Jeffrey Pennell

Jeffrey N. Pennell is the Richard H. Clark Professor of Law Emeritus at Emory University School of Law, where he has served since 1986. He received a B.S. in 1971 and a J.D. cum laude in 1975 from Northwestern University, achieving Order of the Coif, serving as Legal Writing Instructor, Senior Research Assistant for Professor Austin Fleming, and Executive Editor of the Northwestern University Law Review. He practiced as Trust Counsel Attorney at The Northern Trust Company in Chicago from 1975 to 1978. His teaching career began as Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Chicago in spring 1978, followed by Assistant Professor (1978-1981), Associate Professor (1981-1984), and Tenured Professor and Associates’ Distinguished Lecturer (1984-1986) at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. He held visiting appointments at Southern Methodist University (fall 1980), University of North Carolina (summer 1981), University of Texas (summer 1985), and University of Miami School of Law as Visiting Professor (1985-1986) and Visiting Adjunct Professor in the Graduate LL.M. Program in Estate Planning (1981-1993 and 1999-2017).

Pennell teaches Estate Planning, Trusts and Estates, Federal Income Taxation of Trusts, Estates, Grantors, and Beneficiaries, Federal Wealth Transfer Taxation, Fiduciary Administration, Fundamentals of Income Taxation, Property, Legal Profession, Tax Ethics and Malpractice. His publications focus on donative transfers, estate planning, ethics, and tax, including successor authorship of Casner & Pennell on Estate Planning (8th ed. 2021), Estate Planning and Drafting (West 2020), Federal Wealth Transfer Taxation (4th ed. 2003), and Income Taxation of Trusts, Estates, Grantors and Beneficiaries (West 1987). Other works encompass Tax Management Portfolios such as Estate Tax Marital Deduction (2015) and Spouse’s Elective Share (2018, with Cline and Turnipseed), and articles including “Individuated Determination of a Surviving Spouse’s Elective Share,” 53 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 2473 (2020), and annual “Recent Wealth Transfer Tax Developments” in USC Major Tax Planning (1998-2016). A Life Member of the American Law Institute, he advised Restatement (Third) of Property (Wills and Other Donative Transfers) and Restatement (Third) of Trusts. Honors include Academic Fellow and former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, Academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, former Council member of the ABA Real Property, Trust & Estate Section, and the 2011 NAELA John J. Regan Writing Award.

Professional Email: j.pennell@emory.edu