Education

• Bryn Mawr College A.B. 1987
• New York University School of Law J.D. 1990
• New York University School of Law LL.M. 1993

Background

• Recipient, Indiana University Maurer School of Law Trustees' Teaching Award, April 2023
• One of the 10 most frequently cited tax scholars, 2016-2020, 2013-2017, 2010-2014, 2009-2013, 2005-2010, according to Brian Leiter's Law School Reports
• Co-host of internationally attended Indiana/Leeds Summer Tax Workshop Series, 2020 & 2021
• Recipient, Tracy M. Sonneborn Award (from Indiana University), 2019
• Recipient, Fulbright Research Grant, University of Luxembourg, 2019
• American Bar Association Section of Taxation, Tax Policy and Simplification Committee, Vice-Chair, July 2017 to October 2018
• Member, American Law Institute, 2018–
• Indiana University Overseas Conference Grants for European Association of Tax Law Professors (EATLP) meetings, 2014 (Istanbul) and 2015 (Milan)
• Recipient, Leon H. Wallace Teaching Award, 2012
• Elected Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, 2011
• Member, Executive Committee, Tax Section of the Association of American Law Schools
• Member, Board of Directors, National Tax Association, November 2009 to November 2012
• Recipient, IU Maurer School of Law Trustees' Teaching Award, April 2009
• Chair, Teaching Taxation Committee of A.B.A. Section of Taxation, July 2007 to June 2009
• Past member, Green Bag Almanac & Reader, Board of Advisors
• Received New York University School of Law Alumni Association Legal Teaching Award, April 2005
• Received American Tax Policy Institute research grant for tax compliance project, August 2002
• Received her LL.M. from New York University School of Law, where she was a student editor of the Tax Law Review
• Earned her J.D. cum laude in 1990 from New York University School of Law, where she was a note and comment editor of the N.Y.U. Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif
• Received her A.B. cum laude in 1987, with honors in her major, from Bryn Mawr College

Biography

Professor Lederman joined the Maurer faculty in 2004 as the William W. Oliver Chair in Tax Law. She became an emerita professor in 2023. Lederman is an award-winning teacher and scholar. In 2019, Professor Lederman was awarded the Tracy M. Sonneborn Award by Indiana University. This award is given to “an exemplary researcher who is also well known as an exemplary teacher.” Also in 2019, Lederman had a Fulbright research grant at the University of Luxembourg. In 2009 and 2023, Lederman received a Trustees' Teaching Award from the Maurer School of Law, and in 2012, she received its highest teaching award, the Leon H. Wallace Teaching Award. In 2005, she received the New York University School of Law Alumni Association Legal Teaching Award.

Before joining the Indiana Law faculty, Lederman spent 10 years teaching elsewhere, most recently at George Mason University School of Law, where she was recognized by George Mason University for excellence in teaching. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School, the University of Texas School of Law, and the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.

Lederman is one of the top ten most frequently cited U.S. tax law scholars, and is the only woman on that top-10 list. She co-authors Understanding Corporate Taxation, the fifth edition of which is forthcoming in 2025, and the Tax Controversies: Practice and Procedure casebook, now in its fourth edition. She has authored or coauthored over 60 scholarly articles, essays, and reports, including solo-authored articles published in the flagship law reviews of Duke, New York University, and Stanford Law Schools. In 2021, one of her articles was a winner of the Call for Papers Competition of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools.

Lederman is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. She is past Chair of the Executive Committee of the Tax Section of the Association of American Law Schools, and she has completed a term as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Tax Association. She is a past chair of the ABA Section of Taxation Teaching Taxation Committee and a past vice-chair of the Section’s Tax Policy and Simplification Committee.

Before entering academia, Lederman practiced law as an associate at the New York office of White & Case. She clerked for Judge David Laro of the United States Tax Court.

