The University of Georgia School of Law recently won the 13th Annual American Bar Association Law Student Tax Challenge, a nationwide contest where approximately 90 teams from law schools across the country competed in solving a cutting-edge and complex business problem that might arise in everyday tax practice.

Third-year law student Morgan L. Klinzing and second-year law student Benjamin “Ben” Newell represented UGA. Camilla E. Watson, law professor, coached the pair. 

According to Watson, this is the first year Georgia Law has had a team in this competition. “When I announced this opportunity to my class, Morgan and Ben responded,” she said. “The competition judges were highly complimentary of their performance, and I am very proud of them.” 

In the ABA Tax Challenge, two-person teams are given a real world complex business planning issue with tax consequences to solve. The pairs are judged on performance in two areas—a memorandum to a senior partner and a letter to a client explaining the result. Based on these written materials, the field is narrowed to just six teams, which are invited to defend their submissions before a panel of judges consisting of some of the country’s top tax practitioners and government officials, including tax court judges.