A “Low-Bono” Clinic for All Taxpayers W

hen I joined the Chicago-Kent College of Law clinical program in 2000, the Tax Clinic was funded by a United States Internal Revenue Service-administered matching grant that, by its terms, required our clients to be essentially indigent. I was often asked, “What kind of tax problems do poor people have?” Well, lots. The IRS has a long-standing practice of disproportionately auditing taxpayers who comprise the bottom economic tiers in society. These groups of people are low-hanging fruit, since most of these individuals can’t afford legal representation because of their lack of sufficient income and the relatively small dollar amount at stake in their cases. This is the need toward which the enabling federal legislation creating the funding for “low-income tax clinics” was directed. It was a good idea when it was proposed in the late 1990s, and it’s a good idea today, as thousands of indigent taxpayers are assisted every year by these free tax clinics, most of which are associated with accredited law schools.

For 11 years, I proudly supervised the Chicago-Kent Low Income Tax Clinic as my students vigorously represented indigent taxpayers in quixotic battles against the IRS and the Illinois Department of Revenue for no legal fees. For these 11 years, I was consistently impressed with the dedication, passion, and empathy expressed by my students, as well as the enormous gratitude expressed by our diverse clientele. We were performing public service in the purest sense, and it was tremendously fulfilling to share these experiences with my enthusiastic students.

But something very disturbing became apparent. There was a tremendous gap in representation—a dark hole of taxpayers who didn’t qualify for free clinic services because they exceeded the indigent qualification threshold, but still lacked the resources to hire an attorney to help defend themselves against the taxing bullies. Along with then Director of Clinical Education Gary Laser, we came up with a plan to assist those individuals and small business taxpayers caught in the middle, a “low-bono” alternative to the LaSalle Street practitioner fees.

The Tax Practice was born in 2012, aimed at providing aggressive and ethical representation to middle-income taxpayers with IRS and Illinois state tax disputes for below-market fees. Over the years, the practice has expanded its original menu of services to include transactional services, nonprofit entity formation and consultation, foreign bank account reporting and penalty abatement, and a variety of small business legal services, in addition to our primary focus as tax controversy litigators. And though we serve a different slice of the public need, I believe my students and I are the only ones doing what we are doing—providing high-quality legal services to a formerly neglected and severely under-represented community for affordable rates that evens the playing field somewhat.

From my perspective, this is a professional calling that just feels right.

—By Jonathan Decatorsmith, Director of Clinical Education and Supervising Attorney and Professor of the Chicago-Kent Law Group’s Tax Clinic

Jonathan Decatorsmith