“Our Graduate Tax Program is an exceptional program for students interested in a tax career, and we are grateful for all that Lavar Taylor and Taylor Nelson Amitrano LLP have done to support our students and our school,” said Austen Parrish, Dean and Chancellor’s Professor of Law.

“We are deeply honored by Lavar and Lynda Taylor’s extraordinary generosity in establishing this endowed scholarship that will benefit our graduate tax students for years to come,” said Natascha Fastabend, Executive Director of the Graduate Tax Program.

He has been an adjunct faculty member at the Law School, teaching & mentoring our students; he has launched career opportunities for our students through our externship program & post-graduate hiring program; & Lavar has been the title sponsor for every annual Grad Tax Program Symposium since 2019.

Lavar Taylor — the founder of Taylor Nelson Amitrano LLP, a Tax Controversy Law Firm — has been deeply supportive of the UC Irvine Law Graduate Tax Program since its launch in 2019. A true partner in every sense of the word, Lavar’s generosity extends to every facet of the Graduate Tax Program.

Each faculty member chose up to four recent publications showcasing the depth and impact of their research.

Sheppard Mullin
Troutman Pepper Locke
White & Case LLP
U.S. Air Force JAG Corps
U.S. Army JAG Corps
Venable LLP
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Special thanks to our Fall 2025 participants:

Immigrant Justice Corps
Orange County Counsel
Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum
Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Morrison & Foerster LLP
Pettit Kohn Ingrassia Lutz & Dolin PC

Panelists included:

🔷 Mei Tsang, Partner, Umberg Zipser LLP
🔷 Spencer Cross ’18, Attorney, Counsel for Creators LLP
🔷 José A. Hernández, Law Office of José Alfredo Hernández, APC
🔷 Brian Sutter ’20, Associate Attorney, Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian Law

Lauds & Laurels is one of the university’s oldest awards ceremonies, a tradition that has recognized more than 900 members of the UC Irvine community for their service to the university, the community or their profession, including these extraordinary members of the UC Irvine Law community in 2025:

Since 1971, the UC Irvine Alumni Association and its board of directors have presented Lauds & Laurels, the association’s highest honor at the University of California, Irvine.

🔷 Outstanding Faculty Achievement — Mario L. Barnes, Chancellor’s Professor of Law
🔷 Outstanding Staff Achievement — Patty Furukawa ’93, Assistant Dean & CIO/COO
🔷 Distinguished Alumni Award — Jiaxiao Zhang ’17, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Professor Zulfiqar presented his engaging talk on Law Between Self and Society: Collective Duties in Islamic Law — Past, Present, and Future.

Check out his most recent posts:

taxprofblog.aals.org/2025/11/05/h...

taxprofblog.aals.org/2025/11/05/t...

taxprofblog.aals.org/2025/11/05/n...

The Center’s mission will focus on three goals: to create workable frameworks for regulating the information economy in a variety of legal fields, incubate and elevate cutting-edge scholarship and advocacy in information policy, and re-imagine privacy in a surveillance-saturated world.

Through unique partnerships with advocacy organizations and deep contacts with policymakers, the Center is positioned to address pervasive surveillance, a vast array of information law problems, data-driven harms, the use of technology to entrench power, and the erosion of privacy rights.