Samuel A. Donaldson is a graduate of the University of Arizona School of Law and the University of Florida School of Law where he earned an LL.M. in taxation. He is an Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Taxation at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, Washington. Professor Donaldson teaches a number of tax and estate planning courses as well as those in the areas of commercial law and professional responsibility. Professor Donaldson is a three-time recipient of the Philip A. Trautman Professor of the Year award from the Student Bar Association.

Prior to joining the University of Washington law school faculty in 1999, he was an attorney in Bellevue, Washington, where his practice focused on federal taxation, estate planning, business acquisitions, and business succession planning. Professor Donaldson has served as the Harry R. Harrow Visiting Professor of International Law at Northwestern University and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

He is currently Of Counsel with the Seattle office of Perkins Coie LLP and is an Academic Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). A member of the Bar in Washington, Oregon, and Arizona, he is the author of the Thomson-West casebook, Federal Income Taxation of Individuals, a co-author of the Price on Contemporary Estate Planning treatise published by CCH, and a co-author of Federal Wealth Transfer Taxes, a reference published by Thomson-West.