Subject areas of interest The business is a general advisor, counselor, and project manager. The foundation course for all of this is, of course, hat should I take if I am considering a W particular specialty or type of law a good grounding in and Sales. This practice? This question was put to our faculty course should have made particular sense to you and other experts in each area and here, in as a first-year student. The gateway to upper alphabetical order of the type of practice, is level courses is Business Associations, with guidance in: Corporation Finance Law being a necessary follow-on which covers advanced corporation • Business Law law as well as the law governing a business’ • Commercial Law / Bankruptcy financial structure. It is very important for a • Criminal Law business lawyer to have a grounding in the financial basics of business, and therefore • Environmental Law consider Legal Accounting if you did not have • Estate Planning such a background before coming to law school. • Family Law Securities Regulation will be important to • Health Care Law most business , and should be on your • short list. It is not a “boutique” or “specialty” • International Law course, but a core skill. You should take • Litigation Secured Transactions early in your studies, • Real Estate Law as well as Bankruptcy if you find an aptitude • Solo Practice and interest in creditor’s remedies. Taxation I • is an absolute requirement, if only for the ability to recognize tax issues to be referred to a * * * specialist. Corporate or Partnership Tax would be very useful even if you do not plan a “tax practice.” Similarly, Intellectual Business Law Property and Employment Law are necessary for the competent business lawyer. -- Douglas Michael Round out your expertise as a business lawyer -- Rutheford Campbell with some of the specialty courses such as

Antitrust, Banking Law, Labor Law, or business or “corporate” lawyer is involved Nonprofit Organizations. If the international in helping her client’s business succeed, A aspects interest you, consider International plain and simple. Trade Law, which is the public law of trade, This will involve the organization of the business and International Business Transactions, as a start-up, including advising on the form of which is the law of private businesses crossing business, employment contracts, how funds will international borders. be put in, relationships among owners and Important skills courses for a business lawyer creditors, and other basics. There will be would be Legal Drafting which should be advising about regulatory compliance, contracts, taken early on, and the capstone Business taxes, and the like. Planning or International Business As counselor to a mature business, the lawyer Transactions courses. will be involved in financing deals, changes in form or organization, refinancing of debt or * * * other obligations, acquisitions, regulatory compliance with stock exchanges and securities regulators, occasionally also bankruptcy and workouts with creditors. 1

Commercial Law / Partnership and Corporate Tax Business Planning Bankruptcy Advanced Civil Litigation Courses in both trial and appellate advocacy -- Christopher Frost Federal Courts Employment Law he general field of commercial law is Employee Benefits T broad. It can encompass a wide variety of Environmental Law activities: negotiating sales contracts; litigating Immigration Law contractual disputes; assisting banks in making Antitrust loans; debt collection; advising on leases of real or personal property; and a host of other general You will likely be representing businesses, and business problems. Bankruptcy practice is very commercial law disputes rarely fit into narrowly similar. Although it seems like a narrow defined categories. This is especially true of specialty, bankruptcy is simply an amalgam of bankruptcy practice. Although you may not be general legal issues. The subject matter is made able to fit all of these classes in, the broader your more challenging by the fact that the business or understanding of these types of subjects, the individual is in extreme financial distress. The more effective you will be. upshot is that bankruptcy and commercial lawyers are expected to understand the full * * * range of business law and civil litigation practice. Criminal Law The best place to start is with a firm grasp of the basics. The basic courses necessary for -- Cortney Lollar commercial and bankruptcy practice are: Business Associations f you are interested in pursuing a career in Secured Transactions I criminal law, there are three essential Bankruptcy classes you should take: Criminal Procedure, Taxation I Criminal Trial Process, and Evidence. Evidence These three classes form the basis for much of Trusts and Estates what takes places daily in criminal practice, for Administrative Law both the prosecution and defense, and most employers will want to see that you have taken These courses can be taken in either the second them prior to hiring. or third year, but because of prerequisites, you Two other highly recommended classes are should strongly consider taking at least Business Immigration Law and some type of hands-on Associations, Taxation I and Evidence during experience-based class, such as the Legal your second year. Doing so will assure that you Clinic, an Externship, Litigation Skills or will have an opportunity to take advanced Civil Pretrial Practice. Criminal law and corporations, tax and litigation oriented courses immigration law are increasingly overlapping. should you choose. As of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Padilla v.

