Initiative aims to improve research and prepare future tax lawyers
The Queen’s University Faculty of Law has shared its intention to establish an endowed tax law and policy professorship to support the law school’s tax law research, teaching, and public engagement at a crucial time for the Canadian tax system.
“More than just an academic appointment, this role would support sustained research, prepare future legal professionals to navigate an increasingly complex tax landscape, and contribute independent analysis to policy conversations that affect governments, businesses, and Canadians alike,” said Colleen Flood, Queen’s Law dean, in a news release.
“Academics don’t generally have a direct stake in the outcome, and they can take the time to really dig into the issues,” said Martin Sorensen, the federal finance department’s senior director of resources, investments, and innovation and a 1998 Queen’s Law graduate.
“They can ask why certain mechanisms exist, what alternatives might be available, and whether it’s time to take another look,” Sorensen added. “That kind of analysis is often difficult to do within the constraints of government or private practice.”
Queen’s Law explained that the planned endowed professorship will aim to help:
“Even experienced tax professionals must devote significant time and effort to tracking changes — from decisions at multiple court levels and policy developments in Canada and internationally — simply to ensure that advice to our clients remains current and reliable,” said Sunita Doobay, a 1992 Queen’s Law graduate.
Doobay is a Loopstra Nixon LLP partner who helps businesses, individuals, and families navigate domestic and cross‑border tax matters.
According to the law school’s news release, the tax environment is changing substantially, and tax law and legal practice are becoming increasingly complex amid global pressures and evolving economic and regulatory conditions.
“Tax systems were largely designed around economies in which labour income played a central role,” said Ivan Ozai, Queen’s Law associate professor and inaugural Faculty Scholar in Tax Law and Policy.
Queen’s Law explained that the factors influencing the current tax landscape include:
“The biggest tax‑related challenges that businesses face today are the sheer complexity of the tax legislation that applies to them and the frequency with which it changes,” said Firoz Ahmed, a 1984 Queen’s Law graduate, in the news release.
“The situation is even worse in a cross‑border context where a business is subject to the same challenges in multiple jurisdictions,” added Ahmed, who is a Lexpert-ranked corporate tax lawyer and partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.
“As artificial intelligence and digital technologies transform economic activity, governments around the world are increasingly confronting questions about inequality, wealth concentration, and the long-term sustainability of traditional tax bases,” Ozai said.
According to the law school, amid the forces impacting the present tax environment, tax law is becoming more globally integrated, more intimately linked with economic and regulatory decision-making, and more strategically significant.
“Tax law is the most important area of law — the only one that touches every part of society, at every stage of life, and even after death,” said Sorensen, echoing the sentiment of Eugene Rossiter, former chief justice of the Tax Court of Canada.
