DETROIT (June 23, 2008) - Wayne State University Law School is pleased to announce the appointment of Associate Professor Linda M. Beale as Director of Graduate Studies.

Linda M. Beale

"On behalf of the Law School, I would like to congratulate Professor Beale on her appointment and thank her for undertaking another pivotal role at Wayne Law," said Wayne Law Dean Robert M. Ackerman. "Professor Beale's commitment to the success of this Law School and her dedication to providing students with the best opportunities possible make her an ideal candidate to lead our LL.M. program."

As Director of Graduate Studies, Professor Beale is now responsible for overseeing a significant resource for practicing lawyers in Michigan - a program that provides advanced study in three popular fields of specialization including corporate and finance law, labor and employment law, and taxation. She will also continue in the classroom, teaching courses in partnership and income taxation.

Professor Beale received a B.S. degree in chemistry magna cum laude from Duke University, an M.A. and Ph.D. in linguistics from Cornell, where she was a Herbert Lehman Fellow, a J.D. summa cum laude from Cornell Law School, and an LL.M. in taxation from New York University.

Prior to her entry in law teaching, Professor Beale clerked with Judge Dorothy Nelson on the Ninth Circuit and worked at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York as a tax associate. Her work with Cleary's many financial institution and multinational corporate clients included a wide range of tax issues such as securitizations, partnerships, and cross-border corporate mergers and acquisitions. She has also served as a congressional staffer, a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia, and a university administrator at Binghamton University.

Professor Beale's scholarship has focused on various aspects of corporate tax shelters, proposing more transparent financial reporting of aggressive tax transactions and higher standards for taxpayers and tax advisers as a means of discouraging the tax minimization norm that facilitates aggressive tax positions. Her scholarship can be accessed through SSRN at http://ssrn.com/author=83521.

She also maintains a blog, www.ataxingmatter.us, dedicated to discussion of tax and budgetary matters in the context of the demands of democratic egalitarianism.

Professor Beale succeeds Professor Peter Henning, who graciously filled in as Director since Professor Stephen Calkins' departure for the Provost's Office in January 2008.

Wayne State University Law School has served Michigan and beyond since its inception as Detroit City Law School in 1927. Located in Detroit's re-energized historic cultural center, the Law School remains committed to student success and features modern lecture and court facilities, multi-media classrooms, a 250-seat auditorium, and the Arthur Neef Law Library, which houses one of the nation's 30 largest legal collections. Taught by an internationally recognized faculty, Wayne Law students experience a high-quality legal education via a growing array of hands-on curricular offerings, live-client clinics, and access to well over 100 internships with local and non-profit entities each year. Its 11,000 living alumni, who work in every state of the nation and more than a dozen foreign countries, include leading members of the local, national and international legal communities. For more information, visit www.law.wayne.edu.