Kentucky a few years back, criminal lawyers In addition, there are a number of courses that need to know the immigration consequences of may be helpful to you in commercial practice. various criminal convictions and sentences. As a They include: result, learning immigration law is important for Payment Systems lawyers in criminal practice. Real Estate Transactions Corporation Finance Going into criminal practice with hands-on Securities Regulation experience of some type is also tremendously Banking Law 2

helpful. Several experience-based options are Environmental Law available, all of which would give you the invaluable experience of working with clients, a -- Michael Healy skill that is beneficial in any type of criminal practice you may decide to pursue. University of he law school curriculum offers significant Kentucky’s experiential options include the T opportunities to develop a strong Legal Clinic, the Department of Public Advocacy background in the law of environmental policy, externship, an externship with the Fayette protection, and regulation. County Attorney’s Office, the Prosecutorial Externship in the Commonwealth Attorney’s A student interested in pursuing an Office or County Attorney office, the Prison environmental law practice needs to take the Externship, the Innocence Project Externship, Environmental Law survey course as well as and the Children’s Law Center Externship. Other Administrative Law. It does not matter the hands-on options allow for the development of order in which these courses are taken, or skills essential to every day practice involving whether they are taken in the same semester. litigation. Although Litigation Skills and Pretrial Each course will have some value in helping your Practice do not involve actual clients and are not understanding of the other course. A third necessarily grounded in criminal practice, they important course to consider is the Externship provide the opportunity to learn how to navigate with the Cabinet for Energy and the a case from start to finish, which is Environment in Frankfort. A student who is indispensable. enrolled in or who has completed the Environmental Law course may work as an Depending on what type of work you are extern with attorneys in Frankfort practicing in interested in pursuing – e.g., capital/habeas the areas of environmental, energy and natural corpus, juvenile, appellate, federal prosecution resources law. The externship is limited to four or defense – numerous other courses students each semester and is intended to complement the core criminal courses nicely. provide a valuable introduction to For those who want to litigate at the federal environmental practice. level, Federal Criminal Law is a great class to take. For those interested in juvenile or capital Other courses offered at the law school should work, Capital Punishment, Education Law, also be seriously considered by students who and Race, Racism and the Criminal Law have an interest in environmental law. These are important core classes. Federal Appellate courses include Int’l Environmental Law, a Advocacy will benefit those who want to litigate course in which you will develop a basic at the trial or appellate level, while Negotiating understanding of public international law and Process provides significant insights for future the customary and treaty law that addresses lawyers who may be involved in negotiating plea global and regional problems of environmental agreements (in other words, anyone involved in degradation; Land Use Planning, a course in trial-level criminal litigation). The criminal law which you will study fifth amendment takings seminars are also a great place for in-depth law in depth; Legislation, a course in which study of various aspects of criminal law and you will study the legislative process and the litigation. various approaches to interpreting statutes (which at present constitute the principal body * * * of environmental law); Alternative Dispute Resolution, a course in which you will consider the methods of resolving legal disputes outside of court -- methods that are becoming increasingly important to resolving environmental law disputes; and Energy and Mineral Law and Policy, a course in which you will study the law and regulation of energy 3

