Daniel Halperin, the Stanley S. Surrey Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Harvard Law School and one of the country’s foremost authorities on federal income taxation, has died at the age of 89. A 1961 graduate of Harvard Law School, Halperin spent more than four decades shaping how lawyers, scholars, and policymakers think about the tax system and how it ought to work in the service of ordinary people.
Born and educated in New York City, Halperin was a product of the public schools and graduated from City College of New York before earning his law degree at Harvard. He began his career in private practice in New York, but it was his work at the intersection of tax law, policy, and scholarship that would define his legacy. He served twice in the Office of Tax Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department, from 1967 through 1970, and again from 1977 through 1980, the latter stint including service as deputy assistant secretary for tax policy.
Halperin played a key role in the development of the Tax Reform Act of 1969, as well as in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s initial bill for pension security, which would evolve into the historic Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. When he returned to the Treasury in 1977, first as tax legislative counsel and then as deputy assistant secretary, he was instrumental in the formulation of the president’s 1978 tax reform proposals, some of which were enacted in the bipartisan Tax Reform Act of 1986.
His academic career was equally distinguished. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown Law School before returning to Harvard in 1996 as the Stanley S. Surrey Professor of Law, a chair that carried particular meaning for him, since Surrey had been his own teacher and mentor. He would hold that position until his retirement from teaching, and he never really stopped working. He published his final article in March 2026, revisiting and updating his seminal 40-year-old analysis Interest in Disguise: Taxing the Time Value of Money — a fitting coda for a scholar whose contributions to that subject had helped reshape the field.
Halperin was best known academically for his pioneering work on tax deferral and the time value of money, research that fundamentally changed how policymakers and academics understand retirement savings, deferred compensation, and the design of tax expenditures. But his scholarly interests were never merely technical. He believed deeply that the tax and retirement systems had a moral dimension — that people who worked hard their entire lives deserved to retire with security and dignity, and that a fair and equitable tax system was essential for a just society. That conviction animated everything he did, from his Treasury work to his writing to his long service as a board member, and eventually vice chair, of the Pension Rights Center.
Throughout his long career, Halperin was known for two attributes: his analytical sophistication and his generosity, said Alvin Warren Jr., Harvard Law School Ropes & Gray Professor of Law.
“No matter how difficult the problem, Dan was usually the first to see a solution (or why a solution may be impossible),” said Warren. “This sophistication has always been coupled with remarkable generosity. When congressional staffers, young law professors or law students have asked for his help in understanding some difficult question, Dan was never too busy to provide the requested assistance.”
As impressive as Halperin’s accomplishments were, they do not adequately capture his immense contributions to Harvard Law School, noted Dean John Goldberg.
“He was a devoted and beloved teacher and mentor who engaged constructively and seriously with his students’ ideas,” Goldberg said. “Generations of students remember him not only for the rigor of his courses, but for his warmth, humor, and genuine interest in their lives and careers. For his colleagues, he was a model of integrity, public-spiritedness, and intellectual honesty — someone whose judgment was trusted instinctively and whose door was always open.”
As a professor, Halperin was particularly proud of the students who went on to become scholars, teachers, and tax lawyers themselves. He hoped they would carry forward not only the intellectual rigor he modeled but also his commitment to ensuring that the tax and retirement systems served everyone, not just the wealthy and powerful.
Former Harvard Law School student Blaine G. Saito ’12 recalled when Halperin personally reached out to him to encourage him to attend Harvard Law School after he was accepted. Halperin went on to become Saito’s mentor, ultimately steering him toward a career in academia.
“Dan always was patient and a thorough reader. He was sharp and critical but never mean. He wanted to bring out the best in my work, and he encouraged me to think in new ways,” said Saito, now an associate professor of law at Michael E. Moritz College of Law in Columbus, Ohio. “When one talked to his peers, they not only mentioned him as brilliant, but always as a mensch that revered others. And as for me, I will always revere the man who reached out to a newly accepted student and pushed him into this crazy world of the academy. We students are his legacy. We revere him. And we will sorely miss him. May his memory be for a blessing.”
Halperin is survived by his wife, Marcia; his children Marla Schnall (Peter), Terri (Alex Wolman), and Eric (Susannah Fox); his grandchildren Matthew Schnall (Hannah), Kathryn Knechtli (Lucien), Elias Wolman, Scarlette Fox-Halperin, Lida Wolman, and Natasha Fox-Halperin; his great-grandchildren Kevin Knechtli and Ryan Schnall; his brother Morton (Diane Orentlicher); his brother- and sister-in-law Gordon and Ilene Goldman; and his five nephews and their families.
Editors note: This information in this memorial piece draws from multiple sources including this family obituary for Daniel and this tribute published in Harvard Law Today to commemorate his retirement from Harvard Law School.
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