E
lliott Manning is a man in the right place at the right time or sometimes in an interesting place at an interesting time. The professor of law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar for the Profession could have been an accountant, like his father, but a college aptitude test at Columbia University indicated he had a head for business, so he went on to Harvard to study business law. The Atlanta-born Manning met his Brooklyn-born wife, Gail, on a blind date in New York; she instantly knew he was the one, though it took him until the second date. Seven months later, they honeymooned in Cuba just as Fidel Castro and his milicianos descended from the mountains to celebrate the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista. The newlyminted Mrs. Manning wanted to stay on to watch the welcoming rally on July 26, 1959, but rumors of antiAmerican violence caused them to make a change in plans. Instead, the young marrieds headed for Port-auPrince, Haiti, where Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier had recently replaced the ousted President Paul Eugène Magloire. Years later, Manning would take a sabbatical from New York law firm life to teach for a semester at Stanford University. “I found that I liked teaching, and when the University of Miami needed someone to run the
Graduate Program in Taxation, my wife and I came here,” he says. “Elliot was an icon among New York corporate tax lawyers when he left practice to come to join the Miami faculty. As a young DC tax lawyer long before I had anything to do with Miami, I knew who Elliott Manning was!” “Elliott Manning drew on his experience practicing law in New York City in his commitment to enriching the education of his students,” says Francis Hill, professor of law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar for the Profession. “He encouraged and supported the work of his colleagues in tax and business, for which all of us are grateful. Although none of us shared his commitment to brightly colored sports shirts in indescribable patterns, we do share his commitment to students and his conviction that there is no point in being a tax lawyer unless one does it well,” Hill says. Looking back, Manning relishes the life he has led. He is most proud of teaching; in his 36 years at Miami Law, Manning taught more than 1,000
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By Catharine Skipp
lawyers-to-be, directed the topranked tax program for ten years, and was at the helm of the Real Property Development Program for six years when its founder Ralph Boyer retired. He is also not shy about his pre-Miami life as a partner at the historic Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and serving on the prestigious Commerce Clearing House Tax Advisory Board, headed by the internationally renowned tax expert Martin Ginsburg, husband of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While there, Manning wrote two of the tax and business books in a series. “I was honored to be asked to speak on his behalf at his retirement ceremony,” says Hogan Lovells’ Parker D. Thomson, a former classmate, and longtime Manning colleague. “Elliott agreed to join our firm here in Miami on a consultant basis. I don’t think he ever saw a legal problem he couldn’t solve and do so in a lucid manner understandable by those without his specialized knowledge and incredible memory for tax regulations, tax cases, and tax commentary. He is a friend, a colleague, and an absolutely brilliant person.” Manning was astonished when he realized how many students he had taught. “Just in my first four years, I taught Stuart Miller (president and CEO of the Lennar Corporation and former chair of the University of Miami Board of Trustees) and Stephen Bittel (chair and founder of Terranova Corporation),” says Manning. Manning is not ready to give up being an educator just yet. He and Gail spent the summer traveling: first they took a three-week cruise from Barcelona to La Havre then a brief stop near Les Andelys. But after a little time off, he is looking for his next adventure.
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Photo by Jenny Abreu
Professor Elliott Manning’s Taxing Career
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