Legal Director

Description

The Tax Law Center at the NYU School of Law seeks a Legal Director to work closely with the Executive Director to lead the Center’s rigorous, high-impact tax legal work in the public interest. As the Center’s most senior tax law specialist, the Legal Director will help shape and build the Center’s program and public interest role in tax law, working with and further building an exceptional tax legal staff.  

You are a tax lawyer with extensive experience in US federal tax law or policymaking processes and a deep commitment to advancing equity through taxation. You are excited to help develop, lead, and supervise the Center’s substantive work program across a broad range of issue areas spanning: legislation, regulation, and controversy aimed at shaping law and policy and strengthening the processes and institutions that make tax law. You have excellent tax legal skills and are a clear, persuasive writer and communicator.  

Responsibilities  

The Legal Director, who will report to the Executive Director, will be responsible for:  

• Helping to set the Tax Law Center’s strategy and craft its work agenda. This will include leading the design and implementation of systems for identifying and prioritizing projects that best further the Center’s mission.  

• Driving the Center’s work forward. This includes contributing to original work, managing the Center’s legal staff, and building collaborations with external partners.  

• Ensuring that the Center’s work is consistently rigorous, coherent, and mission-driven. The Legal Director will supervise program work to ensure that it meets the Center’s high -quality standards, and is coherent and consistent with the Center’s mission, body of work, and future plans. The Legal Director will be responsible for approving certain legal work, developing processes for quality control and evaluating impact, and ensuring this learning improves future work.  

• Shaping and communicating the Center’s positions. The Legal Director will shape the Tax Law Center’s substantive positions; communicate with stakeholders including policymakers; build relationships with external experts and partners, the Center’s advisory board, funders, and media; and review funding proposals.  

Depending on experience and background, the Legal Director would also be responsible for: 

• Managing the Tax Law Center’s legal staff (including Senior Attorney Advisors, Attorney Advisors and Fellows). The Center has already attracted exceptional legal staff in a number of areas. The Legal Director will identify and hire for needed skills and perspectives; supervise and mentor a collaborative and inclusive team; and strengthen internal practices for skill-building, professional development, and current awareness.  

Requirements  

• A commitment to advancing the mission of the Center.   

• JD or equivalent and extensive experience working on US federal tax law and policy.  

• At least ten years of legal tax experience.  

• Deep expertise in tax law, plus a desire and demonstrated ability to work widely across different tax issue areas (ranging from, for example, individual taxation to corporate taxation), and across different aspects of tax law (legislation, regulation, controversy, and processes/institutions).  We do not expect candidates to be expert across all aspects of tax, but are looking for an interest in and demonstrated ability to: quickly understand issues outside of areas of your direct expertise; be briefed by and make judgments based on input from staff and external experts; and draw connections between work in different issue areas in order to execute a coherent work program.  

• Excellent judgment about how to navigate and weigh complex and uncertain policy and procedural considerations. This means the capacity for effective decision-making, as well as the ability to understand competing concerns and solve problems of substantial impact, sensitivity, and complexity. 

• An extensive track record of developing and maintaining strong working relationships with tax experts, such as tax practitioners, tax academics, or government tax practitioners.  

• Demonstrated skill in furthering equity in operational and substantive work. 

• Excellent communication skills, including ability to draft and review a range of outputs including draft legislation, regulations, comments, briefs, and reports; and the ability to communic