Bruce Wolk

Buce Wolk Headshot

Position Title
Professor of Law Emeritus

King Hall
Bio

Professor Emeritus Bruce Wolk was well on his way to a career in physics, when he switched to the legal profession.

Says Wolk, former Dean of the School of Law, "There's a certain aesthetic pleasure in the beauties of mathematics and physics. There's very little beautiful in law. But it came to the point where I began to see my physics and math as very abstract and not allowing me to use my understanding of history and society and people in general. I felt too disconnected from the world."

Wolk, a Fulbright scholar turned, specializes in Federal income taxation, estate and gift taxation, and pension and employee benefit law. Pension and Employee Benefit Law, a casebook Wolk co-authored with Professor John Langbein of Yale, is the leading casebook in this burgeoning field. Wolk is a member of the American Law Institute.

Education and Degree(s)
  • B.S. Mathematics, Antioch College, 1968
  • M.S. Physics, Stanford University, 1972
  • J.D. Harvard University, 1975
Honors and Awards
  • Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, Munich, Germany, 1985-86
  • co-author (with Langbein) of Pension and Employee Benefit Law
  • member of the American Law Institute; Dean of the Law School 1993-1998
Research Interests & Expertise
  • Pension And Employee Benefits (Including Erisa)

Publications

Pension and Employee Benefit Law, 3d ed. (Foundation Press, 2000) (with J. Langbein)

Pension and Employee Benefit Statutes and Regulations: Selected Sections, (Foundation Press, 2005)

Teacher's Manual for Pension and Employee Benefit Law, 3d ed. (2000)

Pension and Employee Benefit Law, 2d ed. (Foundation Press, 1995) (with J. Langbein)

Teacher's Manual for Pension and Employee Benefit Law, 2d ed. (1995)

Pension and Employee Benefit Law, (Foundation Press, 1990) (with J. Langbein)

Teacher's Manual for Pension and Employee Benefit Law, 1990

Annual Supplements to Pension and Employee Benefit Law, 1990

The Golden Parachute Provisions: Time for Repeal?, 21 Va. Tax Rev. 125 (2001)

The Minimum Distribution Rules and Their Critical Role in Controlling the Floodgates of Qualified Plan Wealth, 2000 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 587 (2000)

Pensions and Passivity: A Comment, 56 Law & Contemp. Probs. 141 (1993)

Nondiscrimination in Contributions and Benefits: The New Regulations, 25 Ga. L. Rev. 71 (1990)

Taxation of Unfunded Deferred Compensation: A Comparison of the Federal Republic of Germany and the U.S. Systems, 6 Int'l Tax & Bus. Law. 1 (1988)

The New Excise and Estate Taxes on Excess Retirement Plan Distributions and Accumulations, 9 U. Fla. L. Rev. 987 (1987)

Discrimination Rules for Qualified Retirement Plans: Good Intentions Confront Economic Reality, 0 Va. L. Rev. 419 (1984)

The Pure Death Benefit: An Estate and Gift Tax Anomaly, 66 Minn. L. Rev. 229 (1982)

Federal Tax Consequences of Wealth Transfers Between Unmarried Cohabitants, 27 UCLA L. Rev. 1240 (1980)