DU Team Wins Second Place at the ABA Law Student Tax Challenge

A University of Denver Sturm College of Law team recently won second place at the national ABA Law Student Tax Challenge–LLM division. The team of Katie Arsenault (JD/LLM) and Doug Schmidt (LLM) also earned top honors for the best-written submission.

Competition organizers said that this year’s tax challenge was more competitive than ever.

To qualify for the challenge finals, student teams were asked to solve a cutting-edge and complex business problem that might arise in everyday tax practice. Teams were initially evaluated on two criteria: a memorandum to a senior partner and a letter to a client explaining the result.

The team from Denver Law was among only four teams, including those from Temple University (who took first place), Georgetown and Boston University, selected to attend the finals, held at the ABA Section of Taxation 2020 Midyear Meeting, January 30–February 1, in Boca Raton, Fla. Each team defended its submission before a panel of judges representing the nation’s top tax practitioners.

“I had the pleasure of coaching Katie and Doug as they prepared for the finals and also spending time with them in Boca Raton. Katie and Doug were truly superb representatives of the Graduate Tax Program and Denver Law. They are most deserving of this high honor,” said Professor John Wilson, Director of the Graduate Tax Program. “Congratulations are also due to Professor Erin Stearns, who took the lead role in coaching Katie and Doug as they prepared their written submission.”

Congratulations to the team, as well as their coaches, for this outstanding achievement.