In the Media

• Cited in "IRS Needs to Take Additional Actions to Prepare for New Information Reporting Requirements," U.S. Government Accountability Office (9/1/2024)
• Quoted in "3 Ways Justices' SEC Fraud Ruling Could Affect Tax Disputes," Law 360 (8/30/2024)
• Cited in "LLC Argues Jarkesy Invalidates IRS's Civil Fraud Penalty," Tax Notes (8/14/2024)
• Cited in "NAM Urges Remand of Economic Substance Case to Consider Relevance," Tax Notes (5/7/2024)
• Cited in "Liberty Global Says Court Erred in Economic Substance Application," Tax Notes (5/2/2024)
• Cited in "Chevron Deference on Trial: Evaluating the Potential Impacts on Judicial Deference to Treasury Regulations," University of Cincinnati Law Review Blog (5/1/2024)
• Included in "2024 Tax Prof Rankings: Google Scholar H-Index All," TaxProf Blog (1/23/2024)
• Cited in "More Support Needed for EO enforcement, Tax Law Professor Says," Tax Notes (12/14/2023)
• Mentioned in "Lesson From The Tax Court: What Makes A NOD Invalid?," TaxProf Blog (10/23/2023)
• Cited in "ABA Urges 'Appropriate and Adequate' IRS Funding," Tax Notes (7/31/2023)
• Cited in "The IRS Funding Laid Bare: Experts Weigh In," Tax Notes (7/18/2023)
• Cited in "Taxpayer Reliance," Tax Notes (5/11/2023)
• Mentioned in "Lesson From The Tax Court: The Whistleblower Who Blew Too Hard," TaxProf Blog (3/27/2023)
• Cited in "When Organizational Culture Goes Wrong: A Federal Judge's Vivid Description of Cultural Decay Inside Theranos," Organizational Integrity Group Blog (1/9/2023)
• Included in "2023 Tax Prof Rankings By H-Index All (Google Scholar)," TaxProf Blog (1/9/2023)
• Included in "Tax Prof Rankings By H-Index All (Google Scholar)," TaxProf Blog (8/9/2022)
• Guest on "Episode Eight: Prof. Leandra Lederman," Talking Legal Ed (4/11/2022)
• Cited in "A Primer on Forum Selection Clauses," Transnational Litigation Blog (3/26/2022)

Selected works

Congressional testimony

• "The Importance of Enforcement to Taxpayer Fairness" (PDF and VIDEO): Testimony before the House Committee on Ways & Means Oversight Submcomittee in a hearing entitled, "Taxpayer Fairness," October 13, 2020

Selected publications

• Understanding Corporate Taxation, 5th ed. (with Emily Cauble). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press (forthcoming 2025)
• The Untold Tale of A Tax Rulings Haven, 29 Stanford J. Law, Bus. & Finance 1 (2024)
• Avoiding Scandals Through Tax Rulings Transparency, 50 Fla. State L. Rev. 219 (2023)
• Valuation As a Challenge For Tax Administration, 96 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1495 (2021) (symposium essay)
• The Fraud Triangle and Tax Evasion, 106 Iowa L. Rev. 1153 (2021)
• Information Matters in Tax Enforcement, 2020 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 145 (with Joseph C. Dugan)
• Understanding Corporate Taxation, 4th ed. (with Michelle M. Kwon). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2020
• Tax Controversies: Practice and Procedure, 4th ed. (with Stephen W. Mazza). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2018; 2019-2022 Supplements
• Does Enforcement Reduce Voluntary Tax Compliance?, 2018 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 623
• IRS Reform: Politics As Usual?, 7 Columbia Journal of Tax Law 36 (2016) (symposium)
• (Un)Appealing Deference to the Tax Court, 63 Duke Law Journal 1835 (2014) (symposium)
• Enforcement as Substance in Tax Compliance, 70 Washington & Lee Law Review 1679 (2013) (with Ted Sichelman)
• What Do Courts Have to Do With it? The Judiciary’s Role in Making Tax Law, 65 National Tax Journal 899 (2012) (symposium)
• The Use of Voluntary Disclosure Initiatives in the Battle Against Offshore Tax Evasion, 57 Villanova Law Review 499 (2012) (symposium)
• The Fight over “Fighting Regs” and Judicial Deference in Tax Litigation, 92 Boston University Law Review 643 (2012)
• A Tisket, A Tasket: Basketing and Corporate Tax Shelters, 88 Washington University Law Review 557 (2011)
• W(h)ither Economic Substance?, 95 Iowa Law Review 389 (2010)
• Reducing Information Gaps to Reduce the Tax Gap: When Is Information Reporting Warranted?, 78 Fordham Law Review 1733 (2010)
• Tax Appeal: A Proposal to Make the United States Tax Court More Judicial, 85 Washington University Law Review 1195 (2008)
• Statutory Speed Bumps: The Roles Third Parties Play in Tax Compliance, 60 Stanford Law Review 695 (2007)
• “Stranger Than Fiction”: Taxing Virtual Worlds, 82 New York University Law Review 1620 (2007)

Related links

• Social Science Research Network
• Google Scholar
• Publications
• Home page
• ORCID

Areas of expertise

• Tax law