Bryan Cowan, a graduate of The John Marshall Law School, has been honored as among the Chicago area’s best tax LLM law students.
Cowan, who earned his LLM degree this spring, is being honored by the Chicago Bar Association for having had one of the highest GPAs in tax law courses in the city. Cowan majored in financial management at Indiana University and earned his law degree from John Marshall in 2014.
“Bryan took advantage of the joint degree tax program and completed the second degree – an LLM in Tax Law – in just one more semester. Given his high GPA in tax courses, he certainly will not have difficulty locating a tax position,” said Kathryn Kennedy, associate dean of John Marshall’s Center for Tax Law & Employee Benefits.
Corporate hiring attorneys recently listed John Marshall among the best tax LLM programs in the country, according to The National Jurist magazine.
Before attending John Marshall, Cowan spent nine years in banking and helped to underwrite consumer and commercial loans. He found his passion in the underwriting process and analyzing tax returns to calculate creditworthiness. “I was always reading about the various deductions and ways to maximize a refund,” he said. “When I finally decided to go law school, I knew tax was where I wanted to be.”
Cowan currently works as a part-time associate at Slavin & Slavin in Chicago, on basic civil litigation cases, with his sights set on a career in tax law. He aims to do comprehensive tax planning for mid-market companies and their owners.
Cowan chose to pursue an LLM in order to stand out among other candidates and to demonstrate his interest in practicing tax law.
“I think the LLM will help in many ways,” he said. “All areas of the law are complicated in their own right. That is why many lawyers choose to specialize in a certain type of law in the hopes of one day becoming an expert. An LLM is the best way to begin the journey of becoming an expert. It introduces you to the concepts you need to be familiar with in order to begin to master your field of the law.”
John Marshall offers practicing attorneys LLM degrees in nine areas employee benefits, estate planning, information technology & privacy, intellectual property (IP), international business & trade, real estate, tax, trial advocacy and U.S. legal studies. John Marshall also provides the option to earn LLM degrees online in employee benefits, estate planning and IP law.
Click here for more information about John Marshall’s LLM programs, or please contact Christine Kraly at ckraly@jmls.edu.
