My J.D. program required us to take coursework from a certain group of upper-level courses. When looking at the list of courses, I started looking at which course I would take to avoid Tax. Why? Tax has a reputation of being difficult and I “wasn’t good at math.” One of my closest mentors had encouraged me to take Tax but even that wasn’t enough to sway me. So I signed up for courses like Evidence, Conflict of Laws, and Administrative Law to avoid Tax.

My life came full circle in 2019, when I interviewed for and accepted a position at University of Florida, long regarded as one of the schools to study tax law at the LL.M. level. I was fortunate to have an amazing mentor in Professor and Associate Dean Charlene Luke, and spent the Summer of 2019 learning as much as I could about what I’d need to know to support Tax LL.M. students. While most of my focus was supposed to be on admissions/recruitment/student support, I ended up with a great opportunity to add tax career services to my repertoire. And ever since, I have been a very strong supporter of Tax LL.M. programs for foreign-educated lawyers and law students.

Below are some of the main reasons why:

1. Job Search. My next National Jurist piece (due out in April!) is focused on LL.M. programs and post-LL.M. jobs in the United States. For those focused on job outcomes, the leading Tax LL.M. programs have a significant advantage over General LL.M. programs: a clearly-defined and well-traveled path from LL.M. program to jobs in the United States. Thanks to accounting firm focus on Tax LL.M. programs, and some law firms that also look to LL.M. students, Tax LL.M. students know they have big job fairs to complement their networking and direct applications. While leading schools offer LL.M. employment data, be careful to look at whether they break out the information for J.D.-educated versus foreign-educated, and see if you can learn more about the outcomes for F-1 students in their programs.
2. Class Integration. Law schools vary in terms of their LL.M. program vibe. A lot of that has to do with the types and sizes of the classes they bring in. I’ve spoken to enough LL.M. graduates (from a number of schools) who have shared how difficult it was to connect with J.D. students and feel like a part of the community. One of the cool things about Tax LL.M. programs is their popularity with American-educated J.D. graduates. And so it’s a little bit easier to integrate into the American community when the people in your program are American. It helps for things like study groups, after-school meetups, and other informal opportunities to make real friendships with Americans who can be important friends. They may share advice as you prepare for interviews and pass on opportunities for jobs. It’s nice when you don’t feel like you’re in a separate program from the larger law school community and Tax LL.M. students are more integrated, in my opinion, due to the nature of the programs compared to General LL.M. programs.
3. Alumni Networks. Tax LL.M. programs have their own alumni networks, in addition to the larger law school J.D. networks. This helps you “double dip” into alumni mentorship and networking opportunities. Being able to navigate the LL.M. alumni network helps you find alumni who are almost all working in that exact field you’d like to break into through your LL.M. degree. And alumni generally like to see their programs continue to do well, and so ensuring that the next group of students have great job outcomes is important to many of the Tax LL.M. graduates I’ve interacted with.
4. Programming. The big caveat I share is that you should only do a Tax LL.M. if you would like to work in Tax upon graduation. Otherwise, I recommend other specialty programs based on a student’s interest, a small group of law schools for maximum post-LL.M. career flexibility, or a school offering a full scholarship or close to it. But if you like Tax Law, a Tax LL.M. feels like heaven. You’re with dozens of other lawyers and law graduates passionate about the subject-matter. Your academic experiences revolve around this shared interest. The intellectual life of symposia and colloquia revolve around hot topics in tax law (I attended events on topics I thought were cool!). Your adjunct professors are practicing at high levels in a variety of tax specialties and your full-time faculty are writing on some of the most pressing tax issues. In short, the vibe I got was similar to a space camp or similar type of educational experience with a bunch of people happy to be there.
5. Admissions. While I don’t have hard data (help me out, ABA!), my instincts tell me that leading Tax LL.M. programs are harder for foreign-educated lawyers to secure admission to than General LL.M. programs. Schools know that Tax LL.M.s are an important part of their Non-J.D. operation and want to ensure that students are successful in the classroom, in their interactions with employers and alumni, and in their post-LL.M. plans. What this means is that your program may have more foreign-educated lawyers who have significant legal experience, compared with programs where many of the students are coming straight from the LL.B. or J.M./LL.M. (or even still in those programs) or recent law school graduates. These networks can help you build your global practice, develop connections in other jurisdictions, and enjoy the conversations with fellow tax practitioners about their practices.

A Final Note

So if you’re a foreign-educated lawyer who has taken tax classes in your LL.B. and worked on a couple tax projects in your early legal career, I’d recommend at least looking into tax programs. For those who are working fully in tax, you likely already know about this option.

But don’t think you have to choose State Bar Exam or Tax LL.M. Between States where you can qualify without an LL.M. degree (e.g., California) and Three-Semester Programs, you may be able to get the benefits of a Tax LL.M. and sit for a State Bar Exam. Depending on the number of required credits in your Tax LL.M. program, you may also be able to combine degree requirements and State Bar requirements, but be sure to check with the school before you go on that route, especially if the non-tax coursework would dilute your tax experience and potentially harm your post-LL.M. job outcomes.