Low Income Taxpayer Clinic

6-8 units

Open to 2L and 3L J.D students. The Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) is a transdisciplinary clinic that provides law students and business students with a client forward opportunity to develop skills to holistically represent clients in tax-related legal disputes. Law students will act as “student attorneys” and business students will provide compliance support. Students will represent low-income taxpayers in disputes with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including possible appearances before the Tax Court. A law student's primary experience will be to perform the tasks of advising and advocating on behalf of low-income taxpayer clients. Law students will also be exposed to the legal and ethical problems that attorneys face in practice. In this clinic, students can expect to engage in: problem solving; legal analysis and reasoning; legal research; factual investigation; client interviewing and counseling; oral and written communication; negotiation; litigation; organization and management of legal work; and recognizing and resolving ethical dilemmas. In addition to individual supervision meetings, students must attend a weekly seminar. Students are required to have either taken or be simultaneously taking Federal Income Taxation. This is a clinic that involves extensive client interaction. [Note: Students are prohibited from taking more than one clinic/externship/supervised practicum in the same semester. Students who are not in good standing (for either academic or disciplinary reasons) are not eligible to participate in a clinic/externship. Law students will earn 6 credits for the clinic, although a student may earn up to 8 credits with permission of the professor depending on workload. For 6 credits, students must work a minimum of 255 hours over the course of the semester. The course is graded on a modified pass/fail basis: HP (3.90), P, LP (3.00) and F (2.50). To participate in this clinic, you must either have completed or be currently enrolled in courses containing at least 5 cumulative hours of education on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism (BCCCR content). This clinic includes 2 hours of BCCCR content, so in total, you will need 3 hours from your other courses to meet the requirement. Courses that include BCCCR content are tagged in Workday to help you track your progress.