-2022 (methodology):

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

	Combined	Impact	Journals	Cases	Currency
1. NYU	15.26	1.02	164	0	1.81
2. Virginia	12.12	0.8	137	1	1.52
3. Florida	7.69	0.44	115	2	0.80
4. Tax Notes	6.65	0.01	257	0	0.01
5. Columbia	5.88	0.41	57	0	0.73
6. ABA	4.49	0.22	82	2	0.38

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2024 U.S. News Tax Rankings

The new 2024 U.S. News Tax Rankings include the tax programs at 196 law schools (the faculty survey had a 54% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.7	NYU*
2	4.4	Florida
3	4.3	Georgetown*
4	4.1	Northwestern*
5	4.0	Virginia*
6	3.9	UC-Irvine*
7	3.7	Chicago
7	3.7	Columbia*
7	3.7	UCLA*
10	3.6	Duke*
10	3.6	Loyola-L.A.
10	3.6	Michigan*
13	3.5	Boston University
13	3.5	Harvard*
13	3.5	Stanford*
16	3.4	Boston College
16	3.4	Texas
18	3.3	Indiana (Maurer)
18	3.3	Penn*
18	3.3	San Diego
18	3.3	UC-San Francisco*
22	3.2	Minnesota
22	3.2	Yale*
24	3.1	Fordham
24	3.1	George Washington
24	3.1	North Carolina
24	3.1	UC-Berkeley*
24	3.1	USC
29	3.0	Pepperdine Caruso
29	3.0	Temple
31	2.9	BYU
31	2.9	Pittsburgh*
31	2.9	UC-Davis*
31	2.9	Villanova
31	2.9	Wisconsin*
36	2.8	Alabama
36	2.8	Arizona State
36	2.8	Cornell*
36	2.8	Florida State
40	2.7	Brooklyn*
40	2.7	Miami
40	2.7	Washington & Lee
40	2.7	Washington University
44	2.6	Houston
44	2.6	University of Washington*
46	2.5	Cardozo
46	2.5	Denver
46	2.5	Notre Dame
46	2.5	UNLV
50	2.4	American*
50	2.4	Colorado
50	2.4	Georgia
50	2.4	Georgia State
50	2.4	Iowa
50	2.4	Loyola-Chicago*
50	2.4	Ohio State
50	2.4	Richmond
50	2.4	Seton Hall
50	2.4	SMU
50	2.4	South Carolina
50	2.4	Tulane*

*Denotes schools that boycotted the U.S. News rankings

Among the law schools in the tax rankings last year, here are the biggest upward moves:

• +9: Florida State (#36)
• +8: Duke (#10), BYU (#31),  Villanova (#31)
• +6: San Diego (#18)
• +5: Washington & Lee (#40), Houston (#44)
• +4: Fordham (#24)
• +3: UC-Irvine (#6), Loyola-L.A. (#10), George Washington (#24), Alabama (#36), Arizona State (#36)

Here are the biggest downward moves:

• -16: Ohio State (#50)
• -12: Brooklyn (#40)
• -11: Georgia (#50)
• -10: University of Washington (#44)
• -6: Miami (#40), Washington University (#40)
• -4: Michigan (#10), Harvard (#13), Stanford (#13), North Carolina (#24), USC (#24)

Here are the rankings of law schools with graduate tax programs:

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2023 U.S. News Tax Rankings

The new 2023 U.S. News Tax Rankings include the tax programs at 186 law schools (the faculty survey had a 59% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.8	NYU
2	4.4	Georgetown
3	4.2	Florida
3	4.2	Northwestern
5	4.0	Virginia
6	3.9	Chicago
6	3.9	Michigan
6	3.9	UCLA
9	3.8	Columbia
9	3.8	Harvard
9	3.8	Stanford
9	3.8	UC-Irvine
13	3.7	Boston College
13	3.7	Loyola-L.A.
15	3.6	Boston Univ.
15	3.6	Indiana (Maurer)
15	3.6	Texas
18	3.5	Duke
18	3.5	Penn
20	3.4	North Carolina
20	3.4	UC-Hastings
20	3.4	USC
20	3.4	Yale
24	3.3	Minnesota
24	3.3	San Diego
24	3.3	UC-Berkeley
27	3.2	George Washington
28	3.1	Brooklyn
28	3.1	Fordham
28	3.1	Pepperdine Caruso
28	3.1	Pittsburgh
28	3.1	Temple
28	3.1	UC-Davis
34	3.0	Cornell
34	3.0	Miami
34	3.0	Ohio State
34	3.0	Univ. of Washington
34	3.0	Washington Univ.
39	2.9	Alabama
39	2.9	Arizona State
39	2.9	BYU
39	2.9	Emory
39	2.9	Georgia
39	2.9	Villanova
45	2.8	Florida State
45	2.8	Notre Dame
45	2.8	Vanderbilt
45	2.8	Washington & Lee
49	2.7	Houston
49	2.7	Illinois
49	2.7	Kentucky
49	2.7	SMU
49	2.7	South Carolina
49	2.7	Utah

Among the law schools in the tax rankings last year, here are the biggest upward moves:

• +19: Pittsburgh (#28)
• +11: Fordham (#28), Pepperdine Caruso (#28), Temple (#28)
• +8: BYU (#39)
• +5: North Carolina (#20)

Here are the biggest downward moves:

• -17: Florida State (#45)
• -11: Arizona State (#39), Washington & Lee (#45)
• -6: Yale (#20), Cornell (#34), Miami (#34), Washington University (#34), Vanderbilt (#45)
• -5: Emory (#39), Villanova (#39)
• -4: UC-Hastings (#20)

Here are the rankings of law schools with graduate tax programs:

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The Most-Cited Tax Faculty At The 68 Most-Cited Law Schools

Following up on this morning's post, The 68 Most-Cited Law Faculties:  here are the 23 Tax Profs among the 10-most cited faculty at the Top 68 law schools:

2.  Chicago:  Daniel Hemel
3.  Harvard:  Louis Kaplow
13.  Michigan:  Reuven Avi-Yonah 
14.  UC-Irvine:  Vic Fleischer
18.  Minnesota:  Kristin Hickman
22.  UC-Davis:  Darien Shanske
29.  USC:  Ed McCaffery, Mike Simkovic
33.  Cardozo:  Ed Zelinsky
43.  Alabama:  Susan Pace Hamill; Georgia:  Gregg Polsky
49.  BYU:  Cliff Fleming
52.  Indiana:  David Gamage, Leandra Lederman; Iowa:  Andy Grewal
59.  Boston College:  Ray Madoff, Shu-Yi Oei, Jim Repetti, Diane Ring; Pittsburgh:  Tony Infanti
63.  Loyola-L.A.:  Ellen Aprill; Pepperdine:  Paul Caron; Santa Clara:  Pat Cain

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2003-2020 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Law Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2

Following up on yesterday's post, 2020 Tax Journal Rankings: Florida Tax Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2:  here are the Washington & Lee 2003-2020 tax law review combined rankings of eight major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Houston Business & Tax Review ("Houston")
• Pittsburgh Tax Review ("Pittsburgh")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes Federal ("Tax Notes")
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on the annual combined rankings in 2003-2020 among these eight journals by:

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

Ave	Journal	20	19	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	09	08	07	06	05	04	03
1.7	1. NYU	3	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2.5	2. Virginia	2	4	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	4	4	4	4	4
2.7	3. Florida	1	1	1	2	3	4	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	3	2	2	3	2
3.1	4. Tax Notes	4	3	2	4	4	3	4	4	4	3	3	3	2	2	3	3	2	3
5.4	5. ABA	NR	6	NR	5	5	5	5	5	6	5	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5
7.9	6. Houston	NR	NR	NR	10	9	7	6	6	7	7	7	8	8	9	8	8	9	9
7.9	7. Pittsburgh	NR	NR	NR	8	8	8	7	8	5	6	5	5	5	22	NR	NR	NR	NR
11.3	8. Columbia	5	5	NR	6	6	10	10	13	14	33	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

Tax Notes Federal fares poorly in the Impact Factor category (citations/number of articles published) because W&L apparently counts as "articles" all of the advance sheet material in Tax Notes Federal.

