Allison Christians

• Website: H. Heward Stikeman Chair in Tax Law
• View her CV and Publications
• Prof. Christians on Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@profchristians
• Prof. Christians on Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/ProfChristians

Biography

Allison Christians is the H. Heward Stikeman Chair in the Law of Taxation at the McGill University Faculty of Law. Her research and teaching focus on national and international tax law and policy issues, with emphasis on the relationship between taxation and economic development and on the role of government and non-government institutions and actors in the creation of tax policy norms.

Before entering academia, she practiced tax law at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York, where she focused on the taxation of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, restructurings and associated issues and transactions involving private and public companies, and at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York, where she focused mainly on private equity funds.

She taught at the University of Wisconsin Law School and Northwestern University School of Law before joining the Faculty of Law at McGill University in 2012.

She has written numerous scholarly articles, essays, and book chapters, as well as editorials, columns, and articles in professional journals, addressing national and international tax law and policy issues. Recent research focuses on the alignment of taxation with the sustainable development goals; evolving international norms of tax cooperation and competition; tax aspects of new technologies; and evolving conceptions of rights in taxation.

Her most recent scholarly works can be found at allisonchristians.com/pagecv.

Professor Christians is the author of ‘The Big Picture,’ a column for Tax Analysts’ Tax Notes International and regularly comments on developments in international tax law and policy on her blog, at allisonchristians.com/blog, and on Twitter as @profchristians. Her Introduction to Tax Policy Theory, written primarily for tax policy students, provides an open-source primer on the theoretical and practical goals of taxation.

In May 2014, she was awarded the John Durnford Prize in Teaching Excellence by the Law Student Association of McGill University, and in Fall 2018, she was awarded the Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Full Professor Category). She was named among the International Tax Review’s "Global Tax 50" in 2015, 2016 and 2020 for her influence and impact on taxation, and in 2018 was identified by Economia as one of the top 50 most influential sources of finance news and information in social media. She was elected as an associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law in July 2021.

Education

• JD, Columbia University School of Law 1999, James Kent Scholar, Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar
• LLM in Taxation, New York University School of Law, 2003

Employment

• H. Heward Stikeman Chair in Taxation Law, McGill University, Faculty of Law, 2012-
• Associate Dean (Research), McGill University, Faculty of Law, 2017-
• Full Professor, McGill University, Faculty of Law, 2017-
• Associate Professor, McGill University, Faculty of Law, 2012-2017
• Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School, 2011-2012
• Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School, 2005-2011
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Northwestern University School of Law, 2003-2005

Areas of Interest

Domestic and international tax law and policy, socio-economic rights, sustainable development, tax law and technology, international law and institutions.