Andrew Swain

In addition to teaching the MGMT 521 Business Law’s asynchronous classes for the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, Andrew W. Swain is an Assistant Professor of Business Law and Ethics at the Indiana University Judd Leighton School of Business and Economics (IUSB), in South Bend, Indiana (IUSB). IUSB is IU’s largest regional campus in Indiana. Professor Swain’s business law specialty is tax, particularly state and local tax. At IUSB, Professor Swain teaches two undergraduate courses (L201—The Legal Environment of Business; and B399—Business & Society), and one graduate course (C502: The Legal & Ethical Environment of Business).

Before joining the faculty at IUSB, Professor Swain was an adjunct professor at the Indiana University (IUPUI) Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he taught partnership tax and international tax.  He was also an adjunct professor at the Indiana University (IUPUI) Kelley School of Business, where, in its graduate tax and accounting programs, he taught international tax, federal taxation of partnerships and partners, and ethics in accounting and taxation, and, in its undergraduate business program, he taught Commercial Law.

Before pursuing academics full time, Professor Swain was the Chief Counsel of the Revenue Division for the Indiana Attorney General.  He served there twelve years under Attorneys General Steve Carter and Gregory Zoeller. In that position, he oversaw all tax litigation for the State of Indiana. He represented the Indiana Department of State Revenue before federal and state courts, including the Indiana Tax Court and the Indiana Supreme Court.  He also formerly served as an Assistant Attorney General in Colorado in that office’s tax section.

Professor Swain has litigated numerous state tax cases, some having multi-state tax significance.  For example, he argued and won an economic nexus case before the Indiana Tax Court, MBNA America Bank, N.A. & Affiliates v. Ind. Dep’t of State Revenue, 895 N.E.2d 140 (Ind. Tax Ct. 2008).  He also argued and won a $20-million-dollar tobacco tax case involving the Commerce Clause before the Colorado Court of Appeals in McLane W., Inc. v. Dep’t of Revenue of the State of Colo., 126 P.3d 211 (Colo. Ct. App. 2005), cert. denied, 549 U.S. 810 (2006).

Before entering academics and public service, Professor Swain worked as a tax manager at KPMG’s and Arthur Andersen’s offices in Denver, Colorado. He worked as a tax consultant in the state and local tax (SALT) division specializing in tax controversies (i.e., audit defense) and corporate transactions.  As part of his controversy work, Professor Swain conducted hearings before the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Executive Director, and hearing officers appointed by the various home-rule cities.  He also performed controversy work outside Colorado.  Professor Swain provided tax-minimization strategies as they pertained to business formation and ongoing operations, as well as SALT consequences caused by mergers and acquisitions.

Professor Swain has written for publications nationwide on economic nexus, the taxation of e-commerce, and other state and local tax topics. He has written 200 tax related articles. Professor Swain has also lectured extensively on tax topics. Professor Swain has been instrumental in developing “enhanced” tax collections techniques to aid Indiana’s efforts to combat illegal businesses and state tax evasion.  He has written about these techniques in “Enhanced Tax Collection Techniques and Criminal Tax Issues and Procedures;” Chapter 30 of Bender’s State Taxation: Principles & Practice in Bender’s State Taxation: Principles & Practice (Charles W. Swenson, ed., LexisNexis Matthew Bender, June 2010).

In October 2008, the Indiana State Bar Association awarded Professor Swain second place in the Harrison Legal Writing Award for his article “The History of Indiana’s Property Tax Problems (Part 2): How Do You Spell Relief,” 51 Res Gestae 9 (Ind. State Bar Ass’n, Jan./Feb. 2008) (with John D. Snethen). In September 2009, he received the 2009 Humane Law Enforcement Award, sponsored by the Fraternal Order of Police, National Association of District Attorneys, and the Humane Society of the United States.

Professor Swain received his J.D. in 1988 from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana, and his LL.M. in taxation in 1998 from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and Daniels College of Business—Graduate Tax Program, in Denver, Colorado. He is also a certified fraud examiner and a certified financial crimes investigator, certified in 2015 by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.