Tax Notes Federal is #1 by a wide margin in the number of citations in law reviews:

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2020 Tax Journal Rankings: Florida Tax Review Is #1, Virginia Tax Review Is #2

Washington & Lee has just released the 2020 tax law review rankings of six major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes Federal ("Tax Notes")
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on citations to articles published in 2016-2020 (methodology):

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

	Combined	Impact	Journals	Cases	Currency
1. Florida	11.12	0.69	161	1	1.43
2. Virginia	10.90	0.75	135	1	1.19
3. NYU	10.64	0.62	166	0	1.11
4. Tax Notes	8.92	0.01	290	1	0.02
5. Columbia	8.10	0.58	93	0	1.18
ABA	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR

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2022 U.S. News Tax Rankings

The new 2022 U.S. News Tax Rankings include the tax programs at 186 law schools (the faculty survey had a 58% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.8	NYU
2	4.4	Florida
3	4.3	Georgetown
4	4.2	Northwestern
4	4.2	Virginia
6	4.0	Chicago
6	4.0	UC-Irvine
8	3.9	Harvard
8	3.9	Michigan
8	3.9	UCLA
11	3.8	Columbia
11	3.8	Loyola-L.A.
11	3.8	Stanford
14	3.7	Boston College
14	3.7	Yale
16	3.6	Boston Univ.
16	3.6	Duke
16	3.6	Indiana (Maurer)
16	3.6	Texas
16	3.6	UC-Hastings
21	3.5	Penn
21	3.5	San Diego
23	3.4	UC-Berkeley
23	3.4	USC
25	3.3	Minnesota
25	3.3	North Carolina
27	3.2	UC-Davis
28	3.1	Arizona State
28	3.1	Cornell
28	3.1	Florida State
28	3.1	George Washington
28	3.1	Miami
28	3.1	Washington Univ.
34	3.0	Emory
34	3.0	Ohio State
34	3.0	Villanova
34	3.0	Univ. of Washington
34	3.0	Washington & Lee
39	2.9	Alabama
39	2.9	Colorado
39	2.9	Fordham
39	2.9	Georgia
39	2.9	Georgia State
39	2.9	Pepperdine Caruso
39	2.9	Temple
39	2.9	Vanderbilt
47	2.8	BYU
47	2.8	Iowa
47	2.8	Loyola-Chicago
47	2.8	Notre Dame
47	2.8	Pittsburgh
47	2.8	Tulane

Among the law schools in the tax rankings last year, here are the biggest upward moves:

• +24: Colorado (#39)
• +21: Iowa (#47)
• +16: Tulane (#47), Georgia State (#39)
• +14: Cornell (#28), George Washington (#28), Emory (#34)
• +9: Arizona State (#28), Florida State (#28), Vanderbilt (#39)

Here are the biggest downward moves:

• -21: Pittsburgh (#47)
• -15: BYU (#47)
• -8: USC (#23)
• -7: Alabama (#39), Fordham (#39)
• -6: Pennsylvania (#21)

Here are the rankings of law schools with graduate tax programs:

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The 10 Most Popular Tax Articles Of 2020

1. 2791 Downloads:  Hiba Hafiz, Shu-Yi Oei, Diane Ring & Natalya Shnitser (Boston College), Regulating In A Pandemic: Evaluating Economic And Financial Policy Responses To The Coronavirus Crisis (reviewed by Michelle Layser (Illinois))
2. 1,588 Downloads:  Lily Batchelder (NYU) & David Kamin (NYU), Taxing the Rich: Issues and Options
3. 1,339 Downloads:  Ruth Mason (Virginia), The Transformation of International Tax, 114 Am. J. Int'l L. 353 (2020) (reviewed by Shu-Yi Oei (Boston College); symposium responses by Wolfgang Alschner (Ottawa), Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan), Wei Cui (British Columbia), Lilian Faulhaber (Georgetown), and Alan Sykes (Stanford))
4. 822 Downloads:  John Richardson, Laura Snyder & Karen Alpert (Queensland), A Simple Regulatory Fix for Citizenship Taxation, 169 Tax Notes Fed. 275 (Oct. 12, 2020)
5. 709 Downloads:  Ruth Mason (Virginia) & Leopoldo Parada (Leeds), The Legality of Digital Taxes in Europe, 40 Va. Tax Rev. ___ (2020)
6. 681 Downloads:  Wei Cui (British Columbia), The Digital Services Tax: A Conceptual Defense, 73 Tax L. Reb. 69 (2019) (reviewed by Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Utah) and Kim Brooks (Dalhousie)) 
7. 673 Downloads:    Kimberly Clausing (UCLA), Emmanuel Saez (UC-Berkely) & Gabriel Zucman (UC-Berkeley), Ending Corporate Tax Avoidance and Tax Competition: A Plan to Collect the Tax Deficit of Multinationals
8. 669 Downloads:  Kimberly Clausing (UCLA), Profit Shifting Before and After the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
9. 528 Downloads:  Jennifer Blouin (Penn) & Leslie Robinson (Dartmouth), Double Counting Accounting: How Much Profit of Multinational Enterprises Is Really in Tax Havens?
10. 521 Downloads:  Stephen Daly (King's College London) & Ruth Mason (Virginia), State Aid: The General Court Decision in Apple (reviewed by Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Utah))

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2019 Tax Journal Rankings: Tax Notes #1, Florida Tax Review #2

Here are the Washington & Lee tax law review rankings of the six major tax journals:

• Columbia Journal of Tax Law ("Columbia")
• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on citations to articles published in 2015-2019 (methodology):

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

	Combined	Impact	Journals	Cases	Currency
1. Tax Notes	15.16	0.02	406	5	0.03
2. Florida	14.30	0.75	188	1	1.45
3. NYU	12.29	0.65	161	0	1.16
4. Virginia	8.52	0.46	108	2	0.61
5. Columbia	6.98	0.45	69	0	0.53
6. ABA	5.82	0.16	115	4	0.23

As I have previously noted, Tax Notes fares poorly in the Impact Factor category (citations/number of articles published) because W&L apparently counts as "articles" all of the advance sheet material in Tax Notes. Tax Notes is #1 by a wide margin in the number of citations in law reviews, with more than double the citations of its nearest competitor.

SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  Here is the new list (through July 1, 2020) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	191,980	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	7,554
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	120,857	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	5,173
3	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	116,974	David Kamin (NYU)	4,892
4	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	116,895	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	4,135
5	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	116,579	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	3,836
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	110,214	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	3,485
7	David Kamin (NYU)	105,294	Bridget Crawford (Pace)	3,183
8	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	104,927	Diane Ring (Boston College)	2,773
9	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	102,094	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	2,696
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	100,922	Shu-Yi Oei (Boston College)	2,680
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	99,709	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	2,598
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	44,553	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	2,446
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	41,163	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	2,189
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	37,011	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	1,977
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	33,399	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	1,909
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	30,210	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	1,867
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	26,933	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	1,728
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	26,196	Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indy)	1,658
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	25,209	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	1,607
20	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	24,765	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	1,442
21	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	24,378	Michael Simkovic (USC)	1,425
22	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	24,373	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	1,424
23	Bridget Crawford (Pace)	24,271	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	1,420
24	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	24,186	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	1,418
25	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,768	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	1,311

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2021 U.S. News Tax Rankings

The new 2021 U.S. News Tax Rankings include the tax programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 59% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.8	NYU
2	4.4	Georgetown
3	4.3	Northwestern
3	4.3	Florida
5	4.1	UCLA
5	4.1	Virginia
7	4.0	Harvard
7	4.0	Stanford
7	4.0	Chicago
10	3.9	Columbia
11	3.8	Loyola-L.A.
11	3.8	UC-Irvine
11	3.8	Michigan
11	3.8	Yale
15	3.7	Penn
15	3.7	USC
15	3.7	Texas
18	3.6	Boston College
18	3.6	Duke
20	3.5	Indiana (Maurer)
21	3.4	Boston University
21	3.4	San Diego
23	3.3	UC-Hastings
23	3.3	UC-Berkeley
23	3.3	Washington Univ.
26	3.2	UC-Davis
26	3.2	Houston
26	3.2	Miami
26	3.2	Minnesota
26	3.2	North Carolina
26	3.2	Pittsburgh
32	3.1	BYU
32	3.1	Fordham
32	3.1	Ohio State
32	3.1	Alabama
32	3.1	Washington & Lee
37	3.0	Arizona State
37	3.0	Florida State
37	3.0	Pepperdine
37	3.0	Temple
37	3.0	Villanova
42	2.9	Cornell
42	2.9	George Washington
42	2.9	Washington
45	2.8	Georgia
45	2.8	Illinois
45	2.8	Notre Dame
48	2.7	Brooklyn
48	2.7	Emory
48	2.7	Loyola-Chicago
48	2.7	SMU
48	2.7	UNLV
48	2.7	Vanderbilt
48	2.7	Cardozo

Among the law schools in the tax rankings last year, here are the biggest upward moves:

• +14: Ohio State (#32), Washington University (#23)
• +11: Houston (#26)
• +9: Yale (#11)
• +6: Arizona State (#37), UC-Davis (#26)

Here are the biggest downward moves:

• -17: Washington (#42)
• -12: Temple (#37), Villanova (#37)
• -10: George Washington (#42)
• -8: Georgia (#45)
• -7: Boston University (#21)

Derek Muller (Pepperdine) notes the absurd volatility of USNWR specialty law rankings by pointing out changes in the peer reputation scores of tax programs at these law schools:

South Carolina: 2.6 (+0.6)
Loyola Chicago: 2.7 (+0.4)
Albany: 1.8 (+0.4)
Cornell: 2.9 (+0.4)
Ohio State: 3.1 (+0.4)
Baltimore: 2.3 (+0.4)
Cincinnati: 2.4 (+0.4)
Richmond: 2.6 (+0.4)
Washington University: 3.3 (+0.4)
-
Suffolk: 1.5 (-0.4)
Wyoming: 1.5 (-0.4)
Vermont: 1.3 (-0.4)
New England Law: 1.2 (-0.4)
Montana: 2.0 (-0.5)

Here are the rankings of law schools with graduate tax programs:

