Adam S. Hofri-Winogradow

Adam Hofri obtained his DPhil from Oxford in 2007, specializing in trusts and legal history. Earlier he obtained a BMus in electronic music production from Berklee College of Music and an MA in intellectual history. He also graduated from law school and was a clerk at the Supreme Court of Israel. Having been teaching law since 2007, Adam joined the Allard School of Law on January 2023.

Both Adam's research and teaching have long focused on trusts, including comparative doctrinal treatments of trust law topics, empirical studies of the ways trusts are used in practice by different sorts of clients, studies of many jurisdictions' recent dramatic reforms to their law of trusts, looking to make that law alternately client- and practitioner-friendly, historical and socio-legal accounts of the development of trust law and practice in England and Palestine/Israel, and theoretical accounts of the social and economic functions trusts fulfil, including as a tool for subverting other parts of the law. 

Adam's research has been quoted and relied on by social justice organizations such as the Tax Justice Network and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. It has also been quoted and relied on in the global media, including the Washington Post, the Miami Herald, the Irish Times, and El Pais. Adam's teaching has focused on trusts, corporations and comparative law; he has also been a patient scholar of tax, with an emphasis on trusts taxation. A winner of several research grants including a SSHRC grant, Adam has delivered talks at the EU Parliament, the Danish Parliament, and to senior administrators of Scandinavian tax authorities.

Adam has taught, as visiting Professor, at the law schools of the University of Virginia, Georgetown University, the University of British Columbia, Western Ontario University, and the Center for Transnational Legal Studies, London. He has also served as Martin Flynn Global Law Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law. Adam is a member of the Society of Trusts & Estates Practitioners (STEP) and of the Estate Planning Council of Vancouver. He has long cultivated both an internal (doctrinal and practical) and an external (critical) perspective on the law and practice of trusts. 

Adam would like to grow a new generation of trusts researchers. He welcomes inquiries by prospective research students interested in registering for research degrees (LLM or PhD) and authoring a thesis or dissertation in the trusts and equity field.

 Property, Trusts, Comparative and Offshore Trusts Law and Practice, Methodologies in Law and Policy.

Selected Publications

1. “‘Looking Through’ Trusts in Relationship Property Redistribution Regimes: A Comparative Perspective” (with Mark Bennett), 35 King’s Law Journal 25-45 (2024).
2. "The Irreducible Cores of Trustee Obligations", 139 Law Quarterly Review 310-335 (2023).
3. “Quistclose Trusts from a Corporate Insolvency Perspective: a Positive and Normative Analysis” (with Gal David), 81(3) Cambridge Law Journal 524-549 (2022). 
4. "The Use of Trusts to Subvert the Law: An Analysis and Critique" (with Mark Bennett), 41(3) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 692–718 (2021).
5. “The Statutory Liberalization of Trust Law across 152 Jurisdictions: Leaders, Laggards and the Market for Fiduciary Services”, 53 UC Davis Law Review 2313-2355 (2020).    
6. “Trust Parties’ Uniquely Easy Access to Rescission:  Analysis, Critique and Reform” (with Gad Weiss), 82 Modern Law Review 777-799 (2019).    
7. “Property Transfers to Caregivers: a Comparative Analysis” (with Richard Kaplan), 103 Iowa Law Review 1997-2025 (2018).
8. “Trust Jurisdiction Clauses: their Proper Ambit”, 13 Journal of Private International Law 519-545 (2017).
9. “Trust Proliferation: a View from the Field”, 31(3) Trust Law International 152-182 (2017).
10. "The Demand for Fiduciary Services: Evidence from the Market in Private Donative Trusts", 68 Hastings Law Journal 931-1006 (2017).
11. "Contract, Trust and Corporation: from Contrast to Convergence", 102 Iowa Law Review 1691-1717 (2017).
12. "The Stripping of the Trust: A Study in Legal Evolution", 65 University of Toronto Law Journal 1-47 (2015).
13. "Professionals’ Contribution to the Legislative Process: Between Self, Client and the Public", 39(1) Law and Social Inquiry 96-126 (2014).
14. "Parents, Children and Property in the Late Eighteenth Century Chancery", 32(4) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 741-769 (2012).
15. "Shapeless Trusts and Settlor Title Retention: an Asian Morality Play", 58(1) Loyola Law Review 135-177 (2012).
16. “Zionist Settlers and the English Private Trust in Mandate Palestine”, 30(3) Law and History Review 813-864 (2012).

SSRN Page: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=412104