Experience

Washington and Lee University School of Law

• United States
• Higher Education
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Robert O. Bentley Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

  • Jan 2023 - Present

• Robert O. Bentley Professor of Law and Director, Tax Clinic

  • Jul 2020 - Present

• Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Tax Clinic

  • 2007 - Present

  Michelle Lyon Drumbl is the Director of the Tax Clinic and Clinical Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University. Her teaching and research interests focus on federal income taxation of individuals, tax procedure, and tax policy.As Director of the Tax Clinic, Professor Drumbl oversees students as they provide pro bono representation for low-income taxpayers who have post-filing controversies with the Internal Revenue Service and educate taxpayers about their tax rights and responsibilities. Under Professor Drumbl's supervision, clinic students represent clients before the IRS in examinations, collections, appeals, and a variety of other matters. The Tax Clinic also represents clients in deficiency cases in U.S. Tax Court and tax refund litigation in Federal District Court. Since 2008, the Tax Clinic has been awarded more than $800,000 in federal funds from the Internal Revenue Service's Low Income Taxpayer Clinic grant program.Professor Drumbl's scholarship focuses on the intersection of low-income taxpayers and fiscal policy, exploring such issues as filing status, innocent spouse relief, and return preparer fraud. Her book, Tax Credits for the Working Poor: A Call for Reform (Cambridge University Press, 2019) identifies shortcomings in how the United States delivers social benefits through its tax system and gazes elsewhere – to programs abroad – to reimagine possibilities for improving administration of the earned income tax credit and bolstering the credit’s effectiveness.Her articles have appeared or are forthcoming in the Temple Law Review, Tax Notes, the Florida Tax Review, the Columbia Journal of Tax Law, the Pittsburgh Tax Review, and the eJournal of Tax Research. Her article examining the nature and nuance of earned income tax credit noncompliance, Beyond Polemics: Poverty, Taxes, and Noncompliance, was awarded the Cedric Sandford Medal for best paper at the 12th International Conference on Tax Administration in Sydney. Show less



Office of Chief Counsel Internal Revenue Service

• Washington D.C. Metro Area

• Attorney

  • Sep 2002 - Sep 2005

  Attorney Advisor for the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (International) - Internal Revenue Service from September 2002 to September 2005. Dealt with various international tax issues including interpretation of bilateral income tax treaties. Attorney Advisor for the Office of Associate Chief Counsel (International) - Internal Revenue Service from September 2002 to September 2005. Dealt with various international tax issues including interpretation of bilateral income tax treaties.