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SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  Here is the new list (through February 1, 2020) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	188,030	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	6,897
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	120,013	David Kamin (NYU)	5,254
3	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	116,012	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	5,186
4	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	115,709	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	4,481
5	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	114,832	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	3,319
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	109,398	Bridget Crawford (Pace)	3,166
7	David Kamin (NYU)	104,292	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	2,845
8	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	104,281	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	2,639
9	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	101,573	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	2,526
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	100,444	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	2,301
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	99,212	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	2,260
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	43,940	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	2,111
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	38,130	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,022
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	36,366	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	2,013
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	32,727	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	1,966
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	29,024	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	1,951
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	26,372	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	1,898
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,931	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	1,877
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,873	Michael Simkovic (USC)	1,855
20	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	24,106	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	1,818
21	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,960	Yariv Brauner (Florida)	1,748
22	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	23,935	Kyle Rozema (Washington U.)	1,541
23	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	23,650	Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indy)	1,324
24	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,607	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	1,310
25	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	22,928	Leandra Lederman (Indiana Bloom.)	1,246

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SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  This ranking includes downloads from two 30- and 35-page papers by 12 tax professors on the 2017 tax legislation that garnered a lot of media attention (including the New York Times and Washington Post) and generated a massive amount of downloads (the papers are the most downloaded tax papers of all-time by over 200%).  See Brian Leiter (Chicago), 11 Tax Profs Blow Up The SSRN Download Rankings. (For some reason, Mitchell Kane (NYU) — the twelfth academic co-author of the two papers — is not included in the SSRN download rankings (although the downloads are included on his individual author page)).  Here is the new list (through December 1, 2019) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	187,160	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	8,109
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	119,716	David Kamin (NYU)	5,766
3	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	115,552	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	5,753
4	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	114,993	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	5,600
5	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	114,323	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	4,260
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	109,145	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	4,084
7	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	104,102	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	3,784
8	David Kamin (NYU)	103,554	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	3,632
9	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	101,342	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	3,544
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	100,266	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	3,186
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	98,966	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	3,180
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	43,708	Bridget Crawford (Pace)	3,056
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	37,884	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	2,472
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	36,173	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	2,399
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	32,498	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,167
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	28,689	Michael Simkovic (USC)	2,103
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	26,261	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	1,998
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,827	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	1,941
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,786	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	1,936
20	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	24,093	Kyle Rozema (Chicago)	1,868
21	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,853	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	1,847
22	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,556	Yariv Brauner (Florida)	1,675
23	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	23,693	Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indy)	1,316
24	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	23,365	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	1,304
25	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	22,751	George Yin (Virginia)	1,233

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Top Law Schools: Tax Law

Following up on my previous post, 2020 U.S. News Tax Rankings (175 Law Schools):  Top Law Schools: Tax Law, preLaw, Vol. 23, No. 2, Fall 2019, at 44:

preLaw magazine graded law schools based on the breadth of their curricular offerings. The scores were weighted as follows: 30% for a concentration, 24% for a clinic, 12% for a center, 12% for an externship, 9% for a journal, 8% for a student group, 5% for a certificate and added value for other offerings.

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Crawford: SSRN And The (Arbitrary) Determination Of 'Scholarly' Merit

Bridget J. Crawford (Pace), SSRN and the (Arbitrary) Determination of 'Scholarly' Merit, 22 Green Bag 2d 201 (2019):

This article, published in the Green Bag, investigates and critiques SSRN’s (lack of clear) criteria for classification of material as a “scholarly paper” or “other paper.” In the former category appear to be “scholarly research papers,” bibliographies, briefs filed before some courts, some (but not all) teaching materials, and some (but not all) articles published in the Green Bag, for example. In the latter category are data tables, summary book reviews, opinion pieces, advocacy and satirical papers. “Other papers” are internet-searchable but are not displayed on the author’s SSRN page. Downloads of “other papers” are not included for purposes of SSRN’s various rankings.

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SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  This ranking includes downloads from two 30- and 35-page papers by 12 tax professors on the new tax legislation that garnered a lot of media attention (including the New York Times and Washington Post) and generated a massive amount of downloads (the papers are the most downloaded tax papers of all-time by over 200%).  See Brian Leiter (Chicago), 11 Tax Profs Blow Up The SSRN Download Rankings. (For some reason, Mitchell Kane (NYU) — the twelfth academic co-author of the two papers — is not included in the SSRN download rankings (although the downloads are included on his individual author page)).  Here is the new list (through October 1, 2019) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	186,021	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	10,050
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	119,255	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	7,297
3	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	115,157	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	6,811
4	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	114,011	David Kamin (NYU)	6,793
5	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	113,766	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	5,877
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	108,823	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	5,867
7	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	103,845	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	5,500
8	David Kamin (NYU)	102,620	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	5,285
9	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	100,975	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	5,113
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	100,034	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	4,915
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	98,656	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	4,835
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	43,490	Bridget Crawford (Pace)	2,809
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	37,563	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	2,549
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	35,946	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	2,442
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	35,946	Michael Simkovic (USC)	2,403
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	28,331	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,260
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	26,096	Kyle Rozema (Chicago)	2,147
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,709	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	2,098
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,674	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	2,028
20	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	24,076	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	1,906
21	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,733	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	1,866
22	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,494	Yariv Brauner (Florida)	1,680
23	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	23,327	Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indy)	1,354
24	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	23,069	George Yin (Virginia)	1,296
25	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	22,556	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	1,192

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SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  This ranking includes downloads from two 30- and 35-page papers by 12 tax professors on the new tax legislation that garnered a lot of media attention (including the New York Times and Washington Post) and generated a massive amount of downloads (the papers are the most downloaded tax papers of all-time by over 200%).  See Brian Leiter (Chicago), 11 Tax Profs Blow Up The SSRN Download Rankings. (For some reason, Mitchell Kane (NYU) — the twelfth academic co-author of the two papers — is not included in the SSRN download rankings (although the downloads are included on his individual author page)).  Here is the new list (through September 1, 2019) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	185,453	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	11,720
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	118,935	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	8,581
3	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	114,894	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	7,276
4	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	112,023	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	7,206
5	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	108,628	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	6,984
6	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	103,711	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	6,574
7	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	100,671	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	6,296
8	David Kamin (NYU)	100,657	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	6,292
9	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	99,872	David Kamin (NYU)	6,209
10	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	98,509	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	6,109
11	Michael Simkovic (USC)	43,366	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	6,068
12	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	37,364	Bridget Crawford (Pace)	2,706
13	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	35,825	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	2,666
14	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	32,038	Michael Simkovic (USC)	2,571
15	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	28,101	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	2,523
16	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	26,013	Kyle Rozema (Chicago)	2,352
17	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,612	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,326
18	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,617	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	2,145
19	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	24,063	Kirk Stark (UCLA)	2,140
20	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,655	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	2,095
21	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,475	Dennis Ventry (UC-Davis)	2,070
22	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	23,180	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	1,902
23	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	22,893	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	1,863
24	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	22,428	Yariv Brauner (Florida)	1,645
25	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	8,581	Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indy)	1,362

Continue reading

SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  This ranking includes downloads from two 30- and 35-page papers by 12 tax professors on the new tax legislation that garnered a lot of media attention (including the New York Times and Washington Post) and generated a massive amount of downloads (the papers are the most downloaded tax papers of all-time by over 200%).  See Brian Leiter (Chicago), 11 Tax Profs Blow Up The SSRN Download Rankings. (For some reason, Mitchell Kane (NYU) — the twelfth academic co-author of the two papers — is not included in the SSRN download rankings (although the downloads are included on his individual author page)).  Here is the new list (through August 1, 2019) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	184,986	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	12,878
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	118,783	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	10,565
3	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	114,647	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	8,640
4	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	113,015	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	8,555
5	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	111,898	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	8,305
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	108,497	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	7,627
7	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	103,607	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	7,290
8	David Kamin (NYU)	100,506	David Kamin (NYU)	7,073
9	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	100,501	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	7,024
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	99,652	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	6,803
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	98,391	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	6,735
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	43,223	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	2,663
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	37,181	Michael Simkovic (USC)	2,650
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	35,672	Bridget Crawford (Pace)	2,591
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	31,925	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	2,495
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	27,900	Kyle Rozema (Chicago)	2,493
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	25,959	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,335
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,557	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	2,221
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,586	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	2,051
20	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	24,043	Jacob Goldin (Stanford)	1,976
21	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,574	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	1,856
22	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,450	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	1,849
23	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	23,022	Joe Bankman (Stanford)	1,716
24	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	22,713	Yariv Brauner (Florida)	1,635
25	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	22,295	George Yin (Virginia)	1,558

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More On The 50 Most-Cited Tax Articles of All Time

Following up on my previous post on Jonathan H. Choi (NYU), The 50 Most-Cited Tax Articles of All Time, 36 Yale J. on Reg.: Notice & Comment (May 11, 2019):

47 authors (40 men, 7 women) wrote the 50 most-cited tax articles, 8 (7 men, 1 woman) more than once:

