Erin Scharff

Erin Adele Scharff is the College of Law's Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development.  

Professor 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 publications have appeared in Stanford Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, New York University Law Review, and the Tax Law Review, among other journals. She is an expert on local fiscal authority and has written several amicus briefs on the legal authority of local governments to raise revenue under state constitutions.

Professor Scharff is the coauthor of casebooks in both taxation and local government law: Cases and Materials on State and Local Government Law (9th ed, 2022) and Federal Income Taxation (19th ed. 2023). She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a past chair of the AALS Tax Section.

Prior to joining the ASU faculty, Scharff was an Acting Assistant Professor of Tax Law at New York University School of Law. She graduated magna cum laude from New York University School of Law, where she was a Furman Scholar and a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar. After graduation she clerked for the Honorable William A. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In addition to her academic work, Scharff serves chair board of the Phoenix Legal Action Network, an immigration legal services non-profit, and a board member of the Phoenix Jewish Community Relations Council. She is the mother to four rambunctious children.