W&L Law Faculty Members Named to Chair Professorships

By Peter Jetton
May 12, 2020

Washington and Lee School of Law has announced the appointment of two law school faculty to chaired professorships. The appointments take effect July 1.

Michelle Drumbl has been named the Robert O. Bentley Professor of Law.

An expert in federal income taxation and tax procedure with prior experience in the Office of Associate Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, Drumbl came to W&L Law in 2007 to lead the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic. Her clinic, through which students assist low-income individuals in resolving disputes with the Internal Revenue Service relating to their federal income tax liabilities, provides a unique learning experience for students while simultaneously providing a tremendous service to the western Virginia community. Drumbl has secured over $800,000 in federal funding for the clinic over the past decade.

This past year, Drumbl published a monograph with Cambridge University Press entitled “Tax Credits for the Working Poor:  A Call for Reform.”  In the book, Drumbl details how the Earned Income Tax Credit has evolved to serve two current purposes:  a work-incentive program (as originally intended), and an anti-poverty program for low-income families with children.  She then recommends improvements in the design of the EITC, employing a comparative law analysis and drawing on her experience representing clients claiming the EITC in the process.

Her scholarly articles have appeared or are forthcoming in the Temple Law Review, Tax Notes, the Florida Tax Review, the Columbia Journal of Tax Law, the Pittsburgh Tax Review, and the eJournal of Tax Research.  Her article examining the nature and nuance of earned income tax credit noncompliance, “Beyond Polemics: Poverty, Taxes, and Noncompliance,” was awarded the Cedric Sandford Medal for best paper at the 12th International Conference on Tax Administration in Sydney.

Drumbl received an LL.M. in Taxation from New York University, a J.D. with honors from George Washington University, and a B.A. in Political Science from Emory University.  Prior to the joining the faculty, Professor Drumbl was an attorney at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, where her work focused on the legal interpretation of bilateral income tax treaties and other cross-border taxation issues for the U.S. government.

J.D. King has been named the James P. Morefield Professor of Law.

King joined W&L Law in 2008 with extensive practice and instructional experience, both as a supervising attorney and E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow of the Georgetown University Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic and as a public defender in Washington, D.C.  Shortly after his arrival at W&L, King created the Criminal Justice Clinic.  Through this highly popular clinical offering, King leads students in the defense of individuals in the Lexington and neighboring communities who have been charged with misdemeanor offenses that carry the prospect of a jail sentence.

In addition to his clinical offering, King regularly teaches a range of related doctrinal courses, including Evidence, Criminal Procedure, and Professional Responsibility.  He is highly regarded as a teacher and was selected by the student body as the Professor of the Year in 2013.  King has served as the Director of Experiential Education at W&L Law for the past four years, while also serving on any number of critical committees at the law school and the University.  King was a Fulbright Scholar in Chile in 2014, where he taught at the Universidad Viña del Mar and conducted research on the role of the public defender in Chile’s criminal justice system.

Apart from his vast teaching portfolio, King has consistently produced high-quality scholarship in the criminal law field including “Gamesmanship and Criminal Process,” American Criminal Law Review (forthcoming); “The Meaning of a Misdemeanor in a Post-Ferguson World,” Georgia Law Review (forthcoming); “Privatizing Criminal Procedure,” Georgetown Law Journal; and “The Public Defender as International Transplant,” University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law.

Before joining W&L in 2008, King was a supervising attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. He has a B.A. in History and Religious Studies from Brown University, a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, and a LL.M. in Advocacy from Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to teaching, in addition to his work as a public defender, King was a law clerk to United States District Judge Richard H. Kyle in Minnesota, a Prettyman Fellow in Trial Advocacy at Georgetown University Law Center, and a court-appointed criminal defense lawyer in United States District Court for the District of Wyoming.

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