I got an A+ in this class so I am a little biased, but I have to say that I really, really loved this class. Klein has ALL the lectures recorded and posted before the class even starts, and there is no homework, projects, etc. but rather just a midterm and a final. This means that the overall workload is very light and you can focus on the lectures. And that is exactly my biggest piece of advice: don't worry about ANYTHING else... just take notes on everything he says during lectures, especially all of his example scenarios, and memorize it all. As long as you can memorize them, you're golden. Midterm and final is ALL ABOUT NUANCE. Nuance, nuance, nuance. You need to understand the details behind the concepts and realize when things are ambiguous or if there's a tiny detail that changes the whole question. In summary, the quality of your lecture notes, how well you've memorized the concepts taught in lecture, and whether you can spot the "devil in the details" will determine whether you succeed or fail in this class.

I loved going to Professor Klien's classes. I really enjoyed his lectures, and was impressed with his ability to make complicated and at times boring topics clear and interesting. I learned a lot. The key in his class is to know the reader inside out. It also helped me to record his lectures and listen to them while I was preparing for the tests. Both the midterm and the final are challenging but definitely doable. In my opinion, Klein is one of the most knowledgeable and charismatic professors at UCLA. I strongly recommend him. After Litt's boring and useless lectures, Klein's classes are a breath of fresh air.

Gordon Klein cares spectacularly about students' well-being and learning. He is a master of course concepts and explains them in a way that engages students. With helpful anecdotes and examples he simplifies extremely complex tax concepts. He made me feel that I could approach him about anything outside of the classroom and happily advised me on career choices. In this way, he has genuinely altered my career passions and encouraged me to pursue graduate school. He deeply cares about his courses and the effort he puts into lectures is obvious. I wish that I had the opportunity to take more classes outside of my major with him.

Prof. Klein is the best professor I've had at UCLA. He's unbelievably knowledgeable about the subject, and he brings in real-world examples to use in class to supplement the lectures. No expensive textbook as the $35 course reader is all you need. He wrote it and it works perfectly with his lectures. I'm going to break this review down into 3 parts: the professor, the class, and the workload/exams.

The Professor
Prof. Klein's the best. Seriously. He works as an expert witness in some of the largest cases in the U.S. (GM Bankruptcy for example). He is a CPA and a J.D. and has many years of teaching and real-world experience. Prof. Klein, as a result of what he does outside of UCLA, is very wealthy (but he never flaunts it, most people have no idea), he continues to teach not because of the money, but simply because he likes it. Why is this important? Because he puts in the effort and it really shows. He has every page of the course reader memorized; his lectures are easy to understand, entertaining, and often very funny; any question you could possibly have about the subject matter he has an answer to and can explain in detail. What more can you ask for than an entertaining, engaging professor that's an expert in his field and has a passion for teaching? Dude's seriously the best. Had him for 127A and basically scheduled my next quarter around being able to take him for 127B. It's my goal to take every class he teaches.

The Class
I took Klein for 127A and 127B. Though 127A isn't a requirement for 127B, I would recommend taking it first, it will make some concepts in 127B easier to understand. The class itself covers C-Corp, S-Corp, and Partnership (LLP, LLC etc) taxation. Though the subject matter may seem dry, Klein's good enough to make it very interesting. The class has very little focus on calculation and concentrates itself almost entirely on conceptual topics. As previously stated, the material in the class comes out of the Course Reader and not the textbook (which you don't need to buy), which means that you're getting a curriculum that doesn't exist anywhere else. This is a big deal because Klein has structured the course not just to teach you how to do tax accounting, but also to learn how to structure things legally to pay the least amount of tax. The structure of this class and the unique material make it worth it in and of itself. By the time you're done, you'll have a great understanding of tax.

The Workload/Exams
This class isn't easy. There is no homework, there are no practice midterms or finals (there are a couple "practice" questions in the Course Reader but they don't really count), there are no discussion sections. The tests are based off of what is covered in class during the lectures. As a result, you can't just study the book and not attend the lectures. Attendance isn't mandatory or tracked in the class, but if you don't go to them, you will fail, guaranteed. That being said, if you attend the lectures and take careful notes, you're pretty much golden for the entire class. As long as you go over them before the exams, you will be prepared. Another thing you should be aware of is that the exams are hard and tricky. They're 20-24 questions long and are mostly multiple choice. He will try to trick you. You've gotta be very careful and go over the exam twice and carefully double check your answers to see if anything slipped under the radar. You'll only do well on the exam if you truly know the materiel and the concepts well. That being said, getting an A on one of his exams feels great. He's not trying to fail the class (just look at the grade dist), he just wants to make sure you know your stuff.

