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Federal Income Tax attorneys and non-attorney tax professionals are in high demand, whether they work in a law firm, accounting or consulting firm, financial institution, in-house, or with a governmental agency. As the Income Tax Code is a federal law, income tax practitioners can easily find employment throughout the nation, in metropolitan cities like Chicago, Washington DC and New York, or in suburban or rural areas as well. While most of our graduates will be on a business consulting team, helping employers to calculate their tax liability properly and also try to plan on ways to reduce liability, many are finding niche opportunities as experts in income tax controversy and litigation with the regulatory agencies. Additionally, as the Tax Code becomes more complex all the time, many employment opportunities in public policy think tanks, foundations, associations and academia are opening up all the time.
Whatever type of employer, and wherever located, there is a constant demand for competent attorneys and professionals to hit the ground running - and that's what you will get with your graduate Tax Law degree. You can tell your prospective employer that on the first day you are employed, whatever client emergency unfolds, you will recognize the basic principles of the law and where you can go for further research or resolution. That's the value of either the LLM or MS degrees in Tax Law - a basic understanding of the law and a noticeably reduced learning curve over any other similarly situated candidate.
The John Marshall Law School in Chicago is one of the first schools to offer graduate Tax Law degrees to attorneys and among the first to offer them to non-attorney income tax professionals. Chicago is a major metropolitan stronghold of firms and financial institutions that are potential employers of our students while matriculating or upon graduation. There are also numerous opportunities to network at bar associations and professional societies. Please note that no classes are offered through distance learning yet, but as the institution goes forward and begins to offer classes over the internet or other distance learning opportunities, The Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits will certainly develop and offer as many electronic classes as possible, while keeping the integrity and recognition of the graduate degrees as strong as possible.
The graduate Tax Law programs have two tracks: a general degree track and specialization track. The general degree track offers a Masters of Law in Taxation (LLM) and provides students with the broad knowledge necessary to practice tax law effectively. The specialization tracks offer additional intensified and in-depth training in the following four areas of tax law:
Corporate Taxation (Corporate Taxation I and II and Taxation of Closely Held Businesses for a total of 8 hours)
Estate & Personal Financial Planning (Gift & Estate Tax Law, Basic Estate Planning and Personal Financial Planning, plus 2 hours in the advanced estate planning courses, for a total of 8 hours)
Taxation of Closely Held Businesses (Taxation of Closely Held Businesses and Personal Financial Planning, plus 2 hours of either Survey of Retirement Plan Issues, Gift & Estate Tax Law, or Partnership Taxation, for a total of 8 hours)
Employee Benefits (Survey of Retirement Plan Issues, Survey of Welfare Plan Issues, and Survey of Executive Compensation Plans, for a total of 6 hours)
Prof. Kathryn J. Kennedy, Director
7kennedy@jmls.edu 312.427.2737 x515
Barry Kozak, Associate Director of the graduate EB programs
6kozak@jmls.edu 312.427.2737 x524
(until the position of Associate Director of the graduate Tax Law programs is filled)
Kathy Winiczay, Program Coordinator
6winicza@jmls.edu 312.427.2737 x380
Steven Szydelko, Program Coordinator
6szydelko@jmls.edu 312.427.2737 x313
Graduate Admissions
graduateadmission@jmls.edu 312.427.2737 x658
The MISSION of the Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits (for all of the graduate Tax Law programs and the graduate Employee Benefits programs) is multi-fold:
to offer graduate degrees with rigorous academic standards for students to effectively practice in their chosen area of expertise;
to foster research for better understanding of the multi-disciplinary aspects of the law;
to encourage student participation in the relevant bar association committees;
and to host academic forums to educate the bar and the community.
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