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.

Students 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)
• International Business Transactions (3)
• International Taxation (3)
• Partnership Taxation (3)
• Publicly Held Corporations (3)
• Real Estate Finance (3)
• Secured Transactions (3)
• Securities Regulation (3)
• Taxation of Property Transactions (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.