The seven-part program for foreign educated attorneys and LL.Bs may be taken at your own pace. The tutorials occur twice weekly for 35 minutes.
Legal Reasoning for American Jurisprudence
The goal is to reason to the satisfaction of the justices of the Federal Courts, specifically USTC. However, the skills sufficient to answer questions presented on the USTC examination require just straight-forward legal analysis that identify the issue(s) and explanation. Each candidate will participate in one-on-one telephonic tutorials to prepare them to analyze test questions, spot issues and write correct answers. This will be accomplished with various real-world scenarios described by the tutor.
Federal Taxation
This substantive topic introduces foreign USTC bar candidates to the complex and absorbing study of Federal taxation covering a broad range of subjects, beginning with basic concepts and individual taxation. Once the fundamentals are covered, tax accounting and the taxation of partnerships and corporations become the focus. The final section of the tutorials presents estate and gift taxation, along with income taxation of trusts and estates and retirement planning. Deferred compensation, education savings, international tax, and some state and local taxation issued are also addressed.
IRS Practice & Procedure
This tutorial provides all the information foreign attorneys who have been admitted to practice before U.S. Tax Court need when dealing with the IRS. It addresses the rapidly changing and increasingly complex area of tax procedure. It is the practitioner’s single most important tool to understanding the procedural changes, IRS restructuring, and ongoing revision of the Internal Revenue Manual and is the key to unlocking the Internal Revenue Code’s and Treasury’s intricate sets of procedural requirements. The electronic treatise used in this tutorial includes opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Tax Court, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and includes more than 500 references to the Internal Revenue Manual, and more than 5,000 case citations, as well as references to thousands of critical Treasury regulations, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, and IRS internal advice.
Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE)
Federal Rules of Evidence is designed for foreign educated USTC bar candidates with no prior exposure to the subject. This tutorial presents the law of evidence and provides a rule-by-rule commentary. Because knowledge of the law of evidence is not enough, this tutorial recognizes that it is one thing to know the rules; it is another to know just how to introduce a letter, lay a foundation for a business record, refresh a witness' recollection, or question a character witness. Hence, the focus is on helping the foreign educated USTC bar candidate bridge the gap from knowing the law of evidence to knowing how to present his or her answers in an IRAC format - issue, rule, application and conclusion. We will review common objections and responses to evidence along with a range of possible responses for "opposing counsel," supplemented with authority. Finally, we provide the guide that will help you get through the daunting task of introducing documents, laying the proper foundation for hearsay exceptions, and overcoming a myriad of other evidentiary hurdles, along with "how-to-do-it" examples in question and answer format.
USTC Rules of Practice & Procedure
U.S. Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure is designed to familiarize the foreign USTC bar candidate with the tax court rules of practice and procedure, including any Interim New Rules and Amendments to the Rules. The second part of the tutorial sets forth a code of conduct, as prescribed under the ABA Model Rules of Professional Responsibility, which tax practitioners must follow in representing taxpayers. The Rules prescribe what must or must not be done. They also advise what a tax practitioner should do. These provisions represent aspirational conduct for the practitioner and provide the guide for proper behavior, even if the client objects. The tutorial then addresses how the U.S. Tax Court may discipline USTC practitioners for violating mandatory rules and the procedural rules for disciplinary proceedings when the Treasury Department seeks to suspend or disbar a practitioner from practice.
Professional Responsibility or Legal Ethics
Professional Responsibility of Lawyers addresses how attorneys are often their own worst legal advisers. They know the law affecting their clients because it is there business to know that, but too frequently, they know little about the law affecting themselves. This tutorial presents the rules and regulations that have been promulgated for attorneys by the American Bar Association and which also apply to tax court practitioners. It is a study of professional responsibility and legal ethics, which together, makeup the ABA Model Code. This tutorial is an especially important subject for individuals who will practice before the U.S. Tax Court. Endemic to the tax law is the very fact that taxpayers sometimes, unwittingly or intentionally, violate the law. The attorney and USTC Practitioner must be aware of when he is at risk of violating the ABA code of ethics in trying to help his client. He or she must also be aware that clients are not always truthful and may often knowingly mislead the attorney or practitioner. Should the practitioner knowingly make misrepresentations to the Court, the consequences could be censorship, suspension, disbarment and could also result in civil liability or criminal prosecution.
Fee: $10,000 - includes five-day/evening 90-minute-to-2-hour telephonic tutorial.