Author	Frequency
Boris Bittker	4
David Weisbach	4
Joseph Bankman	3
Stanley Surrey	3
Reuven Avi-Yonah	2
Michael Graetz	2
Marjorie Kornhauser	2
Edward Zelinsky	2
Bruce Ackerman	1
Anne Alstott	1
William Andrews	1
Lily Batchelder	1
Walter Blum	1
Paul Caron	1
Marvin Chirelstein	1
Dan Coenen	1
Richard Doernberg	1
Peter Enrich	1
Victor Fleischer	1
Pamela Gann	1
Mark Gergen	1
Fred Goldberg	1
Thomas Griffith	1
Erwin Griswold	1
Daniel Halperin	1
David Hariton	1
Walter Hellerstein	1
Kristin Hickman	1
Harry Kalven	1
Louis Kaplow	1
Mark Kelman	1
Leandra Lederman	1
Fred McChesney	1
Beverly Moran	1
R.A. Musgrave	1
Jacob Nussim	1
Michael O’Hear	1
Peter Orszag	1
Randolph Paul	1
William Plumb	1
Eric Posner	1
David Schizer	1
Steven Shavell	1
Dan Shaviro	1
David Slawson	1
Joseph Sneed	1
William Whitford	1

The authors are from 22 law schools, 12 law schools are represented more than once:

School	Frequency
Harvard	9
Chicago	7
Yale	6
Stanford	5
Columbia	4
Cardozo	2
Emory	2
Georgia	2
Michigan	2
NYU	2
Tulane	2
USC	2
Duke	1
Indiana	1
Marquette	1
Minnesota	1
Northeastern	1
Pepperdine	1
UC-Berkeley	1
UC-Irvine	1
Vanderbilt	1
Wisconsin	1

The 50 most-cited tax articles were published in 21 law reviews (12 law reviews published 2 or more of the articles):

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SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  This ranking includes downloads from two 30- and 35-page papers by 12 tax professors on the new tax legislation that garnered a lot of media attention (including the New York Times and Washington Post) and generated a massive amount of downloads (the papers are the most downloaded tax papers of all-time by over 200%).  See Brian Leiter (Chicago), 11 Tax Profs Blow Up The SSRN Download Rankings. (For some reason, Mitchell Kane (NYU) — the twelfth academic co-author of the two papers — is not included in the SSRN download rankings (although the downloads are included on his individual author page)).  Here is the new list (through July 1, 2019) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	184,418	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	16,885
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	118,651	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	14,545
3	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	114,176	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	12,097
4	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	112,722	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	11,916
5	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	111,787	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	11,805
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	108,323	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	11,224
7	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	103,496	David Kamin (NYU)	10,780
8	David Kamin (NYU)	100,391	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	10,703
9	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	100,353	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	10,468
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	99,493	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	10,229
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	98,273	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	10,117
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	43,116	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	2,813
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	37,023	Michael Simkovic (USC)	2,788
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	35,564	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	2,558
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	31,720	Kyle Rozema (Chicago)	2,493
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	27,750	Bridget Crawford (Pace)	2,430
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	25,914	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,350
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,506	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	2,252
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,491	Jacob Goldin (Stanford)	2,198
20	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	23,991	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	1,903
21	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,498	Joe Bankman (Stanford)	1,864
22	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,438	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	1,856
23	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	22,781	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	1,777
24	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	22,461	George Yin (Virginia)	1,676
25	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	22,205	Yariv Brauner (Florida)	1,608

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SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  This ranking includes downloads from two 30- and 35-page papers by 12 tax professors on the new tax legislation that garnered a lot of media attention (including the New York Times and Washington Post) and generated a massive amount of downloads (the papers are the most downloaded tax papers of all-time by over 200%).  See Brian Leiter (Chicago), 11 Tax Profs Blow Up The SSRN Download Rankings. (For some reason, Mitchell Kane (NYU) — the twelfth academic co-author of the two papers — is not included in the SSRN download rankings (although the downloads are included on his individual author page)).  Here is the new list (through June 1, 2019) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	183,904	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	19,128
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	118,494	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	16,752
3	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	114,041	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	13,878
4	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	112,425	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	13,762
5	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	111,676	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	13,545
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	108,155	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	13,026
8	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	103,389	David Kamin (NYU)	12,518
9	David Kamin (NYU)	100,287	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	12,387
7	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	100,244	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	12,171
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	99,397	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	11,944
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	98,164	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	11,848
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	43,028	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	2,946
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	36,866	Michael Simkovic (USC)	2,925
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	35,469	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	2,573
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	31,570	Kyle Rozema (Chicago)	2,444
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	27,625	Bridget Crawford (Pace)	2,368
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	25,840	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,366
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,452	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	2,327
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,386	Jacob Goldin (Stanford)	2,296
20	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	23,982	Joe Bankman (Stanford)	1,971
21	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,450	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	1,912
22	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,423	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	1,862
23	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	22,664	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	1,707
24	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	22,271	Kirk Stark (UC-Davis)	1,667
25	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	22,120	Dennis Ventry (UC-Davis)	1,622

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SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  This ranking includes downloads from two 30- and 35-page papers by 12 tax professors on the new tax legislation that garnered a lot of media attention (including the New York Times and Washington Post) and generated a massive amount of downloads (the papers are the most downloaded tax papers of all-time by over 200%).  See Brian Leiter (Chicago), 11 Tax Profs Blow Up The SSRN Download Rankings. (For some reason, Mitchell Kane (NYU) — the twelfth academic co-author of the two papers — is not included in the SSRN download rankings (although the downloads are included on his individual author page)).  Here is the new list (through May 1, 2019) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	183,287	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	20,003
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	118,215	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	17,967
3	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	113,771	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	14,930
4	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	112,093	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	14,927
5	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	111,432	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	14,307
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	107,883	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	14,108
8	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	103,162	David Kamin (NYU)	13,104
9	David Kamin (NYU)	100,047	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	12,955
7	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	100,026	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	12,762
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	99,169	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	12,557
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	97,919	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	12,554
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	42,930	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	3,198
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	36,678	Michael Simkovic (USC)	3,180
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	35,376	Jacob Goldin (Stanford)	2,766
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	31,360	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	2,680
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	27,457	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	2,525
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	25,708	Kyle Rozema (Chicago)	2,482
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,383	Joe Bankman (Stanford)	2,422
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,334	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,411
20	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	23,965	Kirk Stark (UCLA)	2,140
21	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,327	Dennis Ventry (UC-Davis)	2,070
22	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,392	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	1,874
23	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	22,526	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	1,859
24	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	22,126	Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indy)	1,674
25	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	22,026	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	1,621

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The 50 Most-Cited Tax Articles of All Time

Jonathan H. Choi (NYU), The Most-Cited Tax Articles of All Time, 36 Yale J. on Reg.: Notice & Comment (May 11, 2019):

Summer is nearly here, and for fellow tax nerds in need of beach reads, I’ve assembled a list of the 50 most widely cited tax law journal articles. The list is inspired by (and uses the same methodology as) Fred Shapiro and Michelle Pearse’s essay, The Most-Cited Law Review Articles of All Time [110 Mich. L. Rev. 1483 (2012)]

The list below is ordered by number of citations in other law review articles, according to HeinOnline. For comparison, I also list Google Scholar citation counts, which include cites by certain non-law journals, practice publications, books, and courts. 

Most-cited tax articles of all time

	Article	HeinOnline Article Cites	Google Scholar Cites
1.	William D. Andrews (Harvard), A Consumption-Type or Cash Flow Personal Income Tax, 87 Harv. L. Rev. 1113 (1974)	437	783
2.	Louis Kaplow (Harvard) & Steven Shavell (Harvard), Why the Legal System Is Less Efficient than the Income Tax in Redistributing Income, 23 J. Legal Stud. 667 (1994)	305	687
3.	Boris I. Bittker (Yale), A Comprehensive Tax Base as a Goal of Income Tax Reform, 80 Harv. L. Rev. 925 (1967)	298	464
4.	Boris I. Bittker (Yale), Federal Income Taxation and the Family, 27 Stan. L. Rev. 1389 (1975)	284	438
5.	Joseph Bankman (Stanford) & Thomas Griffith (USC), Social Welfare and the Rate Structure: A New Look at Progressive Taxation, 75 Cal. L. Rev. 1905 (1987)	227	352
6.	Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan), Globalization, Tax Competition, and the Fiscal Crisis of the Welfare State, 113 Harv. L. Rev. 1573 (2000)	226	748
7.	William T. Plumb, Jr. (Hogan & Hartson, Washington, D.C.), The Federal Income Tax Significance of Corporate Debt: A Critical Analysis and a Proposal, 26 Tax L. Rev. 369 (1971)	208	355
8.	Walter J. Blum (Chicago) & Harry Kalven, Jr. (Chicago), The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation, 19 U. Chi. L. Rev. 417 (1952)	200	418
9.	Peter D. Enrich (Northeastern), Saving the States from Themselves: Commerce Clause Constraints on State Tax Incentives for Business, 110 Harv. L. Rev. 377 (1996)	193	371
10.	Michael J. Graetz (Columbia), To Praise the Estate Tax, Not to Bury It, 93 Yale L.J. 259 (1983)	185	264
11.	Erwin N. Griswold (Harvard), The Need for a Court of Tax Appeals, 57 Harv. L. Rev. 1153 (1944)	185	240
12.	Mark G. Kelman (Stanford), Personal Deductions Revisited: Why They Fit Poorly in an Ideal Income Tax and Why They Fit Worse in a Far from Ideal World, 31 Stan. L. Rev. 831 (1979)	177	248
13.	Daniel I. Halperin (Harvard), Interest in Disguise: Taxing the Time Value of Money, 95 Yale L.J. 506 (1986)	168	259
14.	Joseph T. Sneed (Stanford), The Criteria of Federal Income Tax Policy, 17 Stan. L. Rev. 567 (1965)	164	211
15.	Michael J. Graetz (Columbia) & Michael M. O’Hear (Marquette), The “Original Intent” of U.S. International Taxation, 46 Duke L.J. 1021 (1997)	162	345
16.	Eric A. Posner (Chicago), Law and Social Norms: The Case of Tax Compliance, 86 Va. L. Rev. 1781 (2000)	155	403
17.	David A. Weisbach (Chicago) & Jacob Nussim (Bar-Ilan), The Integration of Tax and Spending Programs, 113 Yale L.J. 955 (2004)	150	245
18.	Marjorie E. Kornhauser (Tulane), The Rhetoric of the Anti-Progressive Income Tax Movement: A Typical Male Reaction, 86 Mich. L. Rev. 465 (1987)	146	214
19.	R.A. Musgrave (Harvard), In Defense of an Income Concept, 81 Harv. L. Rev. 44 (1967)	140	228
20.	Marjorie E. Kornhauser (Tulane), Love, Money, and the IRS: Family, Income-Sharing, and the Joint Income Tax Return, 45 Hastings L.J. 63 (1993)	139	216
21.	Paul L. Caron (Pepperdine), Tax Myopia, or Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Tax Lawyers, 13 Va. Tax Rev. 517 (1994)	137	155
22.	Richard L. Doernberg (Emory) & Fred S. McChesney (Emory), On the Accelerating Rate and Decreasing Durability of Tax Reform, 71 Minn. L. Rev. 913 (1987)	136	183
23.	Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan), The Structure of International Taxation: A Proposal for Simplification, 74 Tex. L. Rev. 1301 (1996)	129	285
24.	Anne L. Alstott (Yale), Tax Policy and Feminism: Competing Goals and Institutional Choices, 96 Colum. L. Rev. 2001 (1996)	129	192
25.	Stanley S. Surrey (Harvard), Federal Taxation of the Family—The Revenue Act of 1948, 61 Harv. L. Rev. 1097 (1948)	127	218

