Tax Law

Professor Brian Lepard

Brian D. Lepard Harold W. Conroy Distinguished Professor of Law

Professor Lepard is a leading expert in the fields of international law, human rights law, comparative law, and tax law.  He joined the faculty in 1995. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1983. At Princeton, he was named a Scholar of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and concentrated on the study of international law and organization, receiving a prize from the Woodrow Wilson School for his thesis on the development of the idea of the League of Nations in France during the First World War. Following his graduation from Princeton, he worked for three years as an international human rights law specialist at the United Nations Office of the Baha'i International Community, a non-governmental organization. In 1989, he received his J.D. degree from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Journal of International Law.  From 1989 until 1995 he practiced tax law as an associate with the Philadelphia-based law firm of Dechert Price & Rhoads, with a special focus on international tax law as well as exempt organizations law.

Professor Lepard has multidisciplinary scholarly and teaching interests in the fields of international human rights law; humanitarian intervention; international legal theory; comparative law, including comparative religious law; ethics; and tax and business law, including international tax law. He is the author of eight books and numerous articles relating to these diverse subject areas. Professor Lepard has spoken on the subjects of international law, human rights, and comparative law at conferences and other gatherings around the world, including in Albania, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, French Polynesia, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Professor Lepard holds the Harold W. Conroy Distinguished Professor of Law chair at the College of Law.  He is the faculty adviser for the Law College’s program of concentrated study on international human rights law.  He is a member of the editorial review boards of a number of academic journals, including The Journal of Human Rights, Religion and Human Rights:  An International Journal, and The Journal of Baha'i Studies. He currently serves as chair of the Committee on the Formation of Customary International Law of the American Branch of the International Law Association and has served as chair of the International Legal Theory Interest Group of the American Society of International Law.  He is a member of the International Board of Consultants of the Global Ethics and Religion Forum and of the Board of Advisors of Genocide Watch.  He has also served as faculty adviser to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bahá'í Association.

During the 2019-2020 academic year, Professor Lepard is teaching International Human Rights Law Seminar, Comparative Law: World Legal Systems and Their Relevance to U.S. Law and Practice, International Perspectives in the U.S. Legal System: Practicing Law in a Global Legal Environment, and Business Planning.

Professor Lepard is admitted to practice in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and before the U.S. Tax Court.  He is fluent in French and proficient in Portuguese. 

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Professor Bill Lyons

William H. Lyons Richard H. Larson Professor of Tax Law Emeritus

Mr. Lyons joined the faculty in 1981. He received his B.A. degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine in 1969 and his J.D. degree (Cum Laude, Order of the Coif) from Boston College Law School in Newton, Massachusetts in 1973. Mr. Lyons was a member of the law review publications staff during his second year at Boston College Law School and served as Coordinating Casenote and Comment Editor of the Annual Survey of Massachusetts Law during his third year. Admitted in Maine, Massachusetts, and Nebraska and to the Bar of the United States Tax Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Lyons practiced in Bangor, Maine from 1973 to 1981 with the law firm of Vafiades, Brountas & Kominsky. During the 1987-88 academic year, Mr. Lyons was a Professor-in-Residence in the Office of the Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C. He was a visiting professor at Boston College Law School, University of Miami School of Law, Vermont Law School, and the International Tax Center at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He twice taught comparative wills and trusts law as part of the summer program for study in Ireland sponsored by UNL, University of Kansas and University of Limerick. Until he took emeritus status in 2016, Mr. Lyons taught Business Planning, Individual Income Taxation, Corporate Taxation, Partnership Taxation, Tax Policy Seminar, Estate Planning, Estate Planning Problems, Wills & Trusts, and Legal Research & Writing.

