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Richard B. Stephens

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(1917-1988)
“Founding father” of UF’s Graduate Tax Program

Richard B. Stephens

For more than 30 years, the University of Florida Graduate Tax Program has helped prepare students for careers in tax law, and it is widely recognized by tax scholars, practitioners and tax employers nationwide as one of the nation’s leading programs for the advanced study of tax law. Yet, if it hadn’t been for the vision and advocacy of Richard B. Stephens, UF’s outstanding Graduate Tax Program never would have been.

After earning his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1942, Stephens served in the U.S. Navy for one year before entering private practice with the prestigious Washington D.C. firm Covington & Burling. He served at the firm for six years, interrupted only by a term of service as an attorney with the U.S. Office of Military Government in Berlin on the staff of Charles Fahy, the principal U.S. legal officer in Germany.

Stephens joined the faculty at the University of Florida College of Law in 1949. Henry A. Fenn had just been named dean of the college, which had a faculty of nine at the time, and Stephens taught legal accounting, administrative law and corporations, as well as taxation. He was active with Law Review, helped the college achieve national academic recognition that led to Florida’s Order of the Coif chapter and served as faculty adviser to Phi Delta Phi.

Stephens recognized the growing need to increase the number of attorneys working in the area of taxation, which in the past had been solely the province of accountants. After the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913 and the institution of the federal income tax, there were few professionals who received training in, or worked with, taxation issues. This need and Stephens’ experience in private practice led to his interest in establishing a graduate tax program at UF.

Stephens later commented that some of his colleagues viewed his pursuit of a graduate tax program as “empire building.” He acknowledged that convincing Dean Fenn that the program would be successful was difficult because Fenn did not believe students would come to the University of Florida for graduate work. Nonetheless, Stephens persisted in advocating for a tax program and his dream became a reality in the fall of 1974 with the establishment of the Graduate Tax Program.

Stephens was known as being able to take a complex subject like taxation and make it accessible for students to understand.

“My approach could be summed up by saying, ‘They need all the help they can get,’ ” Stephens said. “It seems to me the height of absurdity to walk into a room and try to mystify people by parading your superior knowledge. Maybe four or five percent of the students will be with you, but I never felt that was enough. I worked pretty hard at making my classroom comments understandable to those who had carefully examined the material in advance. I felt they were entitled to that.”

The students certainly agreed. As a UF Law faculty member, Stephens received the first law student Outstanding Teacher Award and was the first law school faculty member to receive the Blue Key Distinguished Faculty Award. In 1985, Stephens was selected as Tax Lawyer of the Year by the Tax Section of The Florida Bar. He also authored a number of books, including: Fundamentals of Federal Income Taxation (co-authored with Stephen A. Lind and James J. Freeland); he also co-authored Income Taxation of Estates and Beneficiaries and The Federal Estate and Gift Taxes.

When the Tax Research Center at the Legal Information Center was named for him in 1986, Stephens said, “I’m enormously flattered that they would name it for me. It’s going to include some of the electronic marvels that have come about in recent years that I really don’t know anything about. But I’m pleased that that’s so. I think it will help keep us ahead and help the school do a very good job at teaching taxation.”

Professor Stephens retired in 1977, and became a visiting professor at the University of California at Davis, Martin Luther King School of Law. During this retirement, Stephens enjoyed managing his investments, taking long walks with his wife, Barbara, and golfing. Stephens passed away April 8, 1988 at the age of 71. He is survived by his daughter Susan Stephens Winn and his son, Richard Jr. (JD 72), an attorney at Holland and Knight; and five grandchildren.

Published: June 27th, 2014

Category: Alumni

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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.