USC Law School Drops Launch of Tax LL.M. Program Because of Poor Job Prospects for Grads
The University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law has decided it’s not a good time to launch a new LL.M. tax program.
Dean Robert Rasmussen put the program on hold because of poor job prospects for graduates with advanced tax degrees, report TaxProf Blog and the National Law Journal.
Rasmussen tells the NLJ the law school began considering the LL.M. program before the economic downturn hit the legal market. “Quite frankly, the demand was drying up and people coming out of the tax LL.M. program would not have had the same prospects as students coming out with a J.D. from USC,” he told the legal newspaper. “The recession hit, and we just didn’t feel comfortable saying, ‘Please give us $50,000 and a year of your life,’ unless we could improve their job prospects.”
Rasmussen said the law school could still add the program if economic conditions change. TaxProf Blog says the school has an “incredibly strong group of tax profs.”
