Recommended Citation
Michael Hatfield, Tax in Law Schools, 78 The Tax Lawyer 71 (2024), https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/faculty-articles/1116
Publication Title
The Tax Lawyer
Keywords
tax law, legal education, tax studies
Document Type
Article
Abstract
At the 2023 Association of American Law Schools Tax Section meeting, professors discussed their impressions of a decline in the number of JD students studying tax. Their impressions were consistent with declines that have been documented in similar fields. Between 2011 and 2021, U.S. accounting programs saw an 18% drop in students, while new CPA candidates declined 39% from 2010 to 2022. In the United Kingdom, the number of law schools that teach tax has diminished by 43% since 2002. This Article examines tax education in 40 U.S. law schools, focusing on course offerings and enrollment trends from 2012 to 2022.
There is good news. All 40 U.S. schools studied offered an introductory Federal Tax course, with 35 offering at least one advanced course and 20 offering two or more. The number of law professors who teach tax has remained steady in recent years. Enrollment in advanced tax courses remained stable, with steady percentages of students enrolled in Partnership Tax, Corporation Tax, and Business Entities Tax.
But there is bad news. Enrollment in advanced tax courses has declined due to shrinking student populations, with mean enrollments dropping in Corporation Tax and Business Entities Tax. Percentage-wise, Federal Tax enrollment fell significantly, from 24% of second and third-year JD students to 18%, with mean enrollments dropping from 89 to 56 students. This decline risks diminishing general familiarity with tax law and jeopardizing future advanced course offerings.