Courses Offered:

Federal Income Taxation
State and Local Taxation
U.S. Taxation of International Transactions
State and Local Taxation Seminar

Professional Biographical Information:

Walter Hellerstein joined the University of Georgia School of Law faculty in 1978 and was named Francis Shackelford Distinguished Professor of Taxation Law in 1999. He teaches in the areas of state and local taxation, international taxation and federal income taxation.

Hellerstein has devoted most of his professional life to the study and practice of state and local taxation and is widely regarded as the nation's leading academic authority on state and local taxation. He is co-author, with his late father, of the leading treatise on state taxation, State Taxation vols. I & II 3rd ed. (Warren Gorham & Lamont, 1998 -2009) (with tri-annual updates), and of the leading casebook on state and local taxation, State and Local Taxation 9th ed. (Thomson/West, 2009) (with Stark, Swain & Youngman). He is also co-author with Richard Doernberg, et al., of  Electronic Commerce and Multijurisdictional Taxation (Kluwer Law International, 2001). In addition, he has written numerous law review articles on state taxation that have appeared in the Cornell Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Virginia Law Review, The Supreme Court Review, Tax Lawyer, Journal of Taxation, National Tax Journal, Tax Law Review, Tax Notes, State Tax Notes and other journals. Hellerstein's work is regularly cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and by state courts throughout the nation.

Hellerstein has also practiced extensively in the state tax field. He has been involved in numerous state tax cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, having successfully argued on behalf of taxpayers in both Hunt-Wesson, Inc. v. Franchise Tax Bd., 528 U.S. 458 (2000), and Allied-Signal, Inc. v. Director, Div. of Taxation, 504 U.S. 768 (1992). He has also been deeply involved in international cross-border tax issues, particularly with regard to consumption taxes. Hellerstein is an academic advisor to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (Committee on Fiscal Affairs, Working Party No. 9) on issues involving cross-border consumption taxation, and he is a member of the Working Party's Technical Advisory Group that is developing guidelines for taxation of cross border supplies of services and intangibles. He has consulted with the United Nations and the World Trade Organization on e-commerce issues and has lectured at the European Tax College in Leuven, Belgium and Tilburg, The Netherlands; the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and the University of Lyon (III) in Lyon, France.

Before joining the Georgia Law faculty, Hellerstein clerked for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, served in the Honors Program of the Air Force General Counsel's Office, practiced law at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., and taught at the University of Chicago Law School. He formerly was associated with Morrison & Foerster (1986-96), Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan (1996-98, 2004-08) and KPMG (1999-2004). He is a member of the American Law Institute and the District of Columbia, Illinois and New York bars.

In 2008, Hellerstein was awarded the National Tax Association's Daniel M. Holland Medal for outstanding lifetime contributions to the study and practice of public finance as well as being recognized by State Tax Notes as the nation's "Most Influential Academic" in State Taxation. In 2007, he received the Latcham Award for Distinguished Service in State and Local Taxation. He also received the Multistate Tax Commission's 25th Anniversary Award for Outstanding Contributions to Multistate Taxation in 1992.

Hellerstein earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard College (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and his law degree from the University of Chicago, where he was editor in chief of the University of Chicago Law Review.