3-Year JD / Tax LLM Program
Loyola is pleased to announce the first fully-integrated 3-year joint JD/Tax LLM Program in the United States.
Although significant flexibility is permitted, students in the program will normally complete all requirements for both the JD and Tax LLM degrees in three academic years as follows:
| First Academic Year | Required JD Courses |
| Summer after first year | Intensive summer tax session (12 units) |
| Second and third academic years | 12 additional advanced tax courses counted toward both degrees culminating in |
| Third academic year | Two elective capstone courses: Tax Law Practicum and/or Honors Tax Policy Colloquium |
The new program offers students significant employment and financial advantages:
- Enhanced second-year OCI: During the fall on-campus-interview season at the beginning of their second year, students will be able to offer employers a credential (completion of the intensive summer tax session) not available from any other law school in the United States.
- Second-year summer open: Students in the program will normally be free to accept employment during the summer after their second year without conflicting academic obligations.
- Potential for LLM-level tax employment after three years: Students in conventional full-time LLM programs typically cannot hold full-time jobs. Such programs therefore impose a hidden cost – a year of salary foregone (currently as much as $165K). Our program avoids that cost.
Finally, this new 3-year JD/Tax LLM option is offered by the top-ranked Tax LLM program in the western United States at a school which, according to The Princeton Review (2009), provides the “best classroom experience” of any law school in the western United States.
Details
Application Procedure
Applicants interested in the new 3-year joint JD / Tax LLM program, should complete (1) Loyola’s standard JD program application (http://www.lls.edu/admissions/jd) plus (2) a supplemental 3-year joint JD/Tax LLM application.
Intensive Summer Tax Session
The intensive summer tax session will be offered commencing Summer 2010 as two 6-unit courses, Intensive Income Taxation and Intensive Business Taxation. The first covers all material currently covered in Income Taxation, Income Tax Timing Issues, and Taxation of Property Transactions. The second covers all material currently covered in Corporate Taxation I & II and Partnership Taxation I & II. Each will meet, on average, 8.4 hours per week for ten weeks. Because of the intensive nature of the instruction, students enrolled in the intensive summer tax session may not undertake any significant competing commitments, e.g., working, taking other courses, or sitting for the bar examination. Violation of this prohibition may result in denial of course credit.
Other Program Rules
Students in the 3-year joint JD/Tax LLM program are subject to all rules and requirements applicable to Loyola JD and Tax LLM students generally.
In addition, to complete the joint JD / Tax LLM program in three years, students must complete both intensive summer tax session courses and 12 additional units of Tax LLM courses (Tax Practice and Procedure plus 10 additional units of Tax LLM elective courses) during their second and/or third years of law school. In any event, students in the program must complete the requirements for each degree within five years after matriculation.
Students who have previously taken one or more courses subsumed in the intensive summer tax session courses (e.g., Income Tax Timing Issues, Taxation of Property Transactions, Corporate Taxation I & II and Partnership Taxation I & II) will receive undiminished Tax LLM credit for the relevant intensive summer tax session course, but will not receive unit credit toward the Tax LLM degree for any subsumed courses.
In no event will intensive summer tax session courses count for credit toward the JD degree. Students in intensive summer tax session courses will be graded on the Tax LLM grading scale and will receive credit only on their Tax LLM transcripts. The 12 additional units of Tax LLM coursework necessary to complete the Tax LLM degree taken during the second and third years of law school will count toward both the JD and Tax LLM degrees and will appear on both the JD and Tax LLM transcripts. Students in the joint program will be graded on Loyola’s JD grading scale; for purposes of their Tax LLM transcripts, however, grades in LLM-eligible courses will be converted to the LLM grading scale for purposes of computing LLM GPAs.Questions regarding the program should be directed to Prof. Jennifer Kowal, Director, Tax LLM Program, at jennifer.kowal@lls.edu or 213-736-8349.