Practicing law wasn’t her first career choice, or her second.
Once a student-athlete at Stanford University, Corbett competed on the swimming and diving team while earning a B.A. in psychology with a minor in political science. After graduation, she spent more than six years in the tech sector working with Palantir Technologies, an education tech startup in Utah and at LinkedIn, a subsidiary of Microsoft.
Working in Big Tech helped her hone a set of problem-solving skills suited for a fast-paced world where insight, adaptability and innovation were critical for success. Over time, Corbett felt a desire to shift out of corporate life and work more closely in her community.
Pivoting her career to education, she completed two master’s degrees in teaching, one in elementary education, and the other in middle school math, at Western Governors University. Corbett taught for six years, first with Chicago Public Schools and later with the City Schools of Decatur in Georgia.
“While teaching in Decatur, I realized that my influence didn’t need to stop at the classroom door, and that I could make even more of an impact on my community as an attorney,” Corbett said. “My belief is that the law can be used to fundamentally change how systems work, and I can be that system-wide change agent.”
When it came time to choose a law school, Georgia State stood out for a number of significant reasons.
“I chose Georgia State Law because of its diverse student and faculty population, its location, its influence on the Atlanta metro area, proximity to major firms and government agencies and its fantastic part-time evening program,” she explained.
Corbett spent her first two years enrolled in the evening program, balancing law school with life’s responsibilities before transitioning to full-time study in her final year. During these years, she found herself drawn to an area of law that initially took her by surprise: tax law.
Mary Beth Corbett (J.D. '25) participates in a mock class session on Orientation Day in 2022.
Like many of her peers, Corbett didn’t have plans to pursue any particular area of practice when she entered law school, but she found a growing passion for estate planning and tax controversy through hands-on work in the Philip C. Cook Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, one of the most meaningful parts of her law school experience.
“The GSU Tax Clinic has become my world,” she said. “I first entered the tax clinic during the summer after my first year and just thought it was something I could try out that would bank me six credit hours. Little did I know that my most valuable and sustained peer, professor and professional relationships would come from the clinic.”
Working with the clinic gave her a window into what meaningful, client-centered legal work looks like. Over the course of two years, Corbett participated in four pro bono IRS Settlement Days where clinic students reviewed client cases and negotiated directly with IRS Chief Counsel under the supervision of faculty and licensed attorneys.
“Settlement Days have become little holidays for me,” Corbett said. “Twenty-plus clients come into the clinic, and I get a folder and thirty minutes to figure out their tax issue. Then the IRS attorney walks in, and I negotiate on the client’s behalf. With each decision document that is signed, I save these clients thousands of dollars. It is absolutely thrilling.”
Corbett’s unflagging hard work and precise attention to detail didn’t go unnoticed by her professors.
That mix of urgency, advocacy and direct impact is what drives her, and she credits a long list of mentors who helped her discover and develop her niche, including Professors Ted Afield, Conner Watts and Emily Yaun.
“Mary Beth is one of the most incredibly hard working, highly capable, conscientious and first-rate tax attorneys that has come through the clinic,” said Professor Ted Afield, associate dean for Experiential Education and director of Clinical Programs. “I am hard pressed to think of any student that embraced the clinic with such energy and enthusiasm from her very first day in the clinic, and yet somehow Mary Beth’s dynamic presence in the clinic only grew during her time with us. While I am sad to see her go from the clinic, I look forward to her new role as a highly engaged alumna.”
Corbett already advocates for the benefits of experiential learning opportunities, encouraging her peers to get involved in one of the seven clinics of the law school.
“I still consider the clinics to be the hidden gem of the law school,” she said. “GSU's clinics put our law school a notch above our peers for their sheer existence. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to expand your worldview and your resume.”
In addition to her work in the clinic, Corbett interned with the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. and completed an externship with the Truancy Intervention Program at Fulton County Juvenile Court. Each experience added to her understanding of how law intersects with public service.
Returning to her native Kentucky in mid-April following the conclusion of her externship, Corbett will begin full-time work at an estate planning firm while preparing to take the bar exam.
As she has experienced before, her next steps into estate law aren’t exactly what she was expecting to do next. Corbett initially planned to accept an offer from IRS Chief Counsel in Atlanta; an offer that was rescinded due to recent budget cuts applied to the Department of the Treasury. But as she has before, Corbett will take these steps with purpose in the face of uncertainty.
“My long-term plan is to hopefully one day win back my spot at IRS Chief Counsel in D.C. or become a JAG officer in the military,” she says. “We’ll see where life takes me, but I definitely know that service is in my future.”
-Written by Lauren Allred