Suggested Curricula

If you are seeking a general background in taxation and you do not yet know in what area of tax you want to practice, we recommend a broad exposure. A typical schedule for a full-time student might include:

Of course, your exact schedule depends on your background and interests. Your electives might include an advanced course in a particular area (e.g., Taxation of Financial Instruments, Multistate Tax, Tax Treaties, etc.)  Consider checking out coursework in multistate tax, executive compensation, or estate and gift tax/income tax of trusts and estates. It is possible to enter specialized groups or firms which focus on those areas, though in smaller markets or firms, one may be called upon to handle a broader range of areas than in larger markets where specialization is more common. Try to check out the first class meeting of these classes to get a sense if you are interested in those areas.

Some students will want to take Partnership Taxation in the fall, especially those who are interested in taking advanced Partnership Tax I or Taxation of Private Equity Transactions in the spring semester. The real estate and private equity industries in particular rely on pass-through entities, and these types of clients are certainly prevalent in NYC.

Notes for part-time students: A part-time student takes several years to complete their program, and thus may take a course listed as a typical "fall" course in a different semester or for fewer credits. For example, instead of the three-credit Corporate Tax course, a part-time student would typically take separate, two-credit sections of Corporate Tax I and Corporate Tax II in the fall, spring, or summer semesters. Part-time students who have taken a course in corporate taxation at the JD level, but who would like additional coverage of taxable and tax-free corporate mergers and acquisitions should consider taking the spring semester two credit course Corporate Tax II.

This area of concentration is designed for students who wish to concentrate in business tax. Depending on your prior scholastic or practice experience, several courses in the corporate area are also recommended for those wishing to concentrate in international taxation.

Full-time students who have not already taken a course on corporate tax should take Corporate Taxation I & II in their fall semester. Students with a solid background in corporate taxation are encouraged to proceed to advanced corporate offerings. 

International Tax I & II (or International Tax I and International Tax II) is typically taken in the fall semester. Advanced International Tax: Outbound is offered in the spring semester. 

Students interested in private equity and real estate work may want to consider taking Partnership Taxation in the fall semester so that they can take Advanced Partnership Tax I in the spring. (Students can take Advanced Partnership Tax II concurrently with Partnership Taxation in the spring.)

We also recommend one or both of Taxation of Property Transactions and Timing Issues and the Income Tax if you have not taken many technical tax courses yet.  A typical program of study might be as follows:

(This is a suggested curriculum for students in the LLM in Taxation degree program who wish to concentrate in international taxation. Please refer to the LLM in International Taxation website for information on our degree program for foreign-educated lawyers.)

The core of our offerings in international taxation consists of the following courses: International Tax I & II (or International Tax I and International Tax II); Advanced International Tax: Outbound; Tax Treaties; Taxation of International Business Transactions (professor permission required for those not enrolled in the LLM in International Taxation degree program); International Tax Policy; and Transfer Pricing. To focus on international taxation, we suggest that you take Corporate Taxation I & II at NYU Law in your first semester if you have not already taken a similar course in your JD program. If you have recently completed a course in corporate tax, you should consider taking the spring courses Advanced Corporate Tax Problems or Taxation of Mergers & Acquisitions as part of your study of international tax.

A typical course of study would be:

*The instructor's permission is required to enroll in International Business Transactions, which is offered only in the spring semester and is primarily intended for students in the LLM in International Taxation degree program.

There are many different valid courses to take in this area, and our advice may need to be tailored to each student's goals. For example, we have part-time students who are currently practicing in estate planning, as well as full-time students who may not know yet if they want to focus largely/exclusively in the area.

At the outset I should note that there are many courses in this area, and it is still important to get a foundation in several general areas of tax that aren't exclusively focused on estate planning. Some students already have taken coursework in the basics and are free to move on, while others may need to both establish their generalist skills in addition to their focus on estate planning. For those who have taken only a basic tax course in their JD program/first law degree, it will not be possible to take all of these interesting courses for academic credit. You may want to consider auditing a course if you can't fit it in. Please ask for advice on which courses may make sense to take for credit vs audit.

Some students are currently in (or want to join) a practice that is almost exclusively focused on estate planning clients, while others may be in a firm (or seeking one) where both estate planning work and transactional work are common. Our advice differs based on the type of practice and market you practice in. In larger markets, specialization is more common, while in smaller markets, a jack-of-all-trades approach is more common.

For example, if you are a full-time student seeking an entry-level position in a large market and are not sure if you want to do estate and gift work yet, perhaps stick to a more generalist route in the fall semester until you have a better sense of what you enjoy and the market. Generally, employers in larger markets who work with multinationals, fund work, real estate, etc., are more interested in seeing course and grades in related courses on a transcript, and tend to be more competitive in terms of GPA. So while your skills and knowledge are vital to your practice, the more competitive positions/markets focus more on the specifics of your transcript. Other employers may be less focused on the specific courses you took.

