A Tribute To A Law Professor And Tax Lawyer

After graduating law school, I decided to pursue an LLM in taxation, partially to defer student loan repayments until after I graduated. I started at Chapman Law School before transferring to Loyola Law School in Los Angeles because the school was closer to my home. It was there I met someone who would have a profound and positive impact on my studies and beyond.

One of the classes I chose was called Tax Aspects of Business Planning. It was taught by Professor Dean Weiner who before joining academia was a partner at O’Melveny & Myers where he practiced tax law for many years. Every few weeks, a new, complex fact pattern was presented (presumably coming from his work at O’Melveny), and we would submit a detailed tax analysis with a proposed solution. I took a liking to this class because it fit my learning style better. I made it a point to take any future classes with him.

I should note that I had a classmate who was really smart although I didn’t talk to him much outside of class. I later found out that he was Above The Law and Wall Street Journal’s Lawyer of the Year. But I digress.

That September, the ABA Section of Taxation released the problem for their annual Law Student Tax Challenge (LSTC). The fact pattern involved a purchase of a private company through a tax-free reorganization structure as well as an executive compensation issue. I decided to enter it and, in light of Weiner’s expertise in business taxation, asked him to be our team’s coach.

In short, we treated the competition as if this was another one of his assignments. I would write a proposed solution, and he would critique it. But we had one major problem which was the executive compensation portion of the problem. First, executive compensation didn’t seem to be Weiner’s forte. Second, the problem involved the newly enacted Section 409A which created very complex tax rules regarding deferred compensation in response to the Enron bankruptcy in 2001. For this portion, I feared that I was pretty much on my own.

Since Weiner was my professor and coach, we got to know each other quite well over the semester. In addition to classes and the competition, we would talk extensively about tax policy, and he would share his war stories about mergers and tax controversies.

That December, the LSTC’s co-chairs informed us that we were the finalists in the competition. That meant that we would fly out to Miami to participate in the final oral competition at the Section of Taxation’s midyear meeting. Weiner was just as excited as we were, and he took great lengths to help us prepare. He even invited us to his office at O’Melveny where he and others from their tax department provided guidance.

I recall being nervous that day as the judges were well-known tax lawyers and a United States Tax Court Judge. I’m sure my nervousness was shown during the oral competition.

I did not win, although another team from Loyola won first place. But regardless, it was a great experience and I am thankful to the Tax Section for the experience and providing the accommodations. We all went out to dinner afterward where we all had fun and, for a few hours, we talked about anything other than tax.

The next day, all of us went to the airport to go back home. I remember telling Weiner I was considering writing a research paper on the taxation of video game currencies, a topic that drew some debate at the time. But he said he had a headache and planned to take a nap when he got back home. We all had a memorable evening so being a bit under the weather was excusable.

A few days later, the memories were behind us and it was back to business as usual. But in class, I noticed that Weiner’s speech was slower than normal, and he seemed to have trouble remembering things. When I met with him during his office hours to help with a side project he was doing, he seemed absentminded at times. I thought it was simply jet lag that would go away in a few days.

A week later, all of his classes were canceled indefinitely. Obviously, something was seriously wrong.

Soon after, the school told us that Weiner underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor and, as a result, someone else would teach the class for the rest of the semester. Some time later, we got an update saying that he was resting at home. While I was concerned about his condition, I decided it would be best to just send him an email and hope that he would respond when he recovered.

I would not get an update on his condition for a year. In the middle of February 2008, the school sent me an email stating that Dean Weiner passed away on Valentine’s Day.

It’s been 14 years since his passing. For me, he made studying tax law fun, and I believe his influence had an effect on my future performance at school. That research paper I mentioned turned into my honors research paper. It was published at a top tax law journal and was dedicated to his memory.

I am happy that I was able to provide Prof. Weiner with a moment of pride in the sunset of his life. But at times, I wish he was still around as I am certain that he and I would have stayed in touch. The me in 2007 would have hoped he could connect me with people who could help me find a job after graduation. But today, I would want to reach out to him to get advice on tax issues and law practice. But I know he would ask for my thoughts and critique them just as he did when I was a student.

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Steven Chung is a tax attorney in Los Angeles, California. He helps people with basic tax planning and resolve tax disputes. He is also sympathetic to people with large student loans. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. Or you can connect with him on Twitter (@stevenchung) and connect with him on LinkedIn.