2024 Joanne M. Garvey Award Recipient: Ellen Aprill

Ellen Aprill is Senior Scholar in Residence at the Lowell Milken Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits.  She is also John E. Anderson Professor Emerita at LMU Loyola Law School.  Among other affiliations, Aprill is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, a member of the American Law Institute, the board of the American Tax Policy Institute, a member of the Executive Committee of the USC Federal Tax Institute, and a member of the Faculty Advisory Board of the Tannenwald Foundation for Excellence in Tax Scholarship. She formerly served as Vice Chair of the ABA Section of Taxation, Chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Tax Section, a member of the Board of Advisors of New York University National Center on Philanthropy and Law, and an advisor on the American Law Institute Restatement of the Law, Charitable Nonprofit Organizations. Aprill co-founded the annual Western Conference on Tax-Exempt Organizations, now in its 27th year.

Aprill was recently awarded the Vanguard Award for lifetime achievement in nonprofit law from the Nonprofit Organizations Committee of the ABA’s Business Law Section. She previously received the Dana Latham Award for outstanding contribution to the community and the legal profession from the Taxation Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. The Loyola Law Review is publishing a festschrift in honor of her career upon the occasion of her retirement.

Aprill’s articles have appeared in Duke Law Journal, Fordham Law Review, and Boston College Law Review, among many others. She is a frequent speaker on issues related to nonprofit organizations and other matters of tax policy. She is also frequently quoted on these topics in the media, including the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and Politico.

Aprill has taught several courses in the nonprofit field, as well as courses on federal income tax, federal estate and gift tax, and trusts and wills. Aprill was Associate Dean for Academic Programs at Loyola Law School from 2005 to 2009 and the founding co-director of the school’s tax LL.M. Program. Prior to joining Loyola Law School, she served in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy and worked for several years as a lawyer at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.  

Professor Aprill received her B.A. with High Honors and Distinction and her J.D. from Georgetown University magna cum laude. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for the Honorable John D. Butzner for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and for Byron R. White, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  She is a member of the Bar of the State of California.