Georgetown Law Students Win ABA Tax Challenge

January 29, 2013 —

Clayton Collins (LL.M.'13)

Logan Kincheloe (LL.M.'13)

Georgetown University Law Center students Clayton Collins (LL.M.’13) and Logan Kincheloe (LL.M.’13) were awarded first place in the LL.M. division at the 12th annual ABA Section of Taxation Law Student Tax Challenge. The final round took place during the Section of Taxation’s mid-year meeting in Orlando January 25.

Described on the ABA website as “an alternative to traditional moot court competitions,” the Tax Challenge presents each student team with a complex business problem that might arise in everyday tax practice. The ABA Tax Section received written submissions from LL.M. law school teams around the country and ultimately selected four of these teams to compete in the final round.

This year’s competition involved reorganizing a U.S. corporation out of bankruptcy as a Bermuda corporation, generally referred to as an inversion transaction. During the final round, Collins and Kincheloe presented their analysis of the tax consequences of the client’s proposed business plan and options for the client moving forward. A panel of four judges acting as senior partners decided the results.

Collins and Kincheloe placed first in both the written and oral competitions. Georgetown Law Adjunct Professor Paul Schmidt, partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP, served as their faculty adviser.