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SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  This ranking includes downloads from two 30- and 35-page papers by 12 tax professors on the new tax legislation that garnered a lot of media attention (including the New York Times and Washington Post) and generated a massive amount of downloads (the papers are the most downloaded tax papers of all-time by over 200%).  See Brian Leiter (Chicago), 11 Tax Profs Blow Up The SSRN Download Rankings. (For some reason, Mitchell Kane (NYU) — the twelfth academic co-author of the two papers — is not included in the SSRN download rankings (although the downloads are included on his individual author page)).  Here is the new list (through April 1, 2019) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Mich.)	183,666	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Mich.)	21,321
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	117,867	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	19,172
3	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	113,415	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	15,836
4	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	111,563	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	15,812
5	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	111,135	David Kamin (NYU)	15,561
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	107,504	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	15,472
7	Manoj Viswanathan (Hastings)	102,881	Manoj Viswanathan (Hastings)	15,039
8	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	102,619	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	13,791
9	David Kamin (NYU)	99,730	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	13,642
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	98,903	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	13,457
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	97,606	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	13,423
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	42,553	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	3,373
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	36,489	Michael Simkovic (USC)	3,138
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	35,251	Jacob Goldin (Stanford)	2,799
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	31,105	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	2,702
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	27,230	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,519
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	25,566	Kyle Rozema (Chicago)	2,489
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,320	Joe Bankman (Stanford)	2,462
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,268	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	2,415
20	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	23,948	Kirk Stark (UCLA)	2,207
21	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,327	Dennis Ventry (UC-Davis)	2,124
22	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,289	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	1,934
23	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	22,377	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	1,924
24	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	21,997	Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indy)	1,799
25	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	21,911	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	1,647

Note that this ranking includes full-time tax professors with at least one tax paper on SSRN, and all papers (including non-tax papers) by these tax professors are included in the SSRN data.

Continue reading

SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  This ranking includes downloads from two 30- and 35-page papers by 12 tax professors on the new tax legislation that garnered a lot of media attention (including the New York Times and Washington Post) and generated a massive amount of downloads (the papers are the most downloaded tax papers of all-time by over 200%).  See Brian Leiter (Chicago), 11 Tax Profs Blow Up The SSRN Download Rankings. (For some reason, Mitchell Kane (NYU) — the twelfth academic co-author of the two papers — is not included in the SSRN download rankings (although the downloads are included on his individual author page)).  Here is the new list (through March 1, 2019) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Mich.)	182,983	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Mich.)	23,702
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	117,556	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	21,322
3	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	113,062	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	17,876
4	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	110,952	David Gamage (Indiana-Bl.)	17,648
5	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	110,874	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	17,588
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	107,140	Manoj Viswanathan (Hastings)	16,838
7	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	102,619	David Kamin (NYU)	15,561
8	Manoj Viswanathan (Hastings)	99,411	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	15,512
9	David Kamin (NYU)	99,361	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	15,405
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	98,660	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	15,229
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	97,315	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	15,151
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	42,181	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	3,618
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	36,283	Michael Simkovic (USC)	3,184
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	35,147	Jacob Goldin (Stanford)	2,850
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	30,929	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	2,793
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	27,000	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,633
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	25,502	Kyle Rozema (Chicago)	2,520
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,269	Joe Bankman (Stanford)	2,506
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,218	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	2,445
20	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	23,920	Kirk Stark (UCLA)	2,263
21	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,286	Dennis Ventry (UC-Davis)	2,154
22	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,217	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	1,969
23	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	22,216	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	1,862
24	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	21,829	Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indy)	1,791
25	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	21,806	Omri Marian (UC-Irvine)	1,669

Note that this ranking includes full-time tax professors with at least one tax paper on SSRN, and all papers (including non-tax papers) by these tax professors are included in the SSRN data.

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2020 U.S. News Tax Rankings

Update: 2021 U.S. News Tax Rankings

As I blogged last fall, U.S. News has dramatically changed their ranking of nine law school specialty programs:

Law school specialty rankings ... are based solely on peer assessments by law school faculty who teach in that specialty area. The peer assessment surveys for the specialty law school area rankings were conducted in fall 2018 and early 2019 by U.S. News.

This year for the first time, law school faculty members who teach in each specialty area rated the other law schools in that specialty area on a 5-point scale. Those schools with the highest average scores among those raters who rated them appear in the rankings and are ranked in descending order based on their average peer score they received in that specialty area. In all the previous law school specialty rankings, the law school raters chose their top 15 in a specialty area. This new methodology produced a significantly larger number of schools that were ranked in each specialty area – in some cases five or six times more. ... [A]ll programs that received 10 or more ratings are numerically ranked in that specialty. Schools with less than 10 ratings in a specialty aren't listed. [The response rate of the tax faculty survey was 50%.].

The new 2020 U.S. News Tax Rankings include the tax programs at 175 law schools. Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.9	NYU
2	4.5	Georgetown
3	4.4	Florida
4	4.2	Northwestern
5	4.1	Virginia
6	4.0	Columbia
6	4.0	Stanford
8	3.9	Harvard
8	3.9	UC-Irvine
8	3.9	UCLA
11	3.8	Chicago
11	3.8	Michigan
11	3.8	Pennsylvania
14	3.7	Boston College
14	3.7	Boston University
14	3.7	Duke
14	3.7	Loyola-L.A.
14	3.7	USC
14	3.7	Texas
20	3.6	Indiana (Maurer)
20	3.6	Yale
22	3.5	San Diego
23	3.4	UC-Berkeley
24	3.2	Miami
25	3.1	Temple
25	3.1	UC-Hastings
25	3.1	Minnesota
25	3.1	North Carolina
25	3.1	Pittsburgh
25	3.1	Univ. of Washington
25	3.1	Villanova
32	3.0	Florida State
32	3.0	Fordham
32	3.0	George Washington
32	3.0	Pepperdine
32	3.0	UC-Davis
37	2.9	BYU
37	2.9	Alabama
37	2.9	Georgia
37	2.9	Houston
37	2.9	Washington & Lee
37	2.9	Washington Univ.
43	2.8	Arizona State
43	2.8	Georgia State
43	2.8	Notre Dame
46	2.7	Brooklyn
46	2.7	Emory
46	2.7	Ohio State
46	2.7	Tulane
46	2.7	Illinois
46	2.7	Iowa
46	2.7	William & Mary

Among the law schools in the tax rankings last year, ranked last year Here are the biggest upward moves:

• +13:  Stanford (#6)
• +8:  Chicago (#11), Penn (#11)
• +6:  Columbia (#6)
• +5:  Duke (#14)

Here are the biggest downward moves:

• -30:  Denver (55)
• -8:  Univ. of Washington (#25)
• -7:  Boston University (#14)
• -6:  Loyola-L.A. (#14), San Diego (#22)
• -5:  Yale (#20)

Here are the rankings of law schools with graduate tax programs:

