Conversations with accomplished lawyers and the leaders who shape their field.
A personal note
This past weekend I co-hosted the relaunch of the ABA Tax Section’s People in Tax Podcast, recording five new episodes during the section’s national conference. I also spoke on a panel at the conference. More soon.
Episode 06
Leading UBalt Law’s
Graduate Tax Program.
Fred Brown has directed the Graduate Tax Program at the University of Baltimore School of Law since 1990. Cited Authorities episode six is out today.
If you only have five minutes, here is what stays with me.
He started as an electrical engineer at Rutgers. Fred earned a BS in engineering before turning to law. Engineering and tax law share a common skill, he says: working through complicated formulas. The Internal Revenue Code is a “bunch of verbal formulas.”
He chose UBalt over other schools in 1990. The graduate tax program was what drew him. Most law schools at the time didn’t offer tax beyond a couple of basic courses. UBalt let him teach across corporate, partnership, and international tax.
He taught at NYU for two years before joining UBalt. Fred discovered the acting assistant professor track during his LLM year and applied. NYU put him in front of his first class with little supervision; the student evaluations he got were invaluable.
The Hon. Howard A. Dawson, Jr. founded the program in 1987. Judge Dawson, appointed to the U.S. Tax Court by President Kennedy in 1962, served three terms as Chief Judge and was the longest-serving judge in the court’s history. He founded the UBalt Graduate Tax Program from the bench and recruited fellow Tax Court judges to teach, a tradition the program has maintained ever since.
He has coached UBalt’s tax moot court team for over 30 years. Watching nervous first-time students grow over multiple years on the team is the most rewarding part of his job, he says.
One of his former students now runs an 80-person tax firm. Glen Frost was a UBalt JD and LLM student before founding Frost Law in Maryland. Glen joins Cited Authorities for episode seven on May 27.
He has run nine marathons. Boston, Marine Corps, New York City, Baltimore. The lesson he draws is the same one that, in his view, makes a great teacher: diligence and preparation.
“The best way to learn a subject is to teach it.”
Fred Brown, on the advice he gives to aspiring adjunct professors.
Thanks for reading.
Alexander Powell, Host of Cited Authorities