TL;DR: Professor's one of the best at UCLA, take this class. No Textbook required, lectures are amazing, tests are hard.

Selling course reader.
Email: *************

Very interesting professor. Exams are not hard. Studied the night before and got A on the midterm. Haven't taken final yet.

Selling course reader: email *************

Terrible class. I hated his teaching structure and did not learn well from it. Would not take it again. His grading scheme is also messed up, as it is worth 20% midterm and 80% final. He also doesn't give partial credit on the exams.

I love Klein honestly. Say what you want about the problems he got into with the school and him being racist or whatever but if you have to take 120b and want a good experience at the end of the day just take it with Klein. There's very little outside work (which I like, I hate it when classes give you a bunch of assignments that not only do not help with your learning but are also super time consuming). I love that Klein is a lawyer, because it makes the way he teaches these accounting classes kind of unique. He will never lie to you and will never misspeak in class. After taking so many econ classes with professors that will misspeak and then never correct themselves or otherwise teach in a super ambiguous and illogical manner, this class was like a breath of fresh air. He's also really funny. He likes to teach using bizarre examples, which really helps with staying attentive in class and also remembering things for the tests.
Finally, the curve in this class is really generous. Some say that his tests are really hard, but it might just be because he doesn't use slides so you have to pay attention in class and go to class. And it's not even like you have to do that well in the class to get an A. He curves like a 60 percent into an A. There's nothing to lose from taking this class and everything to gain: no homework or group projects, a generous curve, and really engaging lectures. I don't know Klein as a person so I can't make any statements about that but as a professor he really is stellar.

At the beginning of the quarter, I didn't love this class because I wasn't used to the way professor klein taught (many things are taught by way of example/analogies, rather than in a quantitative way like most accounting classes). I was also irritated by my performance on the midterm, because despite doing all the textbook problems, I still felt tricked and completely confused by his tests, which are very very difficult and will require you to really think, rather than just to regurgitate. I learned my lesson on the final by being very careful, taking good notes during class (which isn't difficult because klein is a very engaging lecturer), and studying the course reader. Overall, if you plan on taking 127b, you should definitely consider klein as your professor

Klein, although a smart man, does not seem to be a great educator from my experience with his Business Law class.
Here are the following complaints I have about his competency as an instructor.

1. Not reviewing midterm exams with students and leaving students with a TA that did not take business law at all and a sheet of paper that barely helps students understand why they got specific questions wrong. The students are not even able to take the exam home and review on their own time or go to his office hours and ask for clarification because they cannot have the questions with them.
2. Not providing sufficient practice questions and supportive resources to help students do well in class. He told me that the business law textbook questions are nothing like his exams when I was solving them and asking him questions. He gave us one 2 page sheet to solve for the entire weeks without any other guidance on how to prep for his exams.
3. Providing lecture content that contradicts information from the textbook he provides. When I and other students ask him during office hours, he simply told us that the textbook is very different, insinuating that we should not use their questions. Then, what should we use as practice to prep for his exams?
4. Holding office hours in one slot per week for two different classes at once. Business law students have one day a week to ask him questions but we have to spend a portion of that time listening to tax law students and their questions.
5. Making exams completely different format from his practice questions. His sample questions are in written format and ask individual questions but his actual exam is multiple choice (stripping you from the opportunity to REASON as you do in law). He could have prepped us better with similar sample questions and resources like quizzes, homework, and resources to help us enhance our understanding throughout the course. Yet, he seemed as if he did not want to bother with that extra time he has to put in, which is the instructor's duty. The median for our midterm exam was 50, which shows that he failed to successfully teach and enhance students' learning.
6. Not giving any partial credit and making exams short and multiple choice so each question has a lot of weight. This type of exam does not make sense in a business law class. Klein himself said that law is ambiguous and can be reasoned in multiple ways. Yet, his exams are black and white and do not give any partial credit even though students use the correctly applicable law but just did not get the correct answer he wanted, which drops students' scores significantly. Although he can argue that he curves grades, that still curves the students' scores from an average of C to a B. Shouldn't good instructors try to help students get As and not Bs in their classes? These low scores take away the fun of the content of business law and gives immense stress to students. Good instructors try all they can to help students' learnings and their success in the class. Klein seems to have no intention or care to do so.