Charles Kingson, who taught in NYU Law’s Graduate Tax Program from 1979 to 2014 as an adjunct professor, passed away on February 26 at age 80. His courses included a survey of international tax. In Fall 2014, he taught his last NYU Law course, Classic Tax Cases, which he had led numerous times before. In the popular class, he examined the concept of tax ownership through leading cases.
Like many of his tax faculty colleagues, Kingson also worked as an active practitioner. In 1969 he began practicing at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, where he was a partner. Kingson left the firm briefly to serve as deputy international tax counsel in the US Treasury Department during the Carter administration. At Treasury, Kingson wrote the initial regulations under Section 367 of the Internal Revenue Code, which established rules related to reorganizations and liquidations involving foreign corporations.
Adjunct Professor Victor Zonana ’64, LLM ’66 worked at the Treasury Department at the same time as Kingson. “Charley was a brilliant tax lawyer with a gift not frequently seen these days,” Zonana recalls. “He was both a master of the technical details of some of the complex tax provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and a policy wonk. His quick and sharp mind led him to develop an interest in and focus on fundamental issues in the tax law.”
In 1996, Kingson delivered the inaugural David R. Tillinghast Lecture on International Taxation. Apart from his longstanding association with NYU Law, Kingson also taught at Columbia Law School, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Yale Law School. He was a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
Posted March 18, 2019