Professor of Law
Co-Director, Center for International and Comparative Law

Henry Ordower says his Ph.D. studies in Scandinavian languages helped pave the way for his studies in tax law. “There’s no language quite so foreign as the Internal Revenue Code,” he jokes.

In his more than 25 years of teaching and scholarship, Professor Ordower has established himself as an expert in deciphering tax codes. He has written numerous articles in domestic and international publications on developments and complexities in U.S. taxation, estate planning, compensation deferral, trusts, private investment companies and securities regulation. He lectures frequently both at home and abroad, primarily in Germany and China. He has traveled to approximately 120 countries and is fluent in two languages other than English, and conversant in eight others.

Professor Ordower’s most current scholarship explores both fundamental taxation concepts of capitalization and deduction and moderating power disparities in the delivery of legal services. In a recent publication, he argues that the zealous representation model of contemporary legal practice — with its emphasis on primacy of the client — causes lawyers to assist and motivate their clients to exploit clients’ power advantages in non-litigation contexts.

Ordower joined the School of Law in 1977 after two years of practice in tax law. “Tax law is extremely challenging — like a puzzle,” he says. “And its impact is enormous. Taxes both reflect and drive social policy.”

Professor Ordower sees himself as a mixture of theoretician, teacher and practitioner. He maintains an active practice in the private sector on taxation matters that include corporate and partnership transactions, tax shelters, investment pools and estate planning. “I think it essential to continue practice alongside teaching in tax law because so much of the theoretical development emerges from the practice,” says Ordower.