The American Association of Law Schools’ taxation section has chosen Reuven Avi-Yonah, the Irwin I. Cohn Professor of Law, to receive its Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award “honors an individual who has had a distinguished career of teaching, service, or scholarship. The award celebrates the recipient’s profound impact on the field through influential scholarship, policy advocacy, outstanding service to the academy, or dedication to promoting the study of tax law, whether through educating students or mentoring emerging scholars,” according to the award letter.
“The nomination materials spoke not only to the depth and reach of your scholarship and its influence on tax policy well beyond the academy, but also to your extraordinary generosity as a mentor, particularly to the many international LLM and SJD students whose careers you have helped launch.”
Avi-Yonah will share the award with Robert Peroni of the University of Texas School of Law. It will be presented at a ceremony at the AALS conference in New York in January.
“The award means a lot because it recognizes many years of hard work and mentoring students, but I find it a bit strange because I am definitely not done yet,” Avi-Yonah said.
“We are pleased that the AALS has recognized Reuven’s significant contributions to the field of tax law,” said Neel U. Sukhatme, David A. Breach Dean of Law and professor of law. “Beyond being a prolific scholar and world-renowned expert, he is a trusted guide for many of our students, especially in the international tax program. ”
Avi-Yonah specializes in corporate and international taxation. He has served as a consultant to the US Department of the Treasury and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
He has published more than 250 books and articles, including The International Tax Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2025), Advanced Introduction to International Tax Law (Elgar, 2019), Global Perspectives on Income Taxation Law (Oxford University Press, 2011), and International Tax as International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Avi-Yonah is a member of the American Law Institute, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the American College of Tax Counsel, and an international research fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Business Taxation. In addition to prior teaching appointments at Harvard University (law) and Boston College (history), he has practiced law with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York; with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York; and with Ropes & Gray in Boston.