Brant Hellwig to Lead Tax Program at NYU Hellwig will take a leave of absence from W&L to lead the program, which is considered the premier graduate tax program in the country.

By Peter Jetton
October 7, 2021

Washington and Lee law professor and former dean Brant Hellwig has been named Faculty Director of the Graduate Tax Program at New York University School of Law. Hellwig will take a leave of absence from W&L to lead the program, which is considered the premier graduate tax program in the country.

“I began my teaching career at NYU, and so it will always be a special place to me,” said Hellwig, who received his LL.M. in tax from NYU in 2000. “I am grateful to have the opportunity to return as faculty director and help the program continue to thrive.”

Hellwig joined W&L Law in 2012 and was named dean in 2015. During his tenure, Hellwig helped navigate the Law School through a difficult financial period and oversaw significant improvements in applications and entering class credentials. Under his leadership, the school also achieved record highs in postgraduate employment outcomes for students, exceeded annual fundraising goals and stabilized its position as a top-tier law school.

An expert in the field of federal taxation, Hellwig has taught a variety of tax courses, including Federal Income Taxation of Individuals, Partnership Taxation, Corporate Taxation, and Estate and Gift Taxation. His scholarship in the tax field is similarly varied, ranging from the income tax treatment of deferred compensation arrangements of corporate executives to the estate tax treatment of closely held business entities employed as trust substitutes. He is a co-author of a casebook on Estate and Gift Taxation (with W&L Law colleague Robert Danforth) and a co-author of casebooks on Partnership Taxation and Business Enterprise Taxation.  He recently was commissioned by the United States Tax Court to update and expand a treatise on that court’s history and expanding jurisdiction.

Hellwig received his B.S. summa cum laude and J.D. magna cum laude from Wake Forest University. After practicing with the firm of Bell, Davis & Pitt, P.A. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he pursued his LL.M. in taxation at NYU Law, where he received the Harry J. Rudick Memorial Award for distinction in the graduate tax program.

After serving as law clerk to the Hon. Juan F. Vasquez of the U.S. Tax Court, Hellwig began his academic career at NYU as an acting assistant professor. He then accepted a permanent appointment to the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he was a member of the faculty for 10 years. During his tenure at South Carolina and W&L, Hellwig received a number of institutional awards recognizing both his teaching and his scholarship.

The Graduate Tax Program at NYU Law is the top-ranked LL.M. program in the nation, and destination for many W&L Law graduates pursuing a career in tax law. Interim Dean and Tax Clinic Director Michelle Drumbl also is a graduate of the program.

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