WILLIAM P. KRATZKE
A TAX LAW LEGEND Retires W
illiam P. Kratkze, Cecil C. Humphreys Professor of Law, announced his retirement from the University of Memphis School of Law this semester. He taught his last class this May. Professor Kratzke has been on the faculty of Memphis Law since 1979 and has served in various roles, including Interim Dean of the Law School. He received his BA in Political Science and the Far Eastern & Russian Institute from the University of Washington in 1971. He then received his JD from Valparaiso University in 1974 and was a member of the Valparaiso University Law Review’s editorial board. In 1977, he received his LLM from Georgetown University. He went on to serve as an Assistant Professor of Law at Oklahoma City University until he joined Memphis Law in 1979, where he has been an esteemed member of the faculty ever since.
46
UNIVERSIT Y OF MEMPHIS
Professor Kratzke was responsible for building the law school’s robust tax law curriculum while a member of the faculty and also established the Tax Law Certificate Program at Memphis Law. He has taught tax law courses to generations of students at Memphis Law. Additionally, he has taught courses across the curriculum, including trademarks, torts, civil procedure, world trade law, economic analysis and more. In 2021, Professor Kratzke coached the first-place team in the American Bar Association’s 21st Annual Law Student Tax Challenge Competition. Additionally, he was instrumental in helping the law school become an annual site for the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, where he and his students have offered free basic tax return preparation to hundreds of lowincome individuals, persons with disabilities and limited-English speaking taxpayers since 2013.
He is the co-author of three volumes of the nine-volume treatise Federal Antitrust Law, and has published scholarship on trademark law, The Federal Torts Claims Act, Tennessee administrative law, labor law, products liability law and Russian law. He is a member of the American Law Institute and was a Fulbright Scholar in 1997 and again from 2001-2002. Memphis Law wishes Professor Kratzke the best in his well-earned retirement and genuinely thanks him for all of his years of dedicated service to Memphis Law and most importantly the many students he has helped educated over the years!