Laura Lu. (Tax Executives Institute member)

• Date: 01 November 2024

When Laura Lu was just fourteen years old, she left her home in Shanghai, China, to attend high school at the Emma Willard School in upstate New York. "It was genuinely one of the best experiences I've had," she says. "It was a very small community. There were about 100 of us in my class, and we were all very close." It was during her time at the all-girls boarding school that she became interested in the field of law and, ultimately, the world of tax.

Lu is starting her third and final year as a student at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). "In the US, you can only pursue law in a graduate program, whereas in the UK, the degree is offered at the undergraduate level," she explains. "So I thought I'd give it a shot and apply to study law here." Lu is not yet a tax professional, but recently joined TEI at the student level in order to attend a conference whose existence she learned about in the course of her undergraduate research.

She adds that the choice has been eye-opening, especially examining the legal system in the United Kingdom and...