Professor Kristin Hickman

Kristin Hickman

  • McKnight Presidential Professor in Law
  • Distinguished McKnight University Professor
  • Harlan Albert Rogers Professor in Law
  • Associate Director, Corporate Institute
310 Mondale Hall

Degrees

  • Trinity University, B.S.
  • Northwestern University, J.D.

Expertise

  • Administrative Law
  • Business Law
  • Federal Taxation
  • Statutory Interpretation
  • Tax Law
  • Tax Policy

Professor Kristin E. Hickman is a leading authority in the fields of tax administration, administrative law, and statutory interpretation. Her articles on these topics have appeared in the Columbia Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, and Duke Law Journal, among other publications. She co-authors the Administrative Law Treatise on federal administrative law with Richard J. Pierce, Jr. Her scholarly work has been cited several times in opinions of the United States Supreme Court and as well as regularly in lower court judicial opinions and court briefs.

In 2018-19, Professor Hickman served as Special Adviser to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in Washington, D.C.  She presently serves as one of forty public members and chair of the judicial review committee for the Administrative Conference of the United States. She has served as a member of the Governing Councils of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and the Minnesota State Bar Association Administrative Law Section. She is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.

Professor Hickman joined the Law School in 2004. She held the Law School's Julius E. Davis Chair in Law in 2010-11, was the Donald C. Alexander Visiting Professor in Tax Law at Harvard Law School for the 2012-13 academic year, and also taught at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law as a Visiting Assistant Professor in 2003-04. She was a Vance Opperman Research Scholar for summer 2020 and the Stanley V. Kinyon Tenured Teacher of the Year for the 2016-17 academic year.

Professor Hickman received her B.S. degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting and a second major in history from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. After practicing for several years as a certified public accountant, she earned her J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law, where she was awarded the Raoul Berger Prize and the Lowden-Wigmore Prize. Following law school, Professor Hickman clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and practiced law as an associate with the Chicago office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, concentrating on corporate and international tax transactions and matters.

Basic Federal Income Tax


Law Review: Research & Writing


Constitutional Law: Federalism and Separation of Powers


Legislation and Regulation - 1L


Legislation and Regulation


Advanced Administrative Law


Law Review Editors


Originalism


Books

Administrative Law Treatise (Wolters Kluwer, 6th ed., 2019; 7th ed., 2024)
(with
Richard J. Pierce, Jr.
)
Federal Administrative Law: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press, 2023)
(with
Richard J. Pierce, Jr.
and
Christopher J. Walker
)
Understanding Administrative Law (Carolina Academic Press, 7th ed., 2022)
Federal Administrative Law: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press, 2010; 2d ed., 2014; 3d ed., 2020)
(with
Richard J. Pierce, Jr.
)
Cumulative Supplement to Administrative Law Treatise (Wolters Kluwer, 5th ed., annually 2014 - )
(with
Richard J. Pierce, Jr.
)

