Ruth Faust has seen nearly every aspect of tax law while at Albany Law School, working both as a legal aide in the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance’s Office of Counsel and as a legal intern in the law school’s Tax Clinic.

She will graduate from Albany Law in December 2013, having already completed her MBA at Union Graduate College through a joint degree program between the two schools.

At the Tax Clinic, Faust was admitted to practice law under a student practice order, which allowed her to work directly with several clients on their tax issues. She helped one client in negotiations with the Internal Revenue Service, and she said that she found the experience to be incredibly fulfilling.

“Since my first tax law class with Professor Kearns, I have been really interested in pursuing it as a career,” said Faust. “In the Clinic, when I was able to combine that subject matter with helping my clients, it was amazingly rewarding, and I knew I had found a legal niche worth pursuing.”

While working in the state’s Department of Taxation and Finance, Faust drafted memoranda of law and legal briefs and prepared documentation for formal court hearings and litigation, further rounding out her experience in the field of tax law.

Faust also spent a semester as a communications intern and grant researcher and writer with the American Red Cross of Northeastern New York. At the law school, she was active with the Tax Law Society, Women’s Law Caucus and Business Law Society.

She earned her undergraduate degree in English, with a minor in business administration, from Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pa.