LLM in Taxation Questions Forum

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Eggs

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LLM in Taxation Questions

Post by Eggs » Thu Jan 24, 2019 9:23 pm

Not sure if this is the best place for this but it seems as good as any. There’s a mild amount of asking about schools..

These programs typically take 1 year correct? Does it mostly just have value for going into tax law or does it improve marketability for coming in as a generalist too?

How important is the school you obtain your LLM from? Obviously it’d be better to go to a better school but do employers mostly look at the school you got your JD from?

Do schools award merit scholarships for these programs?

Thanks for any responses. I really don’t know much about these

QContinuum

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Re: LLM in Taxation Questions

Post by QContinuum » Thu Jan 24, 2019 11:04 pm

Aren't you a 0L? Why are you asking about LL.M. programs?

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clarion

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Re: LLM in Taxation Questions

Post by clarion » Fri Jan 25, 2019 12:53 am

Eggs wrote:Not sure if this is the best place for this but it seems as good as any. There’s a mild amount of asking about schools..

These programs typically take 1 year correct? Does it mostly just have value for going into tax law or does it improve marketability for coming in as a generalist too?

How important is the school you obtain your LLM from? Obviously it’d be better to go to a better school but do employers mostly look at the school you got your JD from?

Do schools award merit scholarships for these programs?

Thanks for any responses. I really don’t know much about these

0L or not, I'll answer the easy ones.

1) Yes, 1 year unless you do an executive (online)/part-time program.
2) The Tax LLM is most useful for tax law (as I understand it). There's no other reason to get it.
3) The school is very important. The general consensus is that the only schools worth getting a tax LLM from, are NYU, GULC and UF. I've heard Northwestern and maybe one or two others are options, but really one should only go to the three I mentioned initially.
4) There are some scholarships. Just go to a specific school's LLM webpage.

Eggs

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Re: LLM in Taxation Questions

Post by Eggs » Fri Jan 25, 2019 1:10 am

QContinuum wrote:Aren't you a 0L? Why are you asking about LL.M. programs?
Yeah. Why is it shocking to be curious about how the legal world works?

QContinuum

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Re: LLM in Taxation Questions

Post by QContinuum » Fri Jan 25, 2019 1:16 am

I pointed out OP's 0L status not to be mean, but to try to smoke out what I suspect to be the underlying rationale behind OP's question: The idea that s/he can attend a law school with weak job placement power, and then simply tack on a Tax LL.M. afterward to bail themselves out. That is a very bad strategy because there is no assurance that one will do well enough in law school to be admitted to NYU or Georgetown's programs (the only two Tax LL.M. programs really worth attending; Florida and Northwestern are a very distant third). Further, even out of NYU or Georgetown, good jobs are challenging to get. Finally, law school is expensive enough without adding on a fourth year of tuition and COL. (Yes, NYU and Georgetown do give scholarships, but it's not reasonable to bet on landing a full-tuition scholarship, and even then one would still need to pay for living expenses, textbooks, etc.).

It's a much, much better strategy (both in terms of cost and in terms of likelihood of success) to retake the LSAT until one can get into a decent law school at a reasonable price, than to bank on doing a Tax LL.M. down the road.

Eggs

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Re: LLM in Taxation Questions

Post by Eggs » Fri Jan 25, 2019 2:04 am

QContinuum wrote:I pointed out OP's 0L status not to be mean, but to try to smoke out what I suspect to be the underlying rationale behind OP's question: The idea that s/he can attend a law school with weak job placement power, and then simply tack on a Tax LL.M. afterward to bail themselves out. That is a very bad strategy because there is no assurance that one will do well enough in law school to be admitted to NYU or Georgetown's programs (the only two Tax LL.M. programs really worth attending; Florida and Northwestern are a very distant third). Further, even out of NYU or Georgetown, good jobs are challenging to get. Finally, law school is expensive enough without adding on a fourth year of tuition and COL. (Yes, NYU and Georgetown do give scholarships, but it's not reasonable to bet on landing a full-tuition scholarship, and even then one would still need to pay for living expenses, textbooks, etc.).

It's a much, much better strategy (both in terms of cost and in terms of likelihood of success) to retake the LSAT until one can get into a decent law school at a reasonable price, than to bank on doing a Tax LL.M. down the road.
That was actually not my intention at all. If you want to take a negative view, I had the notion reversed if anything. My initial thought was if you went to a good school that where you got your LLM from might not be that important. Apparently that’s not the case. I am simply trying to learn about how the procedure works. Also, I’m in the midst of retaking my LSAT, so we can settle down on that

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