The Tax Law Concentration is designed to provide each student in the concentration basic education in both general skills and subject-matter specific knowledge and provide each student with an opportunity to bring the entire skill set to bear in a capstone experience designed to teach integrated legal problem-solving. Completion of a concentration should improve the overall preparedness of graduates by conferring entry-level competence to begin practicing law with appropriate supervision in the concentration’s subject matter area or practice setting.
The Tax Law Concentration provides students with an in-depth course of study in the area of tax law. The concentration emphasize skills by teaching students specialized tax research techniques, culminating in the students’ preparation of a request for a private letter ruling to the Internal Revenue Service, and focus on client interviewing and counseling techniques in a substantive tax area.
Expression of Interest Form for Tax LawStudents will:
- Master the ability to read and interpret complex statutes and regulations;
- Gain an understanding of how to interview clients and make oral and written presentations to them in a clear and concise manner;
- Learn how to research the tax consequences of complex transactional and/or estate planning deals;
- Become familiar with procedural rules governing tax law; and
- Understand the historical underpinnings of federal tax law and learn how to use that background to formulate tax arguments
Course Requirements
Total Credits Required: 14-17
Required Courses
Credits Required: 9-10
- Basic Federal Income Taxation (3)
- Business Organizations (3-4) of Estates and Trusts (3)
- Tax Planning (3) or Estate Planning (3) (capstone)
Advanced Tax Electives
Credits Required: 5-7
Students must choose two courses from the following list, and at least one of those courses must be either Corporate Taxation or Partnership Taxation.
- Bankruptcy (3)
- Contract Drafting (3)
- Corporate Taxation (3)
- Commercial Real Estate Leasing (3)
- Deal Skills (3)
- Elder Law (3)
- Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic (4)
- Fiduciary Administration (2)
- Estate Planning (if not taken as a capstone) (3)
- Intermediate Taxation Law (3)
- International Business Transactions (3)
- International Taxation (3)
- Partnership Taxation (3)
- Publicly Held Corporations (3)
- Real Estate Finance (3)
- Secured Transactions (3)
- Securities Regulation (3)
- Tax Planning (if not taken as a capstone) (3)
- Tax Policy (3)
- Tax Research (2)
- The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations (2-3)
- Will and Trust Drafting (2)
Capstone Course (one of the following two courses is required)
Credits Required: 3
Tax Planning (3) OR Estate Planning (3)
Honors Certification
If a student obtains a cumulative grade point average of at least 90 in all courses taken for the tax concentration, he or she will receive a designation of “Tax Concentration with Honors.” Note that if a student takes more than the required courses within a certificate category, he or she may designate which course to count toward the honors designation.