Ethan Yale

  • Professor of Law

Ethan Yale joined the law faculty in 2009. His research and teaching focuses on tax law and policy with an emphasis on the taxation of business entities and complex transactions, including tax shelters. He also teaches a class on the tax and securities law aspects of forming and investing through private investment funds, including hedge funds and private equity funds. Yale has written numerous publications in policy and trade journals that have been of both interest and use to academics, practitioners and the courts. He was awarded the McFarland Prize for outstanding scholarship by a junior member of the law faculty (2011), and his work was selected for presentation at the Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum (2005).

Yale was a member of the Georgetown Law faculty from 2004 to 2009. Prior to joining Georgetown, he was an acting assistant professor at New York University School of Law, an associate with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City, and a law clerk to Judge Jacques L. Wiener Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He is a graduate of Cornell University and Tulane Law School.

Education

  • J.D.
    Tulane University Law School
    1999
  • B.S.
    Cornell University
    1993

Articles & Reviews

Mutual Fund Tax Overhang, 38 Virginia Tax Review 397–444 (2019).
Anti-Basis, 94 North Carolina Law Review 485–537 (2016).
Taxing Market Discount on Distressed Debt, 32 Virginia Tax Review 703–748 (2013).
Defining “Partnership” for Federal Tax Purposes, 131 Tax Notes 589–606 (2011).
Corporate Distributions Tax Reform: Exploring the Alternatives, 29 Virginia Tax Review 329–380 (2010).
Investment Risk and the Tax Benefit of Deferred Compensation, 62 Tax Law Review 377–398 (2009).
Taxing Cap-and-Trade Environmental Regulation, 37 Journal of Legal Studies 535–550 (2008).
Was Heinz's Two-Step Redemption a Sham?, 117 Tax Notes 345 (2007).
Can Discriminatory Taxation of Municipal Bonds Be Justified? Thoughts on the Davis Topside Briefs (with Brian D. Galle), 117 Tax Notes 153 (2007).
Muni Bonds and the Commerce Clause After United Haulers (with Brian Galle), 44 State Tax Notes 877 (2007).
Deferred Compensation Revisited (with Daniel I. Halperin), 114 Tax Notes 939 (2007).
Reforming the Taxation of Deferred Compensation (with Gregg D. Polsky), 85 North Carolina Law Review 571–635 (2007).
Reexamining Black & Decker’s Contingent Liability Tax Shelter, 108 Tax Notes 223 (2005).
The Final INDOPCO Regulations, 105 Tax Notes 435 (2004).
When Are Capitalization Exceptions Justified?, 57 Tax Law Review 549–606 (2004).

Featured Scholarship

  • Mutual Fund Tax Overhang
    The built-in gain in a mutual fund’s portfolio is referred to as “tax overhang.” Tax is imposed on investors who buy shares in mutual funds with tax overhang even though... MORE
  • Anti-Basis
    Anti-basis is the untaxed benefit enjoyed by a taxpayer when a liability or obligation is incurred. In the business context, the untaxed benefit is an increase in asset... MORE
  • Taxing Market Discount on Distressed Debt
    The statutory rules regarding the timing and character of income and losses on debt instruments overtax distressed debt investors. Investors that make profitable... MORE