Erin Scharff

Erin Adele Scharff is an associate professor of law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.  She joined the faculty in 2014.  Previously, she was an acting assistant professor of tax law at New York University School of Law, where she served as an editor of the Tax Law Review.  

Scharff’s scholarship focuses on fiscal federalism, including the allocation of revenue authority between state and local governments, local government law, and state tax law.  Her recent publications have appeared in Stanford Law Review, Georgetown Law Review, New York University Law Review, and the Tax Law Review, among other journals.  As an expert on local fiscal authority, Scharff has written several amicus briefs on the legal authority of local governments to raise revenue under state constitutions.    

Professor Scharff is the immediate past chair of the AALS Tax Section.

After graduating magna cum laude from New York University School of Law, she clerked for the Honorable William A. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco.  Prior to law school, she worked as a researcher and advocate in Washington, DC. 

In addition to her academic work, Scharff is actively engaged in the Phoenix community and serves chair board of the Phoenix Legal Action Network, a legal services non-profit.  She is the mother to three rambunctious children.