Temple Team Wins FIRST PLACE in the ABA Tax Section’s Law Student Tax Challenge, LLM Division

Temple Tax LLM students Jennifer Breton and Joshua Runyan won First Place in the LLM Division of the ABA Tax Section’s annual Law Student Tax Challenge.  This nationwide client counseling competition is organized by the Young Lawyers Forum of the Tax Section and attracts teams from all over the United States.  As the ABA explains, the competition is “an alternative to traditional moot court competitions, [which] asks two-person teams of students to solve a cutting-edge and complex business problem that might arise in everyday tax practice. Teams are initially evaluated on two criteria: a memorandum to a senior partner and a letter to a client explaining the result. Based on the written work product, six teams from the J.D. Division and four teams from the LL.M. Division receive a free trip (including airfare and accommodations for two nights) to the Section’s 2020 Midyear Meeting, January 30-February 1, in Boca Raton, Florida . . . .”  There, the teams defended their submissions “before a panel of judges representing the country’s top tax practitioners and government officials, including Tax Court judges.” 

This year’s LLM problem was particularly complex, implicating difficult provisions recently enacted by Congress in the 2017 tax legislation informally known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as well as the notoriously complex provisions that govern the taxation of partnerships and the so-called “Check-the-Box” regulations.  The team was brilliantly coached by Professor Andy Weiner, Director of Temple’s Graduate Tax (LLM) Program, and mooted by members of Temple’s tax and trial advocacy faculty as well as a number of members of its Adjunct Faculty.

Congratulations, Jen and Josh! (click here to learn more)