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Jennifer Bird-Pollan Photo
Location
Room 151 College of Law
Phone
(859) 257-3325
Email
jbirdpollan@uky.edu

Professor Bird-Pollan joined the faculty in 2010 and is now the Judge William T. Lafferty Professor of Law. She teaches Federal Income Tax, Estate & Gift Tax, International Tax, Partnership Tax, Corporate Tax, and a Seminar in Tax Policy. Professor Bird-Pollan’s research lies at the intersection of tax law and philosophy, specifically with regard to the taxation of wealth transfers and issues of sovereignty in international taxation. 

Professor Bird-Pollan received her JD from Harvard Law School, her PhD in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University, and her BA in Philosophy and French from Penn State University. Before law school she taught undergraduate philosophy courses at Vanderbilt and at Harvard College.

Prior to coming to UK, Professor Bird-Pollan practiced law as an attorney in the tax department of the law firm of Ropes & Gray in Boston, focusing primarily on partnership tax and non-profit tax law.

Professor Bird-Pollan won the College of Law Duncan Teaching Award in 2017, and served as the 2014-2015 Fulbright Visiting Professor at the Vienna University of Business and Economics in Vienna, Austria.  She has been a visiting professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law and the University of Cologne. A member of the Kentucky chapter of the New Leaders Council and a Kentucky Colonel, Professor Bird-Pollan assists with the College of Law VITA program, and serves as the faculty advisor to the Tax Law Society and the Women’s Law Caucus.  In 2018, Professor Bird-Pollan was elected Chair of the University Senate Council at UK.

Specialties

  • U.S. Federal Income Taxation
  • Tax Policy
  • Wealth Transfer Taxation
  • Philosophy and Tax Law

Courses

  • Law 865 Estate and Gift Taxation and Planning
  • Law 937 International Tax
  • Law 860 Taxation I
  • Law 861 Partnership Tax
  • Law 863 Corporate Tax
Books & Book Chapters
  • Rewritten Opinion of Magdalin v. Commissioner, in Feminist Tax Judgments (Cambridge Univ. Press, forthcoming 2017).
  • Philosophical Foundations of Wealth Transfer Taxation, in Philosophical Foundations of Tax Law (Oxford Univ. Press, 2017).
Scholarly Articles
  • Utilitarianism and Wealth Transfer Taxation, 69 Ark. L. Rev. 695 (2016).
  • Why Tax Wealth Transfers?: A Philosophical Analysis, 57 B.C. L. Rev. 859 (2016).
  • Electing Fairness: A Check-the-Box-Style Regime for Same-Sex Couples' Tax Filing Status, 6 Elon L. Rev. 251 (2014).
  • Unseating Privilege: Rawls, Equality of Opportunity, and Wealth Transfer Taxation, 59 Wayne L. Rev. 713 (2014).
  • Death, Taxes and Property (Rights): Nozick, Libertarianism, and the Estate Tax, 66 Me. L. Rev. 1 (2013).
  • The Unjustified Subsidy: Sovereign Wealth Funds and the Foreign Sovereign Tax Exemption, Fordham J. Corp. & Fin. L. 987 (2012).
  • Who's Afraid of Redistribution? An Analysis of the Earned Income Tax Credit, 74 Mo. L. Rev. 251 (2009).
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