The Tannenwald Foundation
The Theodore Tannenwald Jr. Foundation for Excellence in Tax Scholarship was formed in March of 2000. It is named for the late Judge Theodore Tannenwald, Jr., who served on the United States Tax Court for almost 35 years. Throughout his tenure on the bench, Judge Tannenwald distinguished himself as one of the foremost tax jurists of our time. He authored more than 1,000 opinions and served as the Chief Judge of the Court from 1981-83. In addition to continuing charitable and civic pursuits, he served as a member of the Council of the ABA Section of Taxation and taught law school courses in taxation at the University of Miami, the University of San Diego and George Washington University. In 1998 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the ABA Tax Section and delivered the Griswold Lecture to the American College of Tax Counsel. He was a revered colleague, mentor, counselor and friend to his law clerks, to fellow judges and their clerks, and to countless tax practitioners and academics of all ages.
The overriding purpose of the Foundation is to encourage and foster in law students the intense passion that Judge Tannenwald had for rigorous and insightful legal analysis, for precise legal writing, and for quality legal education. The Foundation’s primary activity is to sponsor, in conjunction with the American College of Tax Counsel, an annual law student writing competition for which cash prizes are awarded. Papers by both undergraduate and graduate law students are accepted. The winning papers are selected by a panel of tax professors and practitioners, and are generally published in The Tax Lawyer. In order to encourage the widest possible participation in the Competition and to maintain a consistently high level of quality for submitted papers, the Foundation has enlisted a dedicated group of tax professors throughout the country to help publicize the Competition and to work with interested students in developing topics and discussing drafts of their papers. Since the inception of the Competition in 2001, more than 600 papers have been submitted by students attending some 83 law schools throughout the country.
The Foundation is classified as a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