Mr. Lyons is a Fellow and a former Regent of the American College of Tax Counsel. He has been a member of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation since 1974, and has held several positions in the Section, including Articles Editor (1982-1985), Managing Editor/Associate Editor in Chief of The Tax Lawyer (2007-2021), Chair of the Individual Investments and Workouts Committee (a predecessor of both the current Individual and Family Taxation Committee and of the current Tax Collection, Bankruptcy & Workouts Committee), and Co-Vice Chair of the Section's I.R.C. Section 108 Real Estate and Partnership Task Force. He served on the Publications Committee and the Appointments to the Tax Court Committee.

Mr. Lyons is the author of a chapter entitled “Financially Troubled Partnerships” in Collier on Bankruptcy Taxation, a co-author of Repetti, Lyons & Luke, Partnership Income Taxation (6th ed.), and a co-author of Duncan, Lyons & Wilson, The Law and Practice of Secured Transactions:  Working with Article 9, as well as the author of articles on various areas of taxation.

Mr. Lyons served as a Director of the Great Plains Federal Tax Institute for 30 years, and as President (1993 and 2003 and as Program Chair (1992 and 2002).

Mr. Lyons served as Chair of the annual John G. Gradwohl Estate and Business Planning Program until 2017.

His non-professional interests include amateur radio (his current call sign is W1LXE, held by his late uncle from 1938 until 2009) and writing baseball history (he is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research). He has published book chapters on one of the owners of the former Boston National League baseball team and on the last integrated baseball league in Nebraska prior to World War II.

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Timothy Moll

Timothy L. Moll Adjunct Law Professor

Timothy L. Moll is a partner with the law firm of Rembolt Ludtke LLP and works out of the firm’s offices in Seward and Lincoln.  He practices in the areas of taxation, municipal finance, entity planning, estate planning and probate administration.  He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Administration from Concordia College, Seward, Nebraska, and his Juris Doctor (with highest distinction) from the University of Nebraska College of Law.  He is an adjunct tax professor at the University of Nebraska College of Law and a regular presenter on tax and estate planning topics.  He is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a fellow of the Nebraska State Bar Foundation and a Board Member and past President of the Great Plains Federal Tax Institute.  He lives in Seward with his wife, Sara, and five children.  He is a member of The Rock Lutheran Church in Seward and serves on the Board of Regents for Concordia University Nebraska.  

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Adam Thimmesch

Adam Thimmesch Margaret R. Larson Professor of Law

Adam Thimmesch, Margaret R. Larson Professor of Law, joined the faculty in 2012. His research focuses on state tax policy and the impact of modern technology and markets on existing legal structure and on the states and their residents. His research has been placed in a variety of legal publications, including the Arizona State Law Journal, the Denver Law Review, the Florida Tax Review, the Temple Law Review, the Utah Law Review, and the Virginia Tax Review. Professor Thimmesch frequently speaks at academic and professional conferences around the country and is active in national organizations. He has served as a member of the executive committee of the American Association of Law Schools’ Section on Taxation since 2019 and will be its Chair in 2022. Thimmesch also served as the reporter for the Uniform Law Commission’s study committee on online sales taxation in 2020. Professor Thimmesch regularly testifies before state legislative committees and provides advice to legislators and policy groups on state tax matters. Within the law school, Professor Thimmesch serves as the faculty director of the Law+Business program. In that role, Thimmesch provides advice and programming for students who are interested in transactional law or in careers outside of the traditional practice of law. He also works with outside partners to build opportunities for law students to pursue career paths in those fields. Professor Thimmesch currently teaches Individual Income Taxation, State and Local Taxation, and Taxation of Business Entities within the law school and Business Law for the Honors Academy at the College of Business. He was voted the Professor of the Year by upper class law students in 2013, 2017, and 2018 and received a College Distinguished Teaching Award in 2014 and 2022. Professor Thimmesch worked at Faegre & Benson LLP in Minneapolis before joining the College of Law. His legal practice focused on tax and business matters, including structuring and negotiating domestic and international transactions, advising on state, federal, and international tax matters, and handling tax disputes before the Internal Revenue Service and state taxing agencies. He received his J.D. with highest distinction in 2005 from the University of Iowa College of Law, where he was an Articles Editor on the Iowa Law Review.

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