For further illustration, there is one school of thought that full-time students who are not fully committed to the practice area may not want to take more than a few courses in this area in order to keep their options open for a range of jobs/markets. In that case, a firm with a heavy M & A practice might raise an eyebrow if they see a lot of estate planning courses on a transcript, and they may see other candidates as being more focused on their client base. Smaller firms that don't specialize in this area may be fine if you only audit a course in this area or take just one for credit.

The core of our offerings in the estate planning area consists of three courses: Estate & Gift Taxation (3 credits), Estate Planning (2 credits), and Income Taxation of Trusts & Estates I (2 credits). For students looking to dip their toe into the area with a single course, either Estate and Gift Tax or Income Tax of Trusts and Estates would be a good choice. The former covers the transfer tax regime, which is a tax on the transfer of dynastic wealth. It applies to very large estates that transfer assets during the life of the person (gift tax) or after their death (estate tax), and in the case when a generation is skipped over (GSTT). The latter course covers the income tax and fiduciary rules which arise in estates/trusts of any size when there are income-producing assets.

For those looking to focus exclusively on estate planning, there is still a baseline of general tax coursework that we feel all students should get exposure to: Corporate, International, and Partnership Tax. Tax of Property Transactions and Timing Issues and the Income Tax are also beneficial courses, providing a solid foundation for your other courses while also remediating any gaps in coverage you may have from prior tax coursework. You may need to take less coursework in this area than would normally be recommended for a student who is interested in a corporate/transactional practice advising multinationals, funds, and the like.

Should you retake courses that you already took at the JD level? For someone interested in focusing heavily in estate planning, generally not--there's too many other interesting options in this area to spend time reinventing the wheel. If you have taken estate and gift taxation or corporate tax at the JD level, then you do not need to retake those. That said, if you are interested in blending transactional tax and estate planning (more common at smaller/mid-sized firms; less common at large firms), then you may want to retake a course or two, and not focus entirely on estate planning courses.

If you have not already taken any corporate tax, the material in Corp. Tax II (covering formation and reorgs) may be less essential to someone focused entirely on estate planning.  Taking either the online Corporate Tax I (for part-time students) or the daytime three credit option of Corporate Tax I & II in the spring 2024 semester (for full-time students) would work well. As to International Tax, we have traditionally taught it as a six credit series, but some of our four credit options for Int'l Tax I & II (aimed at full-time students) also survey the material covered in Int'l Tax III.  We offer a one credit Int'l Estate Planning course which focuses on the relevant aspects in the transfer tax and T & E context. One approach might be to take International Tax I (Inbound-the US tax'n of foreign persons' US-source income) to learn the source rules in depth, and then pair that with Int'l Estate Planning, perhaps auditing Int'l Tax II and III. If you can fit in International Tax III, many practitioners find the coverage of PFICs in that course to be very useful.

Professor Manny teaches several valuable courses in this area: Tax Exempt Organizations (2 credits), Private Foundations and Their Alternatives (1 credit), and Tax Aspects of Charitable Giving (2 credits). Many practitioners also find state and local tax (SALT) issues to be relevant if their clients don't limit themselves to one US state, so consider the Multistate Tax classes even if you do not plan on specializing in the SALT area.

There are some non-tax courses that some students consider as electives or asking to sit in on--Trusts and Estates, Family Law, and Art Law, are some examples.

Here are two examples of programs--one for those who already do mostly/exclusively estate and gift work ("Heavy"), and the other ("Versatile") for those looking to keep options open while still focusing in this area. These don't add up exactly to 24 credits, as there are differing options for these courses for full-time and part-time students. Again, if you have already taken one of these courses at another law school, you can free up some credits for other courses by not retaking a course. 

If you are interested in a career in government or in teaching, you should strive to obtain a broad exposure to both tax policy and substantive tax issues. The Tax Policy and Public Finance Colloquium is an excellent option to consider. We offer a broad variety of tax policy courses. In addition, we recommend taking non-policy courses to round out your tax background. Some tax policy courses are mutually exclusive with each other, so as to limit students to a single tax policy course initially. Since these are small seminars that are required for full-time students, we want to make sure everyone gets a shot at their required course before we allow students to add multiple sections.  We may ask you to wait until the first week of the course in question to ad a second policy seminar. Students should exercise care when bidding on more than one tax policy course and can contact the tax office closer to the start of the course to see if additional policy courses may be taken.