Attorney Worthington Earns Advanced Law Degree in Tax

I rarely if ever clutter your fax machine with news about myself. Please forgive me, but this one is so good I've just got to announce it. (And - fair warning - I've got another one coming later this year.)

After several years of part-time work, I've been awarded the Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) in Taxation from the Graduate Tax Program at Boston University Law School.

The Master of Laws is a post-doctoral degree in a specialized area of law. All candidates are required to first have earned their basic law degree (Doctor of Jurisprudence, or J.D.). Only 6% of all lawyers go beyond the J.D. to earn an LL.M, and of those, only a fraction earn their LL.M. in tax (there are 50 different fields of law in which to earn an LL.M.). I took my J.D. from Northeastern University Law School.

I originally began the LL.M. program with a focus on how estate taxes affect high-net-worth clients. But I can't tell you how many times my tax background has saved estate planning and elder law clients significant taxes, even though they may be of moderate or even low net worth. And it has been invaluable in creating plans and drafting trusts that have precisely the right combination of tax, property law, and public-benefits law characteristics that is right for each particular client.

Why is it called "LL.M."?

LL.M. is Latin for Legum Magister, signifying Master of Laws. In Latin abbreviations, the plural form of a word is indicated by doubling the letter - hence "LL." is short for Laws. The word legum is the possessive plural form of the Latin word lex, which means "specific laws". When used in the plural, it signifies a specific body of laws, as opposed to the general collective concept embodied in the word jus, from which the word juris and our modern English word "justice" derive.

About the LL.M. in Taxation at Boston University Law School

The Graduate Tax Program of Boston University Law School is in its 43rd year. Its program leading to the LL.M. in Taxation is designed to expose students to the rigorous academic challenges of current tax law, and to train them to be excellent tax practitioners. The goal of the Program is to confer a post-doctoral degree that reflects a mastery of tax law, its practice, its ethics, and some of its subtleties. The LL.M. is an internationally recognized post-doctoral law degree requiring the equivalent of one academic year of full-time study.