How Lawyers Dominate: A History of the ABA Tax Section

Abstract

The story of how tax attorneys came to dominate the fields of tax policy and sophisticated tax practice is the success story of an organized professional association. The prominence of the role of attorneys in the development and practice of the tax law was not a foregone prerequisite of the U.S. federal income tax system. Rather, the professional organization of attorneys into a specialized group within bar associations has played a significant role in making lawyers the central players in tax policy and tax practice in the U.S. The history of the organization of tax lawyers demonstrates the extent to which the organized bar has played a role in “shaping and defining the larger context within which” the tax lawyer operates, and the ways in which the development and rise to power of the organized tax bar has been instrumental as an agent of change within the tax profession.