production and transmission. If you are returns and assisting the personal representative interested in criminal enforcement of in administering the estate and distributing its environmental laws, you should also consider assets. Finally, an estate planner may elective courses in the areas of criminal law and occasionally have to mediate or litigate procedure. You may gain additional insights controversies such as will contests, suits against into environmental law by taking related the estate and disputes with the Internal seminars, in which you could select a topic that Revenue Service. implicates environmental law, including International Law, Property Topics and There are a number of courses that a student Criminal Law. In addition to all of these should consider taking if he or she is interested courses, KJEANRL provides an important in practicing in the estate planning area. opportunity to research and write about Essential courses include Trusts & Estates, environmental law issues and to read and edit Estate and Gift Taxation, and Advanced Estate new scholarship in the environmental law area. Planning. Students who take advantage of these various curricular and co-curricular opportunities Trusts & Estates is a foundational course. It should have a strong background in covers the probate process, intestate succession, environmental law by the time of graduation. requirements for the execution, modification and revocation of wills, rules relating to both * * * private and charitable trusts, and principles of fiduciary administration for personal representatives and trustees. Estate Planning Estate and Gift Tax is concerned with federal -- Richard Ausness wealth transfer taxes, whether occurring during -- Jennifer Bird-Pollan lifetime or after death. Among other things, students who take this course will gain state planners perform a multitude of legal experience with statutory interpretation and E functions and may serve a number of applying statutes to problems and fact patterns. different types of clients. Of course, an estate They will also consider how to balance the goal planner may provide services for an individual of minimizing tax liability with other goals, such client, as well as a married couple or family. In as meeting the financial needs of survivors, addition, a practitioner in this area may act as an providing for the management of property for attorney for an estate or a trust or may serve as a minors and incompetent persons and reducing personal representative of an estate or as a the costs of probate and estate administration. trustee. Among other services, estate planners Taxation I and Trusts & Estates are strongly may provide legal advice to clients, draft legal recommended before taking this course. instruments, probate estates and represent clients in litigation. The advising function may Advanced Estate Planning is a skills oriented involve financial planning, tax planning, course. Problems will be distributed to the class planning for retirement and structuring family involving detailed factual situations. Students owned businesses. Estate planners will also be will be expected to draft wills, trusts and other expected to draft a variety of legal documents legal documents. Role playing will be used to such as wills (including those with testamentary simulate realistic situations. Emphasis will be trusts), inter vivos trust instruments, documents placed on interviewing, communicating with relating to the formation of Limited Liability clients, ethical considerations, financial planning Companies, as well as conveyances and leases of and drafting skills. Students will be exposed to real property. Probate work is an important part such sophisticated estate planning tools as of any estate planner’s practice. This includes revocable trusts, trusts using unified credit obtaining the appointment of a personal exemptions for both spouses, charitable representative, filing state and federal tax remainder trusts prenuptial agreements post 4

nuptial agreements and qualified pension plans. Termination of parental rights cases involved Estate and gift Taxation and Trusts & Estates are questions about state power to remove children prerequisites for this course. from their birth parents. A working knowledge of individual constitutional rights is important in Other useful courses include: Taxation I, these cases. Partnership Tax, Family Law, Nonprofit Organizations, and Business Associations. Most of the practice of family law occurs in motion hour. Students who have had practice in * * * public speaking — whether gained through Litigation Skills or other similar simulation courses or through actual Clinical Family Law representation of live clients -- will find that prior experience very helpful. This is not to -- Louise Graham say that actual trial work does not occur, but litigation is not as frequent as motion practice. amily Law consists of two primary areas: F disputes between adults, which can include In addition, many cases are settled through both financial arguments and those over access mediation and/or negotiation, so those skills are to and responsibility for children, and disputes also helpful to students. between the state and adults over the care and control of minor children, for example, Students who have an interest in representing dependency, neglect and abuse or termination of children as Guardians ad litem (GAL) should parental rights actions. Thus the basic courses expect to be required to have additional post law in Family Law and Children and the Law school training beyond taking law school courses introduce a law student to these areas. such as Family Law and Children and the Law. Training requirements are likely to be set Although financial disputes are not limited to by the Administration Office of the Courts and married couples, they form a significant part of the Cabinet for Health and Human Services. divorce practice. In Kentucky, courts are Family Courts in Kentucky generally require required to determine the nature of property both additional training and experience before owned by the parties (whether it is marital or admission to a GAL list for children’s nonmarital) and then to divide the marital representation. property between the parties. This aspect of divorce means that financial literacy is a critical * * * component of divorce practice. If attorneys have clients with significant assets, they will have to know how to value those assets correctly. Both Health Care Law Legal Accounting and Corporate Finance Law are helpful courses that teach underlying -- Nicole Huberfeld principles needed for this activity. If attorneys have clients with significant debt, there are still ealthcare law is a fascinating topic to problems that must be faced. Bankruptcy is an H study in law school because it is a extremely helpful course for those practicing “renaissance” subject. Whether students divorce law. are interested in practicing transactional and regulatory health law, or learning about more Because the family is a constitutionally theoretical and bioethical issues, or simply significant unit, it also helps to take seeking to expand their legal learning Constitutional Law II. Some areas of family experience, health law will not disappoint. It is law are really about the constitutional rights of an area that encourages students to draw on and the parties involved. For example, paternity synthesize every building block of legal cases have long raised questions about the education, including constitutional law, torts, constitutional rights of unwed fathers. contracts, property, , and 5

