The Law School offers a program of law study that leads to a Juris Doctor degree with an emphasis in taxation. The program signifies tax law experience beyond that normally obtained by law graduates, but not as extensive as that obtained in a Masters of Taxation degree program. Professor Sloan Speck is the faculty adviser.
Students must earn at least 92 credit hours (89 are required for the JD) with at least 18 of the credits in taxation. These 18 hours must include:
- Income Taxation
- Federal Estate and Gift Tax
- At least one business entity taxation course: Corporate Taxation, Partnership Taxation, or Survey of Business Enterprise Taxation
- At least one tax planning course: Business Planning, Estate and Gift Tax Planning, Estate Planning, or Real Estate Planning.
- A tax policy course: Seminar: Tax Law, Economics and Policy or Tax Policy at the Law School or, if not offered, either Tax Policy (at the Leeds School of Business) or Public Finance (in the Department of Economics).
- Additional elective credits to make up the 18 hours from tax courses (at the Law School) or from graduate tax offerings (at the Leeds School of Business) approved for law credit.
In the event that a required course is not taught during an academic year, the Program Advisor shall have discretion to authorize a reasonable substitute course as satisfying a program requirement.
Business school and economics department courses taken for Law School credit under the Tax Emphasis Program are limited to 6 semester credit hours and must have received prior approval from the faculty. Students may take more than the required 18 credit hours of tax courses.
Students must receive at least a B in the business school course or in the Public Finance course to count for Law School credit. The business school or Public Finance courses will be treated as pass/fail courses for the Law School transcript; that is, these courses will count toward the 92 hours required for the degree, but will not be taken into account in computing a law student's grade point average.
Students can complete the program within the normal three-year law degree period by planning the program of law study effectively and taking a summer session or a heavier-than-average load each semester after the first year.