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. is the faculty director.
Students must earn at least 92 credit hours (89 are required for the JD) with at least 18 of the credits in tax-related courses. These 18 hours must include:
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- A business entity taxation course: or, ;
- A tax planning course: , , , or ;
- A tax policy course: or ;
- Additional elective credits to make up the 18 hours from tax-related courses (at the Law School) or from graduate tax-related offerings (at the Leeds School of Business) approved for law credit.
The faculty director has discretion to authorize substitute courses for students on a case-by-case basis (for example, if a required course is not taught during an academic year).
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.