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SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  This ranking includes downloads from two 30- and 35-page papers by 12 tax professors on the new tax legislation that garnered a lot of media attention (including the New York Times and Washington Post) and generated a massive amount of downloads (the papers are the most downloaded tax papers of all-time by over 200%).  See Brian Leiter (Chicago), 11 Tax Profs Blow Up The SSRN Download Rankings. (For some reason, Mitchell Kane (NYU) — the twelfth academic co-author of the two papers — is not included in the SSRN download rankings (although the downloads are included on his individual author page)).  Here is the new list (through February 1, 2019) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Mich.)	182,193	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Mich.)	27,506
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	117,168	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	25,258
3	David Gamage (Indiana)	112,693	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	21,043
4	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	110,523	David Gamage (Indiana)	20,904
5	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	110,453	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	20,798
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	106,758	Manoj Viswanathan (Hastings)	20,051
7	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	102,268	David Kamin (NYU)	18,655
8	Manoj Viswanathan (Hastings)	99,047	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	18,513
9	David Kamin (NYU)	99,038	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	18,410
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	98,333	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	18,327
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	96,680	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	18,228
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	42,151	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	3,598
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	36,107	Michael Simkovic (USC)	3,516
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	35,056	Kirk Stark (UCLA)	3,413
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	30,850	Jacob Goldin (Stanford)	3,014
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	26,764	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	3,011
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	25,441	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,798
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,221	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	2,719
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,176	Joe Bankman (Stanford)	2,627
20	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	23,914	Kyle Rozema (Chicago)	2,417
21	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,239	Dennis Ventry (UC-Davis)	2,288
22	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,142	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	2,007
23	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	21,733	Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indy)	1,917
24	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	21,699	Shu-Yi Oei (Boston College)	1,566
25	David Weisbach (Chicago)	20,741	Yariv Brauner (Florida)	1,369

Note that this ranking includes full-time tax professors with at least one tax paper on SSRN, and all papers (including non-tax papers) by these tax professors are included in the SSRN data.

Continue reading

SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly rankings of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  This ranking includes downloads from two 30- and 35-page papers by 12 tax professors on the new tax legislation that garnered a lot of media attention (including the New York Times and Washington Post) and generated a massive amount of downloads (the papers are the most downloaded papers over the past 12 months across all of SSRN and the most downloaded tax papers of all-time by over 200%).  See Brian Leiter (Chicago), 11 Tax Profs Blow Up The SSRN Download Rankings. (For some reason, Mitchell Kane (NYU) — the twelfth academic co-author of the two papers — is not included in the SSRN download rankings (although the downloads are included on his individual author page)).  Here is the new list (through December 30, 2018) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time		Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Mich.)	181,138	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Mich.)	38,425
2	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	116,407	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	36,224
3	David Gamage (Indiana)	112,061	David Gamage (Indiana)	31,785
4	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	109,917	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	31,572
5	Daniel Hemel (Chicago)	109,616	Manoj Viswanathan (Hastings)	30,983
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	106,140	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	30,969
7	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	101,597	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	28,620
8	Manoj Viswanathan (Hastings)	98,469	David Kamin (NYU)	28,593
9	David Kamin (NYU)	98,444	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	28,333
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	97,750	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	28,326
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	95,987	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	28,159
12	Michael Simkovic (USC)	41,885	Jacob Goldin (Stanford)	3,979
13	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	35,883	Joe Bankman (Stanford)	3,520
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	34,923	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	3,494
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	30,698	Michael Simkovic (USC)	3,487
16	Richard Ainsworth (BU)	26,407	Kirk Stark (UCLA)	3,401
17	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	25,369	Dennis Ventry (UC-Davis)	3,120
18	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	25,151	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	3,027
19	Jim Hines (Michigan)	24,115	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	2,680
20	Gladriel Shobe (BYU)	23,803	Sam Donaldson (Georgia St.)	2,534
21	Richard Kaplan (Illinois)	23,213	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	2,498
22	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	23,067	Kyle Rozema (Chicago)	2,267
23	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	21,625	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	2,065
24	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	21,512	Shu-Yi Oei (Boston College)	2,045
25	David Weisbach (Chicago)	20,663	Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indy)	1,870

Note that this ranking includes full-time tax professors with at least one tax paper on SSRN, and all papers (including non-tax papers) by these tax professors are included in the SSRN data.

Continue reading

The Most Downloaded Tax Professors In 2018

1. Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan):  38,425
2. Daniel Hemel (Chicago):  36,224
3. David Gamage (Indiana):  31,785
4. Darien Shanske (UC-Davis):  31,572
5. Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings):  30,983
6. Dan Shaviro (NYU):  30,969
7. Lily Batchelder (NYU):  28,620
8. David Kamin (NYU):  28,593
9. Ari Glogower (Ohio State):  28,333
10. Cliff Fleming (BYU):  28,326
11. Rebecca Kysar (Fordham):  28,159
12. Jacob Goldin (Stanford):   3,979
13. Joe Bankman (Stanford):  3,520
14. Richard Ainsworth (Boston University):  3,494
15. Michael Simkovic (USC):  3,487
16. Kirk Stark (UCLA):  3,401
17. Dennis Ventry (UC-Davis):  3,120
18. Dhammika Dharmapala (Chicago):  3,027
19. Ruth Mason (Virginia):  2,680
20. Sam Donaldson (Georgia State):  2,534
21. Brad Borden (Brooklyn):  2,498
22. Kyle Rozema (Chicago):  2,267
23. Hugh Ault (Boston College):  2,065
24. Shu-Yi Oei (Boston College):  2,045
25. Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indianapolis):  1,870

The Most Popular Tax Articles Of 2018

1. 2,834 Downloads:  Joseph Bankman (Stanford), David Gamage (Indiana), Jacob Goldin (Stanford), Daniel Hemel (Chicago), Darien Shanske (UC-Davis), Kirk Stark (UCLA), Dennis Ventry (UC-Davis) & Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings), Federal Income Tax Treatment of Charitable Contributions Entitling the Donor to a State Tax Credit
2. 2,524 Downloads:  Sam Donaldson (Georgia State), Understanding the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
3. 1,247 Downloads:  Dan Shaviro (NYU), Evaluating the New US Pass-Through Rules, 2018 British Tax Rev. 49
4. 948 Downloads:  Shu-Yi Oei (Boston College) & Diane Ring (Boston College), Is New Code Section 199A Really Going to Turn Us All into Independent Contractors?
5. 711 Downloads:  Brad Borden (Brooklyn), Choice-of-Entity Decisions Under the New Tax Act
6. 651 Downloads:  Allison Christians (McGill), Introduction to Tax Policy Theory
7. 613 Downloads:  Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan) & Martin Vallespinos (S.J.D. 2018, Michigan), The Elephant Always Forgets: US Tax Reform and the WTO
8. 589 Downloads:  Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan), Beat It: Tax Reform and Tax Treaties
9. 574 Downloads:  Allison Christians (McGill) & Laurens van Apeldoorn (Leiden), Taxing Income Where Value Is Created, 21 Fla. Tax Rev. ___ (2018)
10. 572 Downloads:  Jim Repetti (Boston College), The Impact of the 2017 Act's Tax Rate Changes on Choice of Entity, 21 Fla. Tax Rev. ___ (2018)

The 10 Most-Cited Tax Faculty

Brian Leiter (Chicago) has announced that he will be releasing an updated ranking of the Ten Most-Cited U.S. Law Faculty in 11 areas of specialization, as measured by citations during the past five years (2009-2013).  He previewed the ranking today by releasing the ten most-cited tax faculty:

Rank	Tax Prof	Citations	Age
1	Michael Graetz (Columbia)	400	69
	David Weisbach (Chicago)	400	50
3	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	350	56
4	Daniel Shaviro (NYU)	340	56
5	Leandra Lederman (Indiana)	290	47
	Larry Zelenak (Duke)	290	58
7	Victor Fleischer (San Diego)	280	42
8	Edward Zelinsky (Cardozo)	270	58
9	Joseph Bankman (Stanford)	250	58
	Edward McCaffery (USC)	250	55

Leiter also lists four highly-cited scholars who work partly in tax.

In our article, Pursuing a Tax LLM Degree: Where?, Jennifer M. Kowal (Loyola-L.A.), Katherine Pratt (Loyola-L.A.), Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) and I used a variation of Leiter's methodology in conducting a citation count study of the faculty in thirteen highly rated graduate tax programs  (pp. 28-29):

Rank	Graduate Tax Program Faculty	Citations
1	NYU	1917
2	Florida	1181
3	Georgetown	861
4	Miami	799
5	Northwestern	667
6	Boston University	614
7	Loyola-L.A.	475
8	San Diego	377
9	Villanova	177
10	SMU	139
11	Chapman	112
12	U. Washington	75
13	Denver	42

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• Phillips & Yoo: A Better Faculty Citation Rankings System (Sept. 7, 2012)
• The 18 Most-Cited Tax Faculty (May 18, 2010)
• The 15 Most-Cited Tax Faculty (Apr. 5, 2010)
• More on Faculty Citation Rankings (Nov. 28, 2007)
• The Most-Cited Tax Faculty (Nov. 16, 2007)
• Ten Most-Cited Tax Faculty (Aug. 20, 2007)

In our article, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83, 120-22 (2006), Bernie Black (Northwestern) and I examined the Top 25 tax faculty as measured by SSRN downloads, a practice I update monthly on TaxProf Blog.