administrative law. To lay the best groundwork, Finally, students interested in health students are strongly encouraged to enroll in administration should explore the joint JD- Business Associations, Administrative MHA program with the UK College of Public Law, and Constitutional Law II. Health. Details are available on our web page. Nicole Huberfeld was Associate Dean and Students can enroll in a variety of classes that Professor at the College of Law through June, will help to build a foundation in health law and 2017. She is now Professor of Health Law, to develop special areas of focus. Both of the Ethics & Human Rights at the School of Public health law survey courses (Healthcare Health and Professor of Law at the School of Organizations and Finance, and Bioethical Law at Boston University. Issues in the Law) should be taken; note that the two surveys stand alone and have no * * * prerequisites. Students must take either Healthcare Organizations and Finance or Bioethical Issues in the Law in order to take the Intellectual Property seminar entitled Healthcare Law and Policy Seminar. This seminar provides an opportunity -- Brian Frye for students to complete the substantial writing requirement by studying a topic in health law o, you want to be an intellectual property with some vigor. Students can also enroll in S lawyer? The first question to ask yourself is Medical Liability, which covers theories of what kind of intellectual property practice you legal liability for healthcare providers generally want to pursue. and, more specifically, medical malpractice in There are four primary kinds of intellectual Kentucky. property: patents, copyrights, trademarks, and Other relevant courses include Advanced trade secrets. Each kind of intellectual property Torts, which covers products liability, an area of is governed by a separate and distinct body of increasing importance to larger healthcare law. In addition, there are several different industry players like pharmaceutical companies; practice areas that address intellectual property Legislation, which covers the legislative issues. For example, patents are important in all process and the various approaches to STEM-related industries, including computers, interpreting statutes (statutes and regulations pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing. Copyrights form the core body of healthcare law); and are important in all industries involving creative Partnership and Corporate Tax, which cover works of any kind, including publishing, motion tax issues that shape corporate structures for pictures, music, and computer software. many healthcare providers (particularly Trademarks are important to branding in all physicians and nonprofit, tax-exempt entities). fields of business. Trade secrets are important to Students interested in criminal enforcement of companies that use proprietary information that healthcare fraud should also consider elective cannot effectively be protected by other forms of courses such as Criminal Procedure, intellectual property. Federal Criminal Law, and Antitrust Law. Patent law includes two practice areas: patent Practice experience is readily available through prosecution and patent litigation. Patent the UK Healthcare Office of Risk prosecution is the representation of patent Management Externship, which allows applicants before the Patent and Trademark students the opportunity to work in the General Office, which determines the validity of patent Counsel’s office for the University Hospital. applications. In order to prosecute patents, you Experience with legal aspects of health care must have a science or engineering background delivery is also available in the Child Advocacy and pass the patent bar. In order to litigate Today Externship, which operates at the UK patents, neither the patent bar nor a science or Children’s Hospital. engineering background is strictly necessary, but

