About the Executive LL.M.
The E-LLM is a crucial component of the Graduate Tax Program’s distance education initiatives, designed to deepen the engagement of our part-time Graduate Tax Program in particular. The part-time GTP has historically sought working professionals to train them and help them to be better practitioners. Over the course of the distance learning pilot project, the Law School has mastered the technology that enables us to reach a broader audience of qualified students seeking our instruction and we have thereby strengthened our already strong part-time program. Students in the E-LLM program will enroll in the same online courses that part-time GTP students have increasingly enrolled in. Last semester, Fall 2007, there were 44 individual registrations for online courses by 125 individual GTP part-time students, for a total of 356 credits.
Students may only enroll in the E-LLM on a part-time basis. All graduate tax students must complete a total of 24 credits. Part-time degree candidates, such as those enrolled in the E-LLM, must complete 20 of these credits in graduate tax courses, and all students must maintain a B- (2.67) grade point average in all courses. On a part-time basis, a student may take up to five years to complete the degree, with most part-time students finishing their studies in about three years. It is expected that applicants complete a basic federal income tax course before enrolling in the LL.M. program.
Up to four credits may be transferred from another law school, as long as the courses meet the general requirements of the Graduate Division for transfer credit. However, transfer credits will be counted as non-tax elective credits, even if the substantive area covered by the class was taxation. Therefore, all tax LL.M. students still must take at least 20 credits in taxation from NYU School of Law.
Students in the E-LLM must take tax procedure, as do traditional part-time Graduate Tax students. If a student has taken a tax procedure course in law school this requirement may be waived.
Aside from the tax procedure and residence requirements, students are free to design their programs to suit their individual needs. Two general courses that all students should consider taking are Taxation of Property Transactions, and Timing Issues and the Income Tax. Both of these courses cover basic issues and concepts that pervade tax law. The instructors in the more advanced courses assume that all students have mastered this material and do not spend class time reviewing these issues and concepts.
For those students interested in designing their program of study to concentrate on areas of particular interest, the Graduate Tax Program provides suggested courses of study for the following areas: General Taxation, Business Taxation, International Taxation, Estate Planning, and Tax Policy. For detailed information, please visit the Graduate Affairs Web site. In addition to these areas of concentration, NYU School of Law offers a variety of other courses in other areas that might be of interest to a particular student, such as state and local taxation, taxation of executive compensation, and international estate planning.