Visiting Professor of Law
Education
J.D., University of Maryland School of Law, first in class
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Virginia
Areas of Interest/Teaching
Wills, Trusts, and Estates; Estate and Gift Taxation; Estate Planning; Business Taxation
Publications
Seeing Through the Sleight of hand: Estate Tax Consequences of Redeeming Stock with Life-insurance Proceeds, 183 Tax Notes 437 (Apr. 15, 2024) (with Timothy M. Todd)
Donative Hot-Powers Cases under the Uniform Power of Attorney Act, 44 UALR L. Rev. 339 (2021-2022)
Higher Education Savings and Planning: Tax and Nontax Considerations, 5 Texas A&M Law Review 343 (2018) (with Timothy M. Todd)
Powers of Attorney under the Uniform Power of Attorney Act with Particular Reference to the Law of Virginia, 43 ACTEC Law Journal 151 (2018)
The Tax Lifecycle of a Single Member LLC, 36 Va. Tax Rev. 323 (2017) (with Timothy M. Todd)
The Front Door Opens Wide for the Backdoor Roth IRA, 155 Tax Notes 1325 (2017) (with Timothy M. Todd)
Issues Arising Upon the Death of the Sole Member of an SMLLC, 99 Marquette L. Rev. 723 (2016) (with Timothy M. Todd)
Testamentary Capacity Litigation in Virginia, 18 Richmond J.L. & Pub. Int. 159 (2015)
The Disastrous Dicta of Ott v. Monroe, Liberty Legal Journal (2012) (with Rodney D. Chrisman)
Smith v. Mountjoy: Confusing Power and Duty, 22 Trusts & Estates Newsletter 12 (Fall 2010) (published by the Virginia State Bar Trusts & Estates Section)
New Reasons to Remember the Estate Taxation of Reversions, 44 Real Property, Trust & Estate Law Journal 323 (Summer 2009)
Finding the Free Play Between the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses, 71 Tennessee L. Rev. 657 (2005)
Charting the Spectrum of Prohibited and Permitted Aid to Religion, 2001 Utah L. Rev. 319 (2001)
Restoring Tortiously Damaged Human Capital Tax-Free under Internal Revenue Code Section 104(a)(2)’s New Physical Injury Requirement, 46 Buffalo L. Rev. 347 (1998)
New Zealand Trustee Investing: Reflecting on Modern Portfolio Theory and the Ancient Distinction of Principal and Income, 28 Victoria University of Wellington L. Rev. 611 (1998)
Down and Out: RIFed Employees, Taxes, and Employment Discrimination Claims After Schleier, 44 Kansas. L. Rev. 103 (1995)
When Does the Payment of Damages Punish the Payor?, 66 Tax Notes 276 (1995)
Internal Revenue Code Section 162(f): When Does the Payment of Damages to a Government Punish the Payor?, 13 Va. Tax Rev. 271 (1993), reprinted in The Monthly Digest of Tax Articles 35 (October 1994)
What is the Tax Collector’s Cut of Judgments and Settlement Proceeds?, 2 South Carolina Lawyer 22 (Mar./Apr. 1991)
Comment, Duty to Correct: A Suggested Framework, 46 Md. L. Rev. 1250 (1987)
Survey of Developments in Maryland Law – Commercial Law: Insurance, 45 Md. L. Rev. 597-613 (1986).
Philip Manns re-joined the Liberty law faculty in 2024, following three years of retirement. For the thirty years from 1991 to 2021, he was professor of law: fifteen years on Liberty’s law faculty [2006–2021] and for fifteen years [1991–2006] on the law faculty of the California Western School of Law in San Diego, where he also served a term as associate dean. Manns also taught as a term as a visiting professor at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand in 1997.
Prior to joining academia, Manns practiced tax law with the law firm of King & Spalding in Atlanta, and clerked for The Honorable Francis D. Murnaghan, Jr., Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Prior to beginning his career in law, he worked as a chemical engineer for the Department of Defense.
While in law school, Manns received the William Strobel Thomas Prize as the member of the Class of 1987 who, at the time of graduation, had attained the highest scholastic average in his course of studies at the University of Maryland School of Law. He was a member of the Order of the Coif, and member and an assistant editor of the Maryland Law Review. Manns also received the W. Calvin Chestnut Prize for outstanding scholastic achievement in the courses taken during the first year at the School of Law.
Manns has been admitted to practice law in the states of Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, California, and in a number of federal courts. He has served as a public arbitrator for the National Association of Securities Dealers, and has served as a Site Evaluator for the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar for the sabbatical inspections of two law schools.