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it helps. By contrast, there are no special resource management. The latter course focuses requirements for copyright, trademark, and on the World Trade Organization and the trade secret practice. intricate legal regime that has developed to regulate trade disputes between and among The University of Kentucky College of Law offers nations. Students who seek a capstone several intellectual property courses, and several experience in international law should consider courses in related subjects. Intellectual property taking the International Law Seminar, practice is broad, including not only securing which allows participants to study and write and defending intellectual property rights, but about an issue in public international law that also forming and enforcing agreements relating interests them. Enrollment in the seminar is to those rights. Depending on your interests, you available only to students who have taken at might consider the following courses: least one of the three courses described above.

● Intellectual Property Students who expect to practice business law or ● Copyright Law engage in transactional work with an ● Patent Law international dimension should consider ● Internet Law enrolling in International Business ● Business Associations Transactions. This course provides an ● Business Planning opportunity to study the regime that governs a ● Antitrust Law rapidly expanding area of commercial activity, ● Healthcare Organizations and namely sales between private parties across Finance international borders. As a supplement to ● Bioethical Issues in the Law International Business Transactions, a student ● Law and Economics. should take International Taxation. This course examines the federal income tax * * * implications of investments and business activities that foreign persons undertake in the United States and that U.S. persons undertake International Law outside the United States.

-- Mark Kightlinger Students interested in the institutions that make and administer international law may wish to nternational law has a public component, take, on a pass-fail basis, Political Science I which deals with legal relationships between 737, Global Governance: Transnational nation states, and a private component, which Organizations and Processes. This course deals with transborder relationships between examines different approaches to the study of private persons, including companies and international, transnational and regional individuals. The International Law course political and economic organizations and provides an introduction to public international processes within the context of world politics. A law and discusses how that body of law fits into prerequisite for this course is successful the U.S. legal system. Any student who has an completion of one of the following law courses: interest in international law should take this International Law, International Trade Law, or course, because it provides a strong foundation International Environmental Law. in the basic principles governing the field. For students who wish to examine an area of public Students who wish to combine their study of international law in greater depth, we offer international law with an in-depth study of International Environmental Law and international relations should consider applying International Trade Law. The former for admission to the JD/MA dual degree examines the body of law addressing program that the College of Law offers in international pollution control, including efforts conjunction with the University of Kentucky’s to combat global warming, and international Patterson School of Diplomacy and 7

International Commerce. This program helps Evidence and Legal Research and Writing students to prepare for careers in international are the foundational courses for any litigator. As law (public or private), international business, someone said, “a case is only as strong as its government service in the international sector, evidence.” Likewise, a litigator must possess international development, and national security excellent research and analytical skills. It takes and intelligence. This is one of very few such knowledge of precedent and the ability to find programs in the country. To earn the JD/MA that precedent to analyze the probable outcome dual degree, a student must satisfy the of a case. Students should also take a requirements of both the Patterson School and combination of skills courses and substantive the College of Law. courses in the particular area of law in which they wish to practice. Aspiring litigators should Finally, in addition to taking courses in take skills courses that emphasize learning by international law and related subjects, students doing such as Alternative Dispute may pursue their interests in international law Resolution, Negotiation, Legal Clinic, Civil in written work that they complete for the Pretrial Practice, Criminal Trial Process, Kentucky Law Journal or the Kentucky Litigation Skills, Externships and Federal Journal of Environmental, Agriculture, Appellate Advocacy. As a prosecutor or and Natural Resources Law. criminal defense attorney, students also need to have a firm substantive grasp of Criminal * * * Procedure, Criminal Trial Process, Race, Racism and the Criminal Law, and Federal Criminal Law. Helpful courses for students Litigation with an interest in civil litigation include Administrative Law, Federal Courts, -- Allison Connelly Insurance, Remedies and other specialized

