Robert D. Probasco is an Associate Professor of the Practice at the Texas A&M University School of Law. He is the founder and director of the School of Law’s Tax Dispute Resolution Clinic. The clinic students, under his guidance and supervision, represent taxpayers in resolving their disputes with the Internal Revenue Service, including collection alternatives, audits, innocent spouse relief from joint tax liabilities, refund claims, and litigation in the U.S. Tax Court and multiple Circuit Courts of Appeal. He also teaches a doctrinal course in Federal Tax Practice & Procedure.
Professor Probasco writes and speaks frequently on issues regarding federal tax procedure and administration. He authored a chapter for the 8th and 9th editions of the ABA Section of Taxation’s publication Effectively Representing Your Client Before the IRS. He is a frequent contributor to the Procedurally Taxing blog on TaxNotes.com and is frequently published in or quoted by the national tax press, including Tax Notes, Law360.com, and Bloomberg BNA Daily Tax Report. During the COVID pandemic, he was sought out for several on-camera appearances on TV news segments concerning the administration’s responses to the pandemic.
Professor Probasco has a long history of service to the profession and to effective tax administration. He currently serves as a Vice-Chair of the ABA Section of Taxation’s Pro Bono & Tax Clinics Committee, where he also served from 2022-2025. He also currently serves as a member of the Public Service Fellowship Committee, where he also served from 2021-2024. He has been a member of the governing Council of the State Bar of Texas Tax Section since 2011; he served as the Chair of the Section in 2025-2026 and is currently serving as the Immediate Past Chair as well as Co-Chair of the Section’s Pro Bono Committee. Through these professional organizations as well as in his individual capacity, he has authored or contributed to many written responses to proposed rules or regulations issued by the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Tax Court and has testified at related public hearings. In recognition of his contributions, he has been elected as a Fellow of both the American College of Tax Counsel and the American Bar Foundation.
Prior to joining the School of Law in 2016, Professor Probasco was a partner in the Dallas office of Thompson & Knight (since merged with Holland & Knight) where he practiced tax controversy. He had a long non-legal career, including Deloitte (auditing and consulting) and Mobil Oil Corporation (internal auditing, general accounting, and financial analysis), before entering law school at the age of 45. He earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was an Articles Editor for the Virginia Law Review, a member of the Order of the Coif, and a recipient of the Edwin S. Cohen Tax Prize.
