Tax Law and Policy Fellow

The Tax Law Center's Tax Law and Policy Fellows support Tax Law Center staff with research, writing, and project management across subject matter areas in tax. To learn more about the position, please review the full job description and watch a recorded informational session with current Fellows about their work.

Our full-time Fellowship recruitment process is open for the next cycle for a late Spring or Summer 2025 start. We intend to have Fellows on overlapping 2 year terms. 

Please feel free to email taxlawcentercareers@nyu.edu with any questions that you may have about the position. For equity purposes, questions and answers that are not specific to a candidate’s personal information and are of general interest may be anonymized and cross-posted to this page below.  

Who can apply?  

• This role is intended for recent law school graduates with a strong interest in advancing justice through the tax code and gaining experience working with academics and policymakers to solve difficult legislative and regulatory problems. Candidates are required to hold a JD degree or LLM with coursework in taxation, excellent research and writing skills, excellent communication skills, a high degree of organization and attention to detail, and a commitment to advancing the Center’s goals. 

• Applicants must be based in the US and NYU’s Office of Global Services offers assistance to international students who may need assistance navigating the visa process. 

Is any coursework required? 

• Our only requirement is that you have some coursework in taxation. We don’t expect applicants to be tax experts yet! 

What is the application process? 

There are three rounds of the application process: 

1. Application: Submit resume and brief answers to questions as part of the application form. The questionnaire is graded anonymously, meaning graders do not see names and resumes. 

2. Assessment: 3 work sample questions that represent brief, simplified versions of the real tasks that you would be asked to perform at the Tax Law Center. We estimate that this assessment will take less than 3.5 hours. Assessments are similarly graded anonymously, meaning graders do not see names or resumes. 

3. Interview: Candidates who pass the previous rounds are asked for a virtual meeting with members of the hiring team. It would be an opportunity for them to ask you some questions, and to answer any questions you might have at this stage of the process. 

Is this a remote position? 

• The Tax Law Center has physical office space at NYU School of Law in New York, and also offers hybrid (in New York) or remote work arrangements from within the US. We offer opportunities to meet in person at conferences, events, and informal meetings in DC and NYC. We meet remotely regularly, including informal coffee chats throughout the week.  

What kind of work does TLC do?  

• The Tax Law Center is a strong public interest voice weighing in on technical yet consequential tax law issues. To do so, the Center provides technical input on tax legislation, comments on tax regulations, and submits amicus briefs in tax litigation, with the aim of improving the integrity of the tax system, saving and raising revenues, and advancing equity. 

• Examples of work that current and previous Fellows have engaged in include: a paper on taxing digital assets, our comment on the monetization provisions of the IRA, our amicus brief on Moore v. US, and suggestions for partnership regulations. 

What kind of formal training opportunities are there for fellows? 

• In addition to internal training on topics related to Tax Law Center work, staff are encouraged to attend conferences and meet with other tax professionals. The Tax Law Center covers the cost of professional memberships and conference fees, as well as bar exam fees for new attorneys. We also have resources available to staff through NYU Law’s libraries including news, books, and more. 

What kinds of positions does the fellowship set you up for? 

• The Center and fellowship are still relatively new so we do not yet have historical data to offer on paths taken by our fellows. More broadly, prior Tax Law Center staff have taken roles in government and private practice, and the fellowship is intended to be a foundation for a similarly diverse set of careers in tax law, in three main ways. First, fellows gain exposure to many different types of work and career paths which may help them to deepen their understanding of possibilities in tax law, and refine their longer-term career goals. Through their work, Fellows get to work closely with both Tax Law Center colleagues on different types of tax subject matter, and also get to engage with external stakeholders including in public interest think tanks, government, and in private practice. 
  Second, we give fellows the opportunity to develop skills and experiences that are useful across tax law careers. Third, we schedule several touchpoints with our senior staff to check in with fellows, and discuss what kinds of projects would position them to be a strong candidate in future careers that are of most interest to them.