Education:

LL.M., New York University (Taxation)
J.D., University of Pennsylvania
M.A., University of Pennsylvania (Business and Applied Economics)
B.S., West Chester University

Samuel Thompson joined Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law in July 2007 as a professor of law and the founder and director of Penn State’s Center for the Study of Mergers and Acquisitions. The Center examines corporate, securities, tax, antitrust, and other legal and economic issues that arise in mergers and acquisitions and hosts continuing legal education programs addressing these issues. For example, in October 2007, the Center will co-sponsor with the New York City Bar the Fourth Annual Institute on Corporate, Securities, and Related Aspects of Mergers and Acquisitions, which will be held in the Bar’s facility in New York City.

Professor Thompson, who previously was a professor of law at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law and director of the UCLA Law Center for the Study of Mergers and Acquisitions, is a highly regarded scholar of corporate and international tax, corporate governance, and antitrust and is the author of sixteen books and more than 75 articles. His teaching interests focus on the corporate, securities, tax, and antitrust aspects of mergers and acquisitions as well as international tax, investment banking, taxation of business entities, and economic growth policy.

Throughout his distinguished career, Professor Thompson has held a number of notable positions, such as head of the tax department of Schiff Hardin & Waite in Chicago; tax policy advisor, on behalf of the U.S. Treasury Tax Assistance Office, to the South African Ministry of Finance in Pretoria, South Africa; Attorney Fellow in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Merger and Acquisitions Office; consultant on merger and acquisition issues to the Federal Trade Commission; and professor in residence at the European Commission’s Antitrust Merger Taskforce in Brussels. On several occasions he has testified about tax policy before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means and the House Judiciary Committee. He formerly served as dean of the University of Miami School of Law and has been a professor and distinguished visiting professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and the Jacquin D. Bierman Visiting Professor of Taxation at Yale Law School.

As a law student, Professor Thompson worked on a university-sponsored civil rights project near Leland, Mississippi, before beginning service as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, where he rose to captain and received the Navy Commendation Medal for service in Vietnam. He played varsity football at his undergraduate school, West Chester University.

Contact Information:
Email: sct13@psu.edu
Phone: (814) 865-9029

Selected Publications:

Books

Business Planning for Mergers and Acquisitions, 3d ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2008.

U.S. International Tax Planning and Policy: Including Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions, Carolina Academic Press, 2007.

Corporate Taxation through the Lens of Mergers & Acquisitions, Carolina Academic Press, 2005 (2006 Supp.).

Citizen's Guide to U.S. Economic Growth, and to the Bush-Kerry Economic Debate, iUniverse, September 2004.

Taxation of Business Entities, 2nd Edition, West Publishing, August 2001.

A Practitioner's Guide to the Economics of the Antitrust Merger Guidelines, American Law Institute, ABA , 1997.

Articles

“How Should Congress React to Bush's Tax Proposals?” Tax Notes, 2007.

“Despite Widespread Opposition, Congress Should Codify the Economic Substance Doctrine,” Tax Notes, 2006.

“The Case for Tax Sparing Along with Expanding and Limiting the Subpart F Regime,” George Washington International Law Review, 2003.

“South African Perspectives: Its Prospects and Its Income Tax System,” Chicago Journal of International Law 2000.