Journal Articles

Applying the Regulatory Report Card to Tax Regulations, Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis (forthcoming 2023)
(with
Bridget C.E. Dooling
)
Textualism and the Administrative Procedure Act, 98 Notre Dame Law Review 2071 (2023)
(with
Mark R. Thomson
)
The Roberts Court's Structural Incrementalism, 136 Harvard Law Review Forum 75 (2022)
ChatGPT Goes to Law School, 71 Journal of Legal Education 387 (2022)
(with
Jonathan H. Choi
,
An Overlooked Dimension to OIRA Review of Tax Regulatory Actions, 105 Minnesota Law Review Headnotes 454 (2021)
Foreword: Nondelegation as Constitutional Symbolism, 89 George Washington Law Review 1079 (2021) 
Narrowing Chevron’s Domain, 70 Duke Law Journal 931 (2021)
(with
Aaron L. Nielson
)
Categorizing Chevron, 81 Ohio State Law Journal 611 (2020)
(with
R. David Hahn
)
The Chevronization of Auer, 103 Minnesota Law Review Headnotes 103 (2019)
(with
Mark R. Thomson
)
To Repudiate or Merely Curtail? Justice Gorsuch and Chevron Deference, 70 Alabama Law Review 733 (2019)
Panel Effects in Administrative Law: A Study of Rules, Standards, and Judicial Whistleblowing, 71 SMU Law Review 445 (2018)
(with
Morgan Hazelton
and
Emerson H. Tiller
)
SOPRA? So What?: Chevron Reform Misses the Target Entirely, 14 University of Saint Thomas Law Journal 580 (2018)
Symbolism and Separation of Powers in Agency Design, 93 Notre Dame Law Review 1475 (2018)
Administrative Law's Growing Influence on U.S. Tax Administration, 3 Journal of Tax Admininistration 82 (2017)
Chevron's Inevitability, 85 George Washington Law Review 1392 (2017)
Restoring the Lost Anti-Injunction Act, 103 Virginia Law Review 1683 (2017)
(with
Gerald Kerska
)
Open Minds and Harmless Errors: Judicial Review of Post-Promulgation Notice and Comment, 101 Cornell Law Review 261 (2016)
(with
Mark Thomson
)
Pursuing a Single Mission (or Something Closer to It) for the IRS, 7 Columbia Journal of Tax Law 169 (2016)
The (Perhaps) Unintended Consequences of King v. Burwell, 2015 Pepperdine Law Review 56 (2015)
Administering the Tax System We Have, 63 Duke Law Journal 1717 (2014)
The Three Phases of Mead, 83 Fordham Law Review 527 (2014)
Unpacking the Force of Law, 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 465 (2013)
The Myth of the Magic Circle: Rejecting a Single Governance Model, 2 UC Irvine Law Review 537 (2012)
(with
Trey Hickman
)
Agency-Specific Precedents: Rational Ignorance or Deliberate Strategy, 89 Texas Law Review See Also 89 (2011)
Concepts, Categories, and Compliance in the Regulatory State, 94 Minnesota Law Review 1151 (2010)
(with
IRB Guidance: The No Man's Land of Tax Code Interpretation, 2009 Michigan State Law Review 239 (2009) (solicited symposium essay)
A Problem of Remedy: Responding to Treasury's (Lack of) Compliance with Administrative Procedure Act Rulemaking Requirements, 76 George Washington Law Review 1153 (2008)
Coloring Outside the Lines: Examining Treasury's (Lack of) Compliance with Administrative Procedure Act Rulemaking Requirements, 82 Notre Dame Law Review 1727 (2007)
In Search of the Modern Skidmore Standard, 107 Columbia Law Review 1235 (2007)
(with
Matthew D. Krueger
)
Of Lenity, Chevron, and KPMG, 26 Virginia Tax Review 905 (2007)
How Did We Get Here Anyway?: Considering the Standing Question in DaimlerChrysler v. Cuno, 4 Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy 47 (2006)
The Need for Mead: Rejecting Tax Exceptionalism in Judicial Deference, 90 Minnesota Law Review 1537 (2006)
Chevron's Domain, 89 Georgetown Law Journal 833 (2001)
(with
Thomas Merrill
)
The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Interpreting the Pennsylvania Uniformity Clause, 62 Albany Law Review 1695 (1999) (comment)
Should Advanced Pricing Agreements Be Published?, 19 Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business 171 (1998) (comment)

Book Chapters

Administering Tax Complexity versus Simplicity, in Tax Simplification 167 (Chris Evans, Richard Krever & Peter Mellor, eds., Wolters Kluwer, 2015)
The Promise and the Reality of U.S. Tax Administration, in The Delicate Balance: Tax, Discretion and the Rule of Law 39 (Chris Evans, Judith Freedman & Richard Krever, eds., IBFD, 2011)