Tax LL.M. Program Rankings by Tax Hiring Authorities

Following up on my post on the new 2015 U.S. News Tax Rankings: TaxTalent asked U.S. corporate tax hiring authorities to rank the following programs:

• Undergraduate Accounting
• MS Tax
• MAcc
• MAcc Tax
• MBA Tax
• JD Tax
• LL.M. Tax

For the LL.M. Tax Survey, respondents were asked to select up to five schools (out of 31) with LL.M. Tax programs that they hold in highest regard when hiring candidates.  Respondent Profile: 144 currently employed heads of corporate in-house tax departments.

For the J.D. Tax Survey, respondents were asked to select up to five schools (out of 20) with JD Tax programs that they hold in highest regard when hiring candidates.  It is a bizarre list of 20 law schools, as it omits 14 of the 15 schools ranked in tax by U.S. News (Georgetown is the only school ranked by both U.S. News and Tax Talent.) 

2003-2012 Tax Journal Rankings: NYU #1, Tax Notes #2

Here are the Washington & Lee tax law review combined rankings of the five major tax journals:

• Florida Tax Review ("Florida")
• Tax Law Review ("NYU")
• Tax Lawyer ("ABA")
• Tax Notes
• Virginia Tax Review ("Virginia")

The rankings are based on the annual combined rankings in 2003-2012 among these five journals by:

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)

Rank	Journal	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003
1.1	NYU	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2.9	Tax Notes	4	3	3	2	2	2	5	3	2	3
3.0	Florida	3	4	4	4	3	3	2	2	3	2
3.1	Virginia	1	2	2	3	4	4	3	4	4	4
4.9	ABA	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	5	5	5

As I have previously noted, Tax Notes fares poorly in the Impact Factor category (citations/number of articles published) because W&L apparently counts as "articles" all of the advance sheet material in Tax Notes.

Tax Notes is #1 by a wide margin in the number of citations in law reviews, with more than double the citations of its nearest competitor:

Rank	Journal	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003
1.0	Tax Notes	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
2.9	ABA	4	3	4	4	3	3	2	2	2	2
3.0	NYU	3	4	3	3	2	2	3	4	3	3
3.1	Virginia	2	2	2	2	4	4	4	3	4	4
5.0	Florida	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5

2012 Tax Journal Rankings: Virginia #1, NYU #2

Here are the Washington & Lee tax law review rankings, based on citations to articles published in 2005-2012:

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)

Here are the Top 25 tax journals (out of 48 ranked tax journals):

Rank	Tax Journal	Combined	Impact	Law Reviews	Cases	Currency
1	Virginia Tax Review	100.0	0.72	595	5	1.20
2	Tax Law Review	80.2	0.66	382	1	0.92
3	Elder Law Journal	66.1	0.58	279	8	0.55
4	Florida Tax Review	62.0	0.58	217	0	0.96
5	Tax Notes	54.5	0.01	762	15	0.02
6	Pittsburgh Tax Review	40.5	0.43	81	2	0.25
6	Tax Lawyer	40.5	0.21	335	14	0.14
8	Houston Bus. & Tax J.	39.7	0.34	170	5	0.14
9	Akron Tax Journal	28.9	0.30	71	3	0.38
10	Heckerling Inst. Est. Plan.	26.4	0.21	132	0	0.48
11	Marquette Elder's Advisor	24.8	0.20	124	1	0.14
12	National Tax Journal	23.1	0.11	206	2	0.19
13	Journal of Taxation	17.4	0.03	215	6	0.05
14	New Zealand J. Tax' Law	14.0	0.11	73	0	0.10
15	Estate Planning	13.2	0.04	148	1	0.19
16	Tax Notes International	10.7	0.00	151	0	0.00
17	Exempt Org. Tax Review	5.0	0.00	75	0	0.01
17	Taxes  Magazine	5.0	0.01	55	0	0.04
19	British Tax Review	4.1	0.01	42	0	0.02
19	Tax Management Mem.	4.1	0.01	48	1	0.05
19	Taxation of Exempts	4.1	0.02	40	0	0.10
22	Canadian Tax Journal	3.3	0.02	30	0	0.02
23	eJournal of Tax Research	2.5	0.02	11	0	0.06
23	J. Australasian Tax Ass'n	2.5	0.02	13	0	0.02
23	Tax Management Int'l J.	2.5	0.01	27	0	0.03

Tax Notes is #1 by a wide margin in citations in law reviews (762 v. #2's Virginia Tax Review's 595), but fairs relatively poorly (.001, ranked #20) in the Impact Factor category (citations/number of articles published).  My guess is that W&L counted as "articles" all of the advance sheet material in Tax Notes. (Note:  I omitted the NYU Journal of Law and Business from the above chart because it is not a tax journal.)

Prior W&L Tax Journal Rankings:

• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005
• 2004
• 2003
  

(Hat Tip: Omri Marian,)

2011 Tax Journal Rankings: NYU #1, Virginia #2, Tax Notes #3

Here are the Washington & Lee tax law review rankings, based on citations to articles published in 2004-2011:

• Impact Factor (citations/number of articles published)
• Citations in Law Reviews
• Citations in Cases (federal and state courts)
• Currency (how rapidly articles are cited)
• Combined (weighted combination of the above rankings)

Here are the Top 25 tax journals (out of 44 ranked tax journals):

Rank	Tax Journal	Combined	Impact	Law Reviews	Cases	Currency
1	Tax Law Review	100.0	0.98	412	1	1.74
2	Virginia Tax Review	89.6	0.71	554	9	1.00
3	Tax Notes	76.0	0.01	1165	14	0.02
4	Florida Tax Review	60.8	0.63	210	0	0.75
5	Elder Law Journal	57.6	0.54	257	8	0.36
6	Tax Lawyer	44.0	0.21	435	10	0.40
7	Pittsburgh Tax Review	41.6	0.48	85	3	0.42
8	Houston Bus. & Tax J.	35.2	0.31	184	4	0.30
9	Journal of Taxation	28.8	0.06	370	5	0.11
10	Heckerling Inst. Est. Plan.	26.4	0.22	150	0	0.41
11	Akron Tax Journal	22.4	0.25	56	3	1.17
12	National Tax Journal	22.4	0.11	217	0	0.16
13	Marquette Elder's Advisor	17.6	0.14	107	1	0.14
14	Estate Planning	14.4	0.04	172	1	0.17
15	Taxes	14.4	0.05	162	0	0.08
15	Tax Notes International	12.8	0.00	193	0	0.00
17	New Zealand J. Tax'n Law	9.6	0.08	58	0	0.00
18	Tax Management Mem.	9.6	0.03	111	1	0.05
18	Tax Management Int’l J.	5.6	0.02	66	0	0.05
20	Taxation of Exempts	4.0	0.02	33	0	0.08
21	British Tax Review	3.2	0.01	36	0	0.01
22	Corporate Taxation	3.2	0.02	31	0	0.04
23	eJournal of Tax Research	3.2	0.03	16	0	0.03
24	Real Estate Taxation	3.2	0.02	24	1	0.01
25	Tax Mgmt Real Estate J.	3.2	0.02	23	0	0.01

Tax Notes is #1 by a wide margin in citations in law reviews (1165 v. #2's Virginia Tax Review's 554), but fairs relatively poorly (.001, ranked #24) in the Impact Factor category (citations/number of articles published).  My guess is that W&L counted as "articles" all of the advance sheet material in Tax Notes. (Note:  I omitted the NYU Journal of Law and Business from the above chart because it is not a tax journal.)

Prior W&L Tax Journal Rankings:

• 2009
• 2008
• 2006

Update: Thanks to Omri Marian for letting me know that Washington & Lee has released an updated ranking based on citations to articles published in 2005-2012.  I will blog those rankings in a forthcoming post.

Phillips & Yoo: A Better Faculty Citation Rankings System

James Cleith Phillips & John Yoo (both of UC-Berkeley), The Cite Stuff: Inventing a Better Law Faculty Relevance Measure:

Citation rankings as a measure of scholarly quality are both controversial and popular. They provide a quantitative, albeit imperfect, measure of intellectual impact and productivity. But the number of times a scholar has been cited by his peers confers more than just bragging rights. They arguably help form the reputation of American legal scholars to the point that they have allegedly influenced faculty hiring decisions, and their collective impact may well shape the ranking of law schools themselves.

Arguably, the most well-known such metric for legal scholarship is the method used by Brian Leiter of the University of Chicago Law School and posted on his website. Despite the methodological rigorousness of the Leiter system, it suffers from some well-recognized limitations. It is biased in favor of schools with older, smaller faculties, for example, and against schools that do not produce as much peer-reviewed scholarship.

This study seeks to improve on earlier efforts by producing a more relevant and accurate citation-based ranking system. It produces a measure that explains 81% of the variation in the U.S. News academic peer rankings, implicitly revealing how schools could boost those rankings, and lists the most cited professors based on this new ranking methodology, both overall, amongst younger scholars, and in 20 areas of legal scholarship. This allows for the top school in each area of law to be calculated, which could be useful to aspiring J.D. students who desire to know the best school in the area(s) of law they are most interested in. Finally, this study proposes an alternative faculty ranking system focusing on the percentage of a law school faculty that are “All-Stars” (ranked in the top 10 in citations per year in an area of law). This alternative ranking system improves upon some of the weaknesses of previous faculty quality ranking methodologies and argues that citation-based studies do measure something important -- relevance of scholarship.

