The American Bar Association named Dennis Drapkin '68 the chair of its tax section last Tuesday after an annual meeting in Chicago.
As the new chair, he will lead approximately 18,000 tax lawyer members in public service, helping to improve the tax system and educating taxpayers about their rights and responsibilities under the tax laws.
"To tell you the truth, it has been transitioning gradually, so it wasn't like there was a lightening bolt, and I was endowed with supernatural powers," Drapkin said of his appointment as chair of the tax section.
"The difference is that now my e-mail is full of administrative matters that were not my responsibility beforehand, but I'm happy to do them."
With over 410,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.
It provides law school accreditation, ongoing legal education, information about the law to the public and programs to help both lawyers and judges in the administration of justice.
Drapkin previously served as the ABA vice chair for professional services and spent three years on the governing council of the tax section.
Drapkin is a partner in the Dallas Office of Jones Day, an international law firm which provides counsel for more than half of Fortune 500 companies, as well as privately held companies, investment firms, retail chains, health care providers and educational institutions.
"I decided to specialize in tax law soon after I started practicing," Drapkin said. "I've been very fortunate in the people that I've met and the projects that I've been involved in."
Honored by Euromoney International Tax Review as one of the top lawyers in the United States, Drapkin is also a member of the American Law Institute and the American College of Tax Counsel.
Prior to Jones Day, Drapkin served as attorney-advisor to the Tax Legislative Counsel. During the Carter administration, he was appointed special assistant to the assistant secretary of tax policy in the Office of Tax Policy of the United States Treasury Department. Drapkin described his experience at the U.S. Treasury Department as "one of the best things that ever happened to me, almost as great as being an undergraduate at Dartmouth."
Drapkin graduated summa cum laude with a major in engineering science and went on to earn his B.E. from the Thayer School of Engineering a year later.
"I had a pretty good suspicion by the time of my senior year that I wanted to be a lawyer, but I thought the Thayer School education would be a good idea regardless of what I ended up doing," Drapkin said.
Drapkin continued his education at Yale University, from which he received his law degree in 1972.
He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and went on to complete a Master of Laws degree at the London School of Economics in 1973.
Drapkin met his wife at Yale, also a graduate student at the university at the time. Their two eldest children graduated from Yale as well.
Drapkin said he hopes that his youngest daughter, who is just beginning high school, will attend Dartmouth.
In addition to his career, Drapkin has been continually active in alumni affairs for the College. He has served on the Alumni Council, as well as the Joint Committee on Alumni Governance and Trustee Nominations. Drapkin is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Dartmouth Club of Dallas.
"When I get to my office every morning, I always go to a couple of websites just related to keeping myself current, and one of them is the Dartmouth website," Drapkin said. He said he regrets being forced to give up some of his duties as an alumnus in order to dedicate himself to the ABA.
Drapkin encouraged students to continue in the attitudes that Dartmouth tries to foster, "to keep their horizons open, to be interested in their community, in their government, in their work and to look for ways to contribute in the broader policy aspects wherever their lives bring them."
"I had an incredible time at Dartmouth," he said. "I still get a thrill when I come back and get my first look at the Green -- it happens every time."
Drapkin's term as tax section chair lasts one year.