Other Publications

Exempting Tax Rules From White House Review Is a Step Backward, Bloomberg Tax, July 6, 2023
Of Nondelegation, Privatization, and Horseracing, 48 Administrative & Regulatory Law News 18 (Spring 2023)
Sixth Circuit Examines the FDIC's Constitutionality, 48 Administrative & Regulatory Law News 11 (Fall 2022)
The Federal Tax System's Administrative Law Woes Grow, 41 ABA Tax Times 6 (2022)
Addressing Significant Comments in Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking, 47 Administrative & Regulatory Law News 35 (Winter 2022)
The Federal Tax System's Continuing Administrative Law Challenges, The 2022 Tax Institute (Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2022)
The Sixth Circuit Invalidates IRS Subregulatory Guidance, 47 Administrative & Regulatory Law News 12 (Summer 2022)
Perhaps We Should Sweat the Small Stuff, Jotwell (Dec. 2021)
More on Bump Stocks, Chevron, and the Rule of Lenity, This Time From the Sixth Circuit, 46:4 Administrative & Regulatory Law News 14 (Summer 2021)
Improving Agency Litigation Webpages, The Regulatory Review - Opinion 203 (2021)
(with
Mark Thomson
)
Artificial Intelligence Meets Simplexity, Jotwell (Apr. 2021)
Tenth Circuit Takes Up, Then Turns Away From, Categorizing Chevron, 46:3 Administrative & Regulatory Law News 14 (Spring 2021)
Tenth Circuit Rejects Allegations of Biased Decisionmaking When an Agency Pursues Related Rulemaking and Adjudication Simultaneously, 46:2 Administrative & Regulatory Law News 32 (Winter 2021)
The Future of Chevron Deference, 70 Duke Law Journal 1015 (2021) (foreword to the Duke Law Journal’s annual symposium on administrative law)
(with
Aaron L. Nielson
)
Pursuing Good Rather than Harm with the EITC and CTC, Jotwell (Oct. 2020)
245A and T.D. 9865: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back for Temporary Treasury Regulations?, 11:1 Columbia Journal of Tax Law (Mar. 18, 2020) (Tax Matters commentary)
A New Kind of Public/Private Partnership, Jotwell (May 2020)
Does the Anti-Injunction Act Preclude Pre-Enforcement Judicial Review of Administrative Procedure Act Challenges to Internal Revenue Service Rules and Regulations? (19-930), 48:3 Preview of U.S. Supreme Court Cases 24 (2020) 
(with
Gerald Kerska
)
Refashioning Anti-Abuse Doctrines as Substantive Canons, Jotwell (Sept. 2019)
In Praise of Practical Scholarship, Jotwell (Apr. 2019)
Bridging Exceptionalism and Anti-Exceptionalism with the JCT Canon, Jotwell (Dec. 2018)
Administrative Law Scholarship in Our Present Political Moment, Jotwell (May 2018)
The Upsides and Downsides of Ending Chevron Deference, 154 Tax Notes 1287 (2018)
(with
Steve R. Johnson
,
Joseph B. Judkins
and
Donald B. Susswein
)
Thoughts on Statutory Interpretation - For Tax Specialists, Too, Jotwell (Jan. 2017)
Separation of Powers Bill Has Wrong Target, San Francisco Daily Journal, Aug. 30, 2016, at 10
The Proposed Separation of Powers Restoration Act: Why?, 41 Administrative & Regulatory Law News 6 (Summer 2016)
The IRS’s Multi-Mission Mismatch Problem, 150 Tax Notes 1349 (Mar. 14, 2016)
Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies: 2013 National Lawyers Convention Showcase Panel III: Formalism and Deference in Administrative Law, 39 University of Dayton Law Review 353 (2015)
(with
Jide O. Nzelibe
,
Thomas W. Merrill
,
Philip A. Hamburger
and
Jennifer Walker Elrod
)
Goodbye Tax Exceptionalism, 12:3 Engage: The Journal of the Federalist Society's Practice Groups 4 (Nov. 2011)
Swallows Holding Ltd. v. Commissioner: Limited Progress in Rejecting Tax Exceptionalism in Administrative Law, 9:2 Engage: The Journal of the Federalist Society's Practice Groups 4 (June 2008)
The Administrative Law of Borrowed Regulations: Legal Questions Regarding the Bankruptcy Law's Incorporation of IRS Standards, 1 Norton Bankruptcy Law Adviser 1 (2008) (solicited)
(with
Matthew Stephenson
)
Letter to the Editor: Chevron Isn't the Answer to APA Question, 117 Tax Notes 533 (Oct. 29, 2007)
Taxpayer Standing and DaimlerChrysler v. Cuno: Where Do We Go from Here?, 110 Tax Notes 863 (Feb. 20, 2006)
(with
Donald B. Tobin
)
DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno and the Constitutionality of State Tax Incentives for Economic Development, 7:1 Engage 1 (Mar. 2006)
Foreword: DaimlerChrysler v. Cuno, 4 Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy 15 (2006) (Symposium on DaimlerChrysler v. Cuno and the Constitutionality of State Tax Incentives for Economic Development)
(with
Sarah Bunce
)
Our State Wants Your Company: Tax-Incentives Case Reaches the High Court, Perhaps with the Wrong Plaintiffs, Legal Times, Mar. 6, 2006, at 28 (solicited article evaluating DaimlerChrysler v. Cuno)
Associate Director
Corporate Institute
Faculty Advisor
Minnesota Law Review