Ray Madoff

Professor, Boston College Law School

Ray Madoff is a professor at Boston College Law School, where she teaches and writes on tax policy, philanthropy, and estate planning. She is Co-founder and Director of the Boston College Law School Forum on Philanthropy and the Public Good, a non-partisan think tank that convenes scholars and practitioners to explore questions about whether rules governing the charitable sector best serve the public good.

Madoff is the author of  The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Created an American Aristocracy (Chicago University Press) and Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American Dead (Yale University Press). She is also the lead author on one of the top treatises on estate planning, entitled Practical Guide to Estate Planning  (CCH).

Madoff is a frequent contributor to the opinion pages of the New York Times and has published op-eds in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Boston Globe, and Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has appeared on television on MSNBC and CNBC and on dozens of national radio shows including On Point, Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered, Here and Now, and Marketplace, among others. 

She is a member of the American Law Institute, an academic fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estate Counsel, and past president of the American Association of Law Schools’ Trusts and Estates Section. She was named a 2014 Top Women of the Law by Mass Lawyer’s Weekly, and Critic of the Year by Inside Philanthropy. She was also named to the NonProfit Times’ Power & Influence Top 50 in 2017 and 2018 for her work promoting reform of the tax rules governing philanthropy. 

An experienced mediator, Madoff is a leading authority on the use of mediation to resolve will and trust disputes. Prior to teaching, she was a practicing attorney in New York and Boston.

Ray lives in Newton with her husband David Nicholas, a public interest environmental lawyer. They have three children: Gabe, Jesse and Amelia Nicholas. 

WEBSITES

https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/law/academics-faculty/faculty-directory/ray-madoff.html

HIGHLIGHTS

I have a new book coming out on October 21, 2025 called The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy, chosen to be the lead title for the University of Chicago Press catalog. I will be speaking about the book at the Boston Atheneum on November 12, 2025.

I also recently published an op-ed in the Washington Post (“A signature GOP issue is omitted from Trump’s ‘big’ tax bill. Weird.”) and appeared on MSNBC Katy Tur show discussing this topic. 

I was recently awarded the 2025 Faculty Member of the Year Award. (“In recognition of outstanding service and dedication to the students of Boston College Law School.)