courses. itigation is all about lawsuits. Litigation is L the process of resolving civil disputes or criminal charges through negotiations or plea * * * agreements, or through trials before judges, juries, administrative panels and arbitrators. A Real Estate Law litigator is the “trial attorney” who represents clients involved in the civil or criminal litigation -- Stephen Clowney process; the attorney who initiates or defends a client throughout the court process. The eal estate law involves every aspect of litigation process requires a combination of both R commercial and residential transactions substantive legal knowledge in a particular field and investments. Real estate lawyers provide of law (civil or criminal) and the full range of their clients with advice on the purchase and both pretrial and trial practice skills. Litigators sale of property, financing regulations, drafting are typically skilled in the following: conducting contracts, property management, environmental fact investigations, demonstrating a command of compliance, and litigation relating to these the case facts and law that governs those facts, areas. They also help their clients understand drafting a variety of pleadings, motions and the local land use restrictions (zoning, responses, conducting discovery and pre-trial subdivision, historic preservation, etc.) that depositions, settling cases through mediation, impact real estate projects. More specifically, negotiation and arbitration, and preparing for lawyers who specialize in real estate transactions trial. If the case goes to trial, the litigator must spend much of their time drafting and reviewing be skilled in trial procedure and the mechanics documents, counseling clients and risk of picking a jury, conducting a direct and cross- mitigation strategies, and negotiating terms for examination, and performing a persuasive the transactions on which they are working. opening statement and closing argument. 8

Employment opportunities for real estate there is almost no way for a solo or small firm lawyers are varied. Most lawyers who handle practitioner to offer a comprehensive range of residential real estate transactions work in legal services. Instead, the solo or small firm smaller firms or solo practice. In contrast, practitioner must usually concentrate their specialists in commercial real estate transactions practice in a few areas that involve relatively often find jobs in the real estate departments of short-term cases with fees paid up-front, or as large firms. Still other real estate lawyers work the work progresses. Most often, small firms and for corporations, real estate development solo practitioners handle cases in these four companies, financial institutions, title areas: criminal defense, family law, probate, and companies, or in the building and zoning perhaps some modest amount of civil plaintiff’s departments of local governments. work.

The two most fundamental classes to take to Criminal defense comprises a large part of the prepare for a career in real estate are Real business of most small firms or solo Estate Transactions and Taxation I. Other practitioners. You should therefore consider core courses include Business Associations, completing as many of the following as possible: Land Use Planning, Negotiations, Criminal Procedure, Criminal Trial Remedies, Secured Transactions, Process, Advanced Criminal Law, Federal Environmental Law, and Bankruptcy. Criminal Law, Immigration Law, Capital Finally, basic financial literacy and a broad Punishment, and the Criminal business law foundation can be extremely Law/Procedure Seminar. Externships in the helpful in understanding the needs of clients. area of criminal law are highly recommended Students interested in a career in real estate may such as the DPA Externship, Innocence want to consider enrolling in an accounting Project Externship, Immigration Law course or pursing an introductory finance class externship, or the Fayette County Attorney through the business school. Externship.

Stephen Clowney was a Professor at the College To sharpen your skills in the area of family law of Law until 2014, and is currently a Professor you should consider Family Law, Children of Law at University of Arkansas – Fayetteville. and the Law, the seminar on “Regulation of the Modern Family,” and the Children’s * * * Law Center Externship or the Child Advocacy Today Externship.

Solo Practice Probate Court training can be obtained by completing classes in Trusts and Estates and -- Patrick Nash Advanced Estate Planning.

here are significant advantages to being a In order to prepare for the occasional plaintiff’s T solo or small firm practitioner. Chief civil case, it might be important to consider: among them are independence and flexibility. • Civil Pretrial Practice As a solo or small firm practitioner you call the • Economic and Dignitary Torts shots; you decide what cases to take or reject; • Depositions you decide what hours to work; you decide how • Insurance many hours to work. You will have the flexibility • Negotiating Process to tailor your practice to your lifestyle as you see • Alternative Dispute Resolution. fit. There are, of course, some trade-offs. It is very difficult for solo or small firm practitioners Finally, there are several business law classes to take on complex and/or protracted litigation, that may be valuable for the solo and small firm especially if the legal fees for such litigation are practitioner in properly managing their own not paid until the conclusion of the case. And, business:

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• Business Associations a small tax practice as part of a general practice, • Employee Benefits doing minor controversy work or advising on tax • Employment Law planning matters for small businesses. Many law • Legal Accounting students who decide to practice in the tax area • Partnership Tax decide to enroll in an LL.M. program, either right after finishing their J.D. degree, or after a • State and Local Tax few years of law practice. An internship at the • Legal Profession Seminar IRS, or a clerkship on the U.S. tax court are Good luck to all you independent-minded other excellent introductions to tax practice. students considering solo practice! For specific recommendations related to the practice of estate and gift taxation, see the Patrick Nash is a 1991 graduate of the College of course recommendations for Estate Planning. Law and is a partner at Nash Marshall PLLC in Lexington. He specializes in complex criminal Tax I deals with the fundamental principles of defense cases. the income tax applied to both individual and corporate taxpayers. The subject matter can be * * * divided into five broad categories: identification and computation of gross income; business and personal deductions; identification of the proper Tax Law taxpayer with respect to income and deductions; determination of the proper years for including -- Jennifer Bird-Pollan items in income or claiming deductions; and capital gains taxation. On a second level, here are a number of courses that a throughout the course great attention is devoted T student should consider taking if he or she to the legal process: the interrelationship and is interested in practicing in the Tax area. Tax relative weight of statutes – the Internal practice can come in a variety of forms, and tax Revenue Code – Regulations promulgated by the lawyers work in small and large firms, solo Department of the Treasury, and case law. practices, and for the government. Tax lawyers can be trial attorneys, if they choose to practice Partnership Tax focuses primarily on the tax in the area of tax controversy, representing concerns of small businesses organized in the either the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or partnership form. Its structure and content is taxpayers in conflicts. Many tax lawyers work in designed to provide the general tax background tax planning, helping taxpayers (either business that any lawyer, whether a general practitioner entities or individuals) structure their activities in a small city or a corporate lawyer in a large in a way that minimizes their tax liabilities. In city, needs in order adequately to advise clients larger firms, tax lawyers will specialize, giving whether to form a partnership to conduct a advice primarily to real estate firms, business and how to draft the various corporations, or investment partnerships. These documents, such as the partnership agreement lawyers become specialists in particular areas of or buy-sell agreements, in order to secure the the tax code, and typically work in larger cities. most favorable tax treatment. Specific topics Tax lawyers in smaller markets are more likely covered with respect to both partnerships to have a broader practice covering a variety of include formation of the organization, taxation taxpayers and scenarios. Tax lawyers might also of operating income and distributions of profits specialize in state and local tax (as opposed to to partners, sales of interests back to the entity federal tax), international tax (advising as to the (liquidation of partnership interests), liquidation U.S. tax consequences of international of the corporation or partnership entity, and transactions) or employee benefits (looking at selected topics regarding sales of partnership the tax consequences of employee health or interests. The course also includes an retirement plans or executive compensation). introduction to corporate taxation. Because the Finally, a solo practitioner might expect to have structure and many specific contractual 10

provisions of many corporate transactions and real estate investment arrangements (which are most often organized as partnerships) are very strongly influenced by tax considerations this is a vital course for anyone planning to practice "corporate" or "real estate" law and a necessary course for anyone involved in a “general practice” involving a significant number of "business" clients.

Corporate Tax builds on Partnership Tax, but it is not a prerequisite. This course focuses primarily on corporations and S-Corporations. It is an essential course for anyone planning to practice corporate law.

Depending on a student’s particular interests, they may consider these other useful courses: • Administrative Law • Bankruptcy • Business Associations • Corporation Finance Law • Employee Benefits law • Family Law • Int’l Business Transactions • Int’l Tax • Legal Accounting • Nonprofit Organizations • Real Estate Transactions • State and Local Tax Law • Seminar: Tax Policy.

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