Here are the Top 10 Tax Professors in Total Cites Per Year:

1. Alan Auerbach (UC-Berkeley) (54.3)
2. Mihir Desai (Harvard) (54.0)
3. James Hines (Michigan) (52.4)
4. David Weisbach (Chicago) (45.4)
5. Daniel Shaviro (NYU) (44.1)
6. Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan) (40.9)
7. Michael Graetz (Columbia) (36.2)
8. Michael Knoll (Pennsylvania) (35.8)
9. Robert Green (Cornell) (33.6)
10. Thomas Brennan (Northwestern) (33.2)

Here are the Top 5 Law School Tax Faculties in Total Cites Per Year:

1. Harvard (188.2) (Mihir Desai, Louis Kaplow)
2. Michigan (93.3) (James Hines, Reuven Avi-Yonah)
3. UC-Berkeley (54.3) (Alan Auerbach)
4. Chicago (45.4) (David Weisbach)
5. NYU (44.1) (Daniel Shaviro)

Tax LL.M. Program Rankings by Tax Hiring Authorities

I previously blogged the 2012 and 2013 U.S. News Tax LL.M. program rankings:

2013 Rank	Grad Tax Program	2012 Rank
1	NYU	1
2	Florida	2
3	Georgetown	3
4	Northwestern	4
5	Boston University	6
6	Miami	5
7	Loyola-L.A.	7
8	San Diego	8
9	Villanova	8
10	Denver	n/r
n/r	U. Washington	10
n/r	Chapman	11

(The 2008-2011 U.S. News Tax LL.M. rankings are here.)

JobsInTax.com, part of the TaxTalent network, has released another ranking of tax LL.M. programs, based on the responses of 151 heads of corporate tax departments:

Respondents were asked to select up to five schools (out of 32) with LLM Tax programs that they hold in the highest regard when hiring candidates. Schools were then ranked based on the total number of votes they received.

This is the first of a two-part survey, the second of which will ask the opinions of alumni of LLM Tax programs, in order to provide an index of which LLM Tax programs are consistently held in high regard by both alumni and tax hiring authorities. 

(Of course, several of these schools do not have Tax LL.M. programs (University of California, Kansas, Lewis & Clark, New Mexico, Richmond, Washington & Lee.)

For more on graduate tax program rankings, see Jennifer Kowal (Loyola-L.A.), Katherine Pratt (Loyola-L.A.), Theodore Seto (Loyola-L.A.) & Paul Caron (Cincinnati), Pursuing a Tax LLM Degree: Where?.

SSRN Tax Faculty Rankings

Updated Sept. 29, 2011:  Theodore P. Seto (Loyola-L.A.) has updated his ranking of the Top 25 U.S. Law School Tax Faculties, as measured by the number of SSRN downloads (through Sept. 9, 2011). To minimize the distortive effect of his own rankings articles, he has eliminated from Loyola-L.A.’s count downloads attributable to his own two most downloaded articles, neither of which pertains directly to tax. He has not eliminated downloads of non-tax articles from the counts of any other author.

		All-Time Downloads		Recent Downloads
1	Michigan	40,754	Michigan	7353
2	Harvard	30,062	Illinois	5368
3	Illinois	26,241	Florida	4221
4	Pennsylvania.	18,729	Cincinnati	4107
5	Cincinnati	17,771	Harvard	3552
6	Colorado	17,209	Loyola-L.A.	3423
7	USC	16,652	UC-Davis	3026
8	UC-Davis	16,432	USC	2698
9	Loyola-L.A.	16,417	NYU	2639
10	Chicago	15,922	Pennsylvania	2209
11	UCLA	14,709	Chapman	2151
12	Florida	13,785	Brooklyn	2086
13	NYU	12,801	Chicago	2032
14	Boston College	11,924	Minnesota	1967
15	Columbia	11,557	Boston College	1938
16	Chapman	11,290	Colorado	1867
17	Brooklyn	10,967	Pace	1866
18	Boston Univ.	10,856	UCLA	1834
19	Vanderbilt	8941	Vanderbilt	1793
20	Baltimore	8862	Case Western	1610
21	Pace	7962	Columbia	1609
22	Stanford	7775	Baltimore	1605
23	Notre Dame	7749	San Diego	1431
24	Florida State	7739	Boston Univ.	1405
25	Indiana	6998	Florida State	1353

For purpose of Ted’s analysis, a tax professor is initially defined as any full-time law professor at a U.S. law school (1) self-identifying with one of the tax categories in the AALS faculty listing, (2) who has posted at least one tax or tax-related article in abstract or full text on SSRN. Paul Caron’s listing of new hires and lateral transfers is also reflected. Further corrections are made as requested. As is true of Paul Caron’s ranking of individual tax professors, downloads of all SSRN postings of any tax professor, so defined, are then tallied. Articles co-authored by members of a single faculty are counted only once towards that faculty’s tally.

For more on the use of SSRN downloads in law school rankings, see Bernard S. Black & Paul L. Caron, Ranking Law Schools: Using SSRN to Measure Scholarly Performance, 81 Ind. L.J. 83 (2006).

New 2012 U.S. News Tax Rankings

Here are the new 2012 U.S. News Tax Rankings, along with last year's rankings. The big changes from 2011 are (1) Florida moving ahead of Georgetown at #2, and (2) the number of schools without tax LL.M. programs moving up in the rankings (10) and the number of schools with tax LL.M. programs moving down (6):

2012 Rank	Tax Program	2011 Rank
1	NYU	1
2	Florida	3
3	Georgetown	2
4	Northwestern	4
5	Miami	5
6	Harvard	8
7	UCLA	11
8	Virginia	10
9	Boston University	6
10	Columbia	14
10	Loyola-L.A.	9
10	Stanford	13
10	Texas	18
14	Michigan	16
14	USC	16
16	Boston College	18
16	Pennsylvania	n/r
16	San Diego	6
16	Villanova	21
20	U. Washington	n/r
21	Chapman	n/r
22	Chicago	21
22	UC-Hastings	18
n/r	Denver	12
n/r	SMU	14

Here are the rankings of the graduate tax programs, along with last year's rankings:

2012 Rank	Grad Tax Program	2011 Rank
1	NYU	1
2	Florida	3
3	Georgetown	2
4	Northwestern	4
5	Miami	5
6	Boston University	6
7	Loyola-L.A.	8
8	San Diego	6
8	Villanova	11
10	U. Washington	n/r
11	Chapman	n/r
n/r	Denver	9
n/r	SMU	10

The U.S. News tax survey instrument states that it is intended "to identify the law schools having the top programs in tax law." The survey is sent "to a sample of law school faculty listed in the AALS Directory of Law Teachers 2009-2010 as currently teaching a course or seminar in tax law." Recipients are asked "to [i]dentify up to fifteen (15) schools that have the highest-quality tax law courses or programs. In making your choices consider all elements that contribute to a program's excellence, for example, the depth and breadth of the program, faculty research and publication record, etc."

As Donald Tobin (Ohio State) has noted, it is more than strange that NYU has finished ahead of Florida and Georgetown each year that U.S. News has conducted the survey.  Because the survey ranks the schools by how often they appear on the respondents' "Top 15" lists, this means that some folks list NYU, but not Florida and Georgetown, among the Top 15 tax programs.

For more on tax rankings, see our article, Pursuing a Tax LLM Degree: Where?, which compiles information about 13 highly ranked tax LLM programs: (1) NYU; (2) Florida; (3) Georgetown; (4) Northwestern; (5) Miami; (6) Boston University; (7) San Diego; (8) Loyola-L.A./LMU; (9) SMU; (10) Denver; (11) University of Washington; (12) Villanova; and (13) Chapman. The topics on which information is reported in the Article include: (1) tuition; (2) scholarships; (3) the full-time tax professors who teach in each program and the tax courses they teach; (4) the number of full-time and part-time students enrolled in each program; (5) general information about adjunct professors teaching in each program; (6) required courses; (7) elective courses, specialty certificates, and concentrations; (8) opportunities to develop tax practice skills by taking experiential learning courses and simulated practice courses; (9) extracurricular tax activities; (10) opportunities to graduate with honors or receive academic prizes; and (11) career planning and placement services offered to students in each program. The article also ranks the tax faculty at these thirteen law schools by citations (the Top 5 are NYU (1), Florida (2), Georgetown (3), Miami (4), and Northwestern (5)) and SSRN downloads (the Top 5 are Loyola-L.A. (1), NYU (2), Chapman (3), Florida (4), and San Diego (5)).

Other resources available on TaxProf Blog include:

• Links to All 32 Graduate Tax Programs
• Tax Faculty Rankings
• Graduate Tax Faculty Rankings
• Tax Professor Rankings
• Tax Faculty Metropolitan Area Rankings
• Links to Tax Colloquia Workshop Series (left column of the blog)

The 18 Most-Cited Tax Faculty

Brian Leiter (Chicago) has finalized his ranking of the Highest Impact Faculty in 13 Areas of Specialization, including tax, as measured by citations during the past five years (Jan. 1, 2005 - Jan. 15, 2010):

Rank	Tax Prof	Citations	Age
1	Michael Graetz (Yale)	370