Western New England College's Casey Nunez Claims Top Honors in National Law Student Tax Challenge

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(L to R) Brendan Sponheimer, Professor of Law Frederick Royal, James Murtha, Neill O'Brien, and Casey Nunez

SPRINGFIELD, MA (02/17/2010)(readMedia)-- Western New England College School of Law students swept the top awards in a national American Bar Association contest designed to give students an opportunity to research, write about, and present their analyses of "real life" tax planning problems.

Brendan Sponheimer of Orange, CT, and James Murtha of Manchester, CT, were awarded first place overall at the American Bar Association Section of Taxation's 2009 Law Student Tax Challenge in San Antonio. A second Western New England College team, Neill O'Brien of East Longmeadow, MA, and Casey Nunez of Princeton, MA, were honored for the best written submission. Professor of Law Frederick Royal served as coach of both Western New England College teams, which competed in the competition's juris doctor division.

"I am extremely proud of the accomplishments of our students," said Royal. "Out of all of the teams that entered this national competition, only six teams were chosen to compete in the final rounds. Two of these six teams were from our Law School. It is truly remarkable that our teams won both the overall competition and also won the best written submission. Our students' success demonstrates once again that our Law School excels at preparing students for the practice of law."

This is the second time in the competition's nine-year history that Western New England College School of Law students have been named overall champions.

The Law Student Tax Challenge was developed to reflect everyday tax issues that might arise for practitioners. Students compete in two-person teams, researching the tax issues involved and submitting technical memoranda and client letters with their solutions. The teams' written submissions are judged by tax practitioners across the country, with the six teams with the best written submissions chosen to present oral arguments before a panel of distinguished tax lawyers attending the Taxation Section's Midyear Meeting in San Antonio.

Forty-three teams from 34 law schools across the country competed in the J.D. division, tackling a complex tax planning problem that involved individual and business entity issues. "Students were asked to advise a fictional client on how to handle partnership tax matters, as well as tax issues that may arise in divorce proceedings," said Stuart M. Lewis, Chair of the ABA Tax Section. "The students greatly benefited from the feedback and counsel they received from some of the best tax lawyers in the country." Judges included the Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service and the Chief Judge of the United States Tax Court.

The American Bar Association Section of Taxation is the largest professional association of tax lawyers, with approximately 23,000 members nationwide. Its goals include helping taxpayers better understand their rights and obligations under the tax laws and working to achieve a simplified tax system that is equitable and efficient. A complete listing of the teams entered in the 2009 competition, along with samples of entries, is available on the section's Web site at: http://www.abanet.org/tax/lstc.