5th Year Associate Responsibilites Forum

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Murphy1022

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5th Year Associate Responsibilites

Post by Murphy1022 » Tue Apr 09, 2013 10:18 pm

Lets say you work at a big firm in their tax department and your work focuses on structuring new businesses, the restructuring of existing businesses, and the sale of existing businesses through both stock sale and asset sale structures.

What would be the typical responsibilities of a 5th year associate on this type of work? I'm basically looking for the natural progression within the career path to determine where I would want to be 5 years after starting the position. Thanks!

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holdencaulfield

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Re: 5th Year Associate Responsibilites

Post by holdencaulfield » Tue Apr 09, 2013 11:44 pm

Hopefully you'll be working your own deals start to finish: formations, asset/stock sales, M&A, private offerings, NOL's, etc. You'll be planning deals with your clients and then negotiating and advocating on their behalf to make sure the deal gets in done with the most favorable terms possible for your client.

You'll be doing the same type of work as years 1-4, you'll just gradually have more responsibility and independence (and hopefully, your own clients).

Murphy1022

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Re: 5th Year Associate Responsibilites

Post by Murphy1022 » Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:59 am

Thanks for the insight! But are those the responsibilities an associate in the tax group would be taking on as opposed to an associate in the M&A group? I guess part of my lack of clarity is due to not completely understanding how M&A deals are run. I thought there was a head M&A lawyer who would handle most of the deal planning and negotiating and a tax attorney was someone he simply brought onto the team. But do tax attorneys often run the deals?

usfvictor

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Re: 5th Year Associate Responsibilites

Post by usfvictor » Wed Apr 10, 2013 11:07 am

[quote="Murphy1022"]Thanks for the insight! But are those the responsibilities an associate in the tax group would be taking on as opposed to an associate in the M&A group? I guess part of my lack of clarity is due to not completely understanding how M&A deals are run. I thought there was a head M&A lawyer who would handle most of the deal planning and negotiating and a tax attorney was someone he simply brought onto the team. But do tax attorneys often run the deals?[/quote]

It would depend on the kind of deal. If it's an established company looking to restructure themselves for tax relief, then a tax attorney would head that since its not related to M&A and they would know best on what needs to be done. Now if a company was looking for strictly M&A, then of course an M&A attorney would head that deal, however, a tax attorney would be involved to decipher if any tax issues will arise in the M&A and if any relief can be found by the two companies merging.

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Shammis

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Re: 5th Year Associate Responsibilites

Post by Shammis » Wed Apr 10, 2013 11:14 am

usfvictor wrote:f it's an established company looking to restructure themselves for tax relief, then a tax attorney would head that since its not related to M&A
But by and large, the Tax guys do not run deals. They are there to provide tax planning for the deals the M&A + PE people have going. From what I've gathered speaking to various biglaw folks, Tax is also increasingly hard to make partner in b/c a firm only needs so many tax gurus. hth.

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