New York University Executive LL.M. in Taxation in 2027

The Executive Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation from New York University (NYU) School of Law is a part-time degree you can complete entirely online, built for experienced tax lawyers and held to the same admission standard as the on-campus program.

NYU Law created the Executive LL.M. so that qualified lawyers are no longer limited by location. You earn the same degree from the same Graduate Tax Program, which has been training tax lawyers since 1945 and reports more than 10,000 alumni. Most of the students are experienced attorneys who live outside the New York region.

They work at law firms, at accounting firms and in-house at corporations, and they practice across the United States as well as in Europe and Asia. Courses are delivered in high-resolution video, and professors stay reachable through discussion boards, email and telephone. If you've already got a busy practice, the format lets you study without moving.

The Executive LL.M. is a law degree for lawyers. You need a first degree in law, a J.D. or LL.B. from a law school approved by the American Bar Association's Section of Legal Education, or a law degree from a non-U.S. school approved by its foreign equivalent.

NYU calls admission highly selective, and the standard matches the on-campus program. Current students work at law firms, at accounting firms and in-house at corporations, so you're studying alongside people already in practice. When you finish, you join the Graduate Tax Program's alumni network of more than 10,000 people who lead major law and accounting firms, government, the judiciary, academia and large corporations.

Where this degree can lead: Masters in Taxation Jobs.

Who It Fits

• Tax lawyers outside the New York area: the program's students practice across the United States, Europe and Asia, and every course can be taken online.
• Attorneys with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) or a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.): NYU requires a first degree in law from a school approved by the American Bar Association or a foreign equivalent.
• Lawyers who need to control their timing: you can watch each class at any hour and take final exams at home or in your office with a video proctoring device.
• Government lawyers looking to move into private practice: a graduate who finished in two years reported landing at a large law firm after seven years in government.
• Lawyers who want real conversation with faculty: students have direct access to professors through online discussion boards, email and telephone conversations.

In most semesters more than a dozen different online courses are offered, ranging from Taxation of Mergers and Acquisitions to Tax Policy. NYU says the Executive LL.M. lets you take many of the same courses and have the same high quality educational experience as on-campus tax students.

The Graduate Tax Program's bulletin backs that up: it tells Executive LL.M. students that most of the courses in its suggested curricula run in the online class format. So you can build the same kind of plan an on-campus student would.

Common elective choices the bulletin names include Timing Issues and the Income Tax, Taxation of Executive Compensation, Income Taxation of Trusts and Estates I, a course in Multistate Taxation and Taxation of Private Equity Transactions. One course is required: you must take a tax procedure course.

You're also welcome to take classes on campus in Greenwich Village whenever you visit New York, and you can keep up with panels and programs at Washington Square by watching videos of them.

Standout Features

• Can be completed entirely online
• Network of more than 10,000 NYU Law tax alumni

The degree requires 24 credits, and NYU says students have up to five years to complete them. The program is typically finished in 3 to 5 years of study. A graduate who posted on a forum in 2023 completed the Executive LL.M. in two years.

Part-time students register for up to six credits a semester unless they're approved for a credit load increase, so the pace you choose, from a single class a term to a full six credits, sets your finish date.

Whatever the pace, you must include a tax procedure course.

For 2026-2027, tuition is $3,638 per credit. An $865 fee applies to the first credit and $79 to each credit after the first. A $121 School of Law technology fee applies each semester. At that rate, the 24 credits come to $87,312 in tuition before fees.

NYU's tax FAQ notes that tuition increases by about 4% each academic year, so a plan that spreads credits over several years should account for each year's rate. Because you decide how many credits to take each term, you control how much you pay at any one time.

24 credits at $3,638 a credit comes to $87,312 in tuition, before fees.

Everything can happen from your desk. You watch class sessions on video whenever that suits you, and NYU says it's the kind of technology popular video-on-demand services use to deliver movies. Some professors use a smart tablet that shows handwriting in a separate window. Discussion boards, email and telephone calls keep you connected with faculty.

Even final exams can be completed on a computer at home or in the office with a video proctoring device. NYU says on-campus and online students complete the same problem sets, take the same exam and are graded on the same curve, a point one Executive LL.M. graduate echoed when saying you're graded against the people taking the classes live.

The full rubric is on the methodology page.

Graduates who wrote about the Executive LL.M. talk mostly about where it took them. A graduate posting on a law forum in 2023 said the degree, finished in two years, got them into Big Law after seven years in government.

The same graduate said nobody questioned the Executive label on the degree and pointed to the exclusive interview program the NYU and Georgetown tax programs run together each spring for that spring's graduates as the key. In a 2023 forum thread about the Executive LL.M., another commenter said it got them into Big Law and called the NYU and Georgetown interview program excellent.

A Big Law associate commenting in 2024 said a tax LL.M. from NYU gives better chances at large firms than a general LL.M. from any other school. On the ranking side, U.S. News & World Report lists New York University first for tax law, as reprinted by Above the Law in April 2025.

• Which online courses are scheduled in each of the next three semesters, and which would I take first?
• How many credits a term fit around my caseload, and how does that change my finish date inside the five-year limit?
• How do I take the video-proctored final exams from home or my office, and what equipment do I need?
• Can Executive LL.M. students take part in the spring interview program, and how do I prepare for it from outside New York?

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• Master of Studies in Law in Taxation

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  Fully Online $3,638 per credit Score 58.3

• Taxation

  LL.M., Master's

  Hybrid Score 56.5

• Arizona State University

  Taxation and Data Analytics

  Arizona Score 51.2

• Loyola Marymount University

  Online Master of Laws (Tax LLM)

  California $2,400 per credit Score 51.5

• University of San Francisco

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  California $1,905 per credit Score 50.5

• Wayne State University

  LL.M. in Taxation

  Michigan $1,477.90 per credit Score 51.9