NYU Offers New Online Tax Degree
It’s no longer necessary for attorneys who seek a tax degree from one of the nation’s most prestigious law schools to spend much time in a bricks-and-mortar classroom to get it.
Beginning this fall, New York University School of Law will allow 25 part-time students to study online for an “executive” LL.M. degree in taxation, according to the Washington Square News, the university’s student newspaper.
“The tax program at the law school is the best in the country,” says professor Noël Cunningham, who directs the new Internet-based program. “We thought if we offered something online we would be able to allow people—lawyers in other cites, in other countries—to get the benefit of what we teach.”
There will essentially be no difference in the program taught online and the classes that students take to get a traditional LL.M. in tax from NYU, he says. That includes the tuition cost—reportedly $1,731 per credit for either the in-person or online degree.
Although ABA-accredited law schools cannot offer juris doctor degree programs entirely through such distance-learning setups, Cunningham says this prohibition doesn’t apply to NYU’s graduate tax law program, apparently because it is not a juris doctor degree program, according to the National Law Journal. The article says executive tax degree students at NYU must earn two of the required 24 credit hours needed for the LL.M. through on-campus study; the rest can be earned online.
Other ABA-accredited law schools that offer online LL.M. degrees include the University of Connecticut School of Law and Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.
