The faculty of the Department of Legal Studies and Taxation truly enjoy the privilege of working with our students and seeing them learn and grow. Unlike many other institutions where a law or tax course is merely added on to another department, at Pace we have the distinction of having a full department devoted to the teaching of legal studies and tax courses. This enables us to offer a broad array of challenging courses to students of diverse tastes and interests.

Legal Studies and Taxation Department Chairperson Arthur M. Magaldi

Our foundation course, required for all business students, is Business Law I which exposes students to the basic principles of our legal system as well as the fundamental principles of the law of contracts, torts, crimes, and real property. In addition, the department offers Business Law II and Advanced Business Law.

Pace has a rich tradition of preparing students for careers as certified public accountants, and the Legal Studies Department is proud of its participation in that preparation. Inasmuch as a significant portion of the CPA examination pertains to business law, the business law courses offered by the department provide coverage of topics tested on that examination. As an aid to our CPA majors, Advanced Business Law was created in 2005 as a four-credit course to assure coverage of important CPA exam topics. To further support CPA candidates, members of the Department also teach in the newly created CPA review course now offered at Pace.

The courses offered in our department support not only those interested in the public accounting field, but those interested in a variety of fields. For example, we offer a course in Marketing Law, a course in International Law, a course in Hospitality Law, and a course in Employment Law. Since the law permeates all aspects of society, our department responds to that reality by providing a wide array of courses, and these courses are taken by business students and interested students from all schools of the University. We also offer several courses for those enrolled in our graduate programs.

The Department of Legal Studies is pleased to offer two minors for those who may wish a minor in law. Each year upon graduation, a number of our students go on to full-time graduate study of law in law schools to become attorneys. To aid them, we offer the five-course Pre-Law Minor which is an interdisciplinary course of study offered in conjunction with the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences. In addition to taking law courses, students are offered choices of courses thought to be helpful for the study of law and success in the legal profession. Among the choices are Advanced Writing, Logic, Constitutional History, and Argumentation and Debate. A full description of the courses available to students interested in law minors is available in the Pace catalog and from the Department. Members of the Department are happy to offer advice and counsel to those interested in a career in law. Our instructors also act as coaches for the Mock Trial Team, an extra-curricular opportunity for students.

Students who wish to minor in law but do not necessarily plan to become attorneys may choose a law minor. This popular choice is a five-course minor in which students choose from a broad selection of law courses those which most clearly meet their interests and needs.

Just as the law permeates virtually all transactions, similarly tax ramifications are present in many of the transactions and affairs of life. On the undergraduate level, students may take Tax 310 Federal Income Tax I concerned with the income tax of individuals and Tax 311 Federal Income Tax II concerning corporate income tax. Both courses involve not only theory, but also the actual preparation of tax returns.

For those students interested in advanced degrees, the Department of Legal Studies and Taxation is pleased to offer two masters degrees, the MBA in Taxation and the MS in Taxation.