CLINIC NEWS The Federal Tax Clinic Has Been Increasing its Funding and Services to Low Income Taxpayers by Jennifer A. Gellner, Director, Federal Tax Clinic May 2008, Jennifer A. Gellner moved from Seattle to become the new director and supervising attorney of the tax clinic. She brought with her 10 years of Tax Court litigation experience and her private federal tax practice law firm, Law Offices of Jennifer A. Gellner, with offices in Seattle and Spokane.
Summer Semester 2011, from left to right: Jennifer Gellner, tax clinic director; Justin Ploeger and Brad Fjeldheim, law students; Chuck Hammer, Practitioner in Residence; John Obzansky, MAcc student; and Patricia Meissner, law student.
The Federal Tax Clinic is a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) housed in University Legal Assistance (ULA) in the Gonzaga University School of Law. Although the legal clinic at the law school has been training new lawyers since 1975, the tax clinic arose in 2001 after George Critchlow, clinical law professor and former ULA director, applied for a new IRS grant. As part of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, Congress authorized funding for the LITC grant program. The program is designed to provide access to representation for low-income taxpayers, so that achieving a correct outcome in an IRS dispute does not depend on the taxpayer’s ability to pay for representation, and to encourage the creation of programs to inform individuals for whom English is a second language about their rights and responsibilities as taxpayers. Once the grant funds were awarded to Gonzaga, Professor George Critchlow and Professor Al McNeil set out to locate an attorney to supervise the students and prepare the grant applications and reports. After a lunch meeting, the first director of the LITC at Gonzaga was Chuck Hammer, and he conducted a part-time tax clinic for four or five students per semester. Hammer had spent years working for the IRS in its criminal division, and he is a graduate of Gonzaga’s law school. After seven years of juggling both his private practice, Law Office of Charles H. Hammer, and the tax clinic responsibilities, Chuck decided to enter partial retirement. Hammer continues his private practice and volunteers his time to the tax clinic. Before Hammer began his semiretirement status, he helped the law school locate an experienced tax attorney to take his place. Thus, in
The new director expanded the part-time program into a three-quarter program and increased the number of students - helping an increasing number of clients. With the growth of the tax clinic program, the annual grant award has been steadily increasing each year. The clinic grant was $60,000 for the calendar year 2008, and after an increase each year, the grant award to the tax clinic for 2012 is $90,000. Gonzaga University, the Law School and donations provide the matching in-kind
Law students Brian Ortega and Andrew Lillywhite researching tax law.
of $90,000-plus in building, library, travel, copies, postage, staff, etc. The tax clinic also receives some private donations from attorneys and former clients that really go a long way in helping with the costs of providing services and increasing the students’ clinical experience. Importantly, every year since 2007 the director has been awarded a donation from the Washington State Bar Association Taxation Section at the Annual Taxation Section Luncheon by the Taxation Section Tax Council. Donations are always greatly needed and appreciated: please contact Jennifer Gellner directly to donate to the Federal Tax Clinic at jgellner@lawschool.gonzaga.edu. The tax clinic currently has more applications for assistance than the clinic can accept and is always in need of additional funds to meet the needs of the community.
GONZAGA LAWYER
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