Professor McMahon teaches courses in tax law and legal history, and her research often combines her interest in these areas. Professor McMahon’s scholarship focuses on the historical relationship between taxation and the public’s perception of taxation and, from that relationship, discovers lessons for improving today’s law. In particular, Professor McMahon’s work has explored how women have been, and continue to be, affected by taxation, and how women have used issues of taxation to further their own rights. Her writings have been published in peer-reviewed journals, Florida Tax Review, Law and History Review, and Pittsburgh Tax Review, as well as student-reviewed journals, Northwestern Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Journal of Legislation (Notre Dame), Nevada Law Journal, Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society and blogs, The Hill.

A summa cum laude graduate of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, GA (BA), a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, and a graduate with a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, Prior to joining the academic world, Professor McMahon spent several years practicing in the tax field. She worked as a tax attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York and at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, also in New York. A former Samuel I. Golieb fellow, during graduate school, she worked at Nixon, Peabody LLP in Washington, D.C.