Contacts:

Director:  Philip Postlewaite
Associate Director:  Genevieve Tokic
Program Office: 312-503-3300; taxlaw@law.northwestern.edu

Program Overview

The LLM Tax curriculum gives students a foundational understanding of tax law, which they can apply to a wide array of specialty tax elective courses.  The required courses cover the four principal areas of the modern tax law: Taxation of Property Transactions, Corporate Taxation, Partnership Taxation, and International Taxation.  Students also can choose from a variety of elective courses with the opportunity to pursue particular areas of the tax law or to further expand their exposure to various areas of the tax law. 

Enrollment Options

Degree-seeking students may choose to pursue the full-time or part-time enrollment plan; degree requirements are the same for both options.  Students should refer to the Tuition webpage to review rates associated with the various options.

Program of Study

Beyond the required courses, students are free to design their own program of study and can choose from over 28 different tax electives. Many students choose to enroll in courses covering a variety of subject areas; however, students have the option to choose specific elective courses that reflect their specialized interest in a particular area of taxation.

Degree Requirements:

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Students may take additional courses from the Advanced Corporate Tax and Advanced International Tax course lists to satisfy the elective credit requirement.

Tax Certificates

While enrolled in the Tax Program, full-time, part-time, joint degree, and non-degree students can choose to earn a certificate in one of four substantive areas of taxation: Corporate Tax, International Tax, Tax Controversy, and Wealth Transfer and Legacy Planning. To receive a certificate, the student would need to take 10 credits of the following courses:

Corporate Tax

International Tax

Tax Controversy

Wealth Transfer and Legacy Planning

Tax Faculty

The Tax Program's full-time faculty members have extensive tax scholarship and teaching experience.  They are experts in their fields of taxation and have collectively published more than 11 tax law treatises and casebooks.  Our tax adjunct faculty members are leading tax professionals from top law and accounting firms in Chicago. Many are also published authors on their areas of expertise and speak at various tax conferences and events on a regular basis.

For a listing of Tax Program full-time and adjunct faculty members, please see the Tax Faculty Profiles.

Tax Courses 

Courses with the TAXLAW subject are open primarily to students in the LLM Tax program.  JD and LLM students may enroll into open seats in Tax electives during the add/drop period.  Please note while every effort is made to ensure these lists are accurate, change is inevitable.  Not all courses are offered each year.  For specific program information, including a list of required courses, please refer to the LLM Tax Degree Requirements section