Biglaw Tax Exit Options Forum

[Anonymous User]

What are the typical exit options for tax associates at big law firms? Are the options better or worse than corporate?

If you can't answer this question without more information: I'll be starting as a summer associate at a secondary office of a V10 in a month; the tax practice group seems to mostly service corporate. HYS, though I doubt that matters now.

I know this question was asked here a couple of years ago, but I figure some of the 2Ls/3Ls here then will be junior associates now, etc.

[BeenDidThat]

What are the typical exit options for tax associates at big law firms? Are the options better or worse than corporate?

If you can't answer this question without more information: I'll be starting as a summer associate at a secondary office of a V10 in a month; the tax practice group seems to mostly service corporate. HYS, though I doubt that matters now.

I know this question was asked here a couple of years ago, but I figure some of the 2Ls/3Ls here then will be junior associates now, etc.

I think it would be best to just keep your eyes and ears open while you're at the firm; people will talk about former colleagues and where they have gone after working at the firm. Once you develop a decent relationship with an associate, you could also ask them. Or be oblique about it, and ask them about where they see their career headed.

Sorry this isn't more directly on-point. I just have found that particular firms/cities feed into different exit ops, such that the answer to the general question "where do top-tier corp. tax associates exit to?" isn't all that helpful.

[Anonymous User]

I did 3 years in big law tax and went in house (energy industry). By and large, it's going to be the best exit option for tax associates. Pay is on par with a jr. associate, but a lot fewer hours. It's 40 hours a week with "true" off time and vacation I can actually take. I've heard of raises for associates who take higher pressure jobs.

[Anonymous User]

What are the typical exit options for tax associates at big law firms? Are the options better or worse than corporate?

If you can't answer this question without more information: I'll be starting as a summer associate at a secondary office of a V10 in a month; the tax practice group seems to mostly service corporate. HYS, though I doubt that matters now.

I know this question was asked here a couple of years ago, but I figure some of the 2Ls/3Ls here then will be junior associates now, etc.

I've heard of tax associates from Cravath/S&C exiting into senior counsel positions at mid-size funds (which turned into general counsel positions in 1-3 years) and F100 corporations, so depending on which V10, exit opportunities can be on par with securities/M&A.

[Anonymous User]

I think it would be best to just keep your eyes and ears open while you're at the firm; people will talk about former colleagues and where they have gone after working at the firm. Once you develop a decent relationship with an associate, you could also ask them. Or be oblique about it, and ask them about where they see their career headed.

Sorry this isn't more directly on-point. I just have found that particular firms/cities feed into different exit ops, such that the answer to the general question "where do top-tier corp. tax associates exit to?" isn't all that helpful.

OP here. I asked two senior tax associates that directly after I had my offer ("what have tax associates left for, while you've been at the firm?"). The answer was basically "in house and other firms." They listed the specific firms and companies. Trouble is: (1) it's a small sample size; and (2) a lot of them left during the recession - I'm guessing exit options were different then. Still, I take your point that that's probably the best information there is.

[Anonymous User]

I did 3 years in big law tax and went in house (energy industry). By and large, it's going to be the best exit option for tax associates. Pay is on par with a jr. associate, but a lot fewer hours. It's 40 hours a week with "true" off time and vacation I can actually take. I've heard of raises for associates who take higher pressure jobs.

OP here. Something like that sounds great. Is it hard to get from a decent biglaw firm? Is it much harder than it would be for a similarly-placed corporate associate?

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

I would love to hear from people who have made the jump from biglaw tax to hear what types of options were available.

[JenDarby]

I work in-house at an investment bank and one of our attorneys used to do big law tax.

[Anonymous User]

I did 3 years in big law tax and went in house (energy industry). By and large, it's going to be the best exit option for tax associates. Pay is on par with a jr. associate, but a lot fewer hours. It's 40 hours a week with "true" off time and vacation I can actually take. I've heard of raises for associates who take higher pressure jobs.

OP here. Something like that sounds great. Is it hard to get from a decent biglaw firm? Is it much harder than it would be for a similarly-placed corporate associate?

Above poster here. I was at a lower V100 firm that was not well known in the market I moved to. Therefore, I did not have the option of going to a client, which is probably the easiest and most common in-house move. Nevertheless, I ended up with about 5 options (I say "about" because a few were pending formal status when I accepted my current job) after 6 months of legwork (informational interviews, networking, etc.): two biglaw firms (both would have been a move-up in rank and prestige), a boutique, and two in-house jobs. I did not look at accounting firms on advice of some accounting firm partners (would have been a pay cut but still law firm hours and difficult advancement prospects). Government tax jobs are very limited outside of DC. I got my job the old-fashioned way- applied to a job posting and had a family friend (not someone I knew well) who worked for the company forward my resume to the department head.

I think corporate associates actually have it a bit harder than tax. Every large company has a tax department, but not every company is regularly involved in every type of corporate transaction. For example, a private funds associate would be mostly limited to funds for in-house options. A tax associate can go to any company large enough to employ tax lawyers.

[Johann]

I did 3 years in big law tax and went in house (energy industry). By and large, it's going to be the best exit option for tax associates. Pay is on par with a jr. associate, but a lot fewer hours. It's 40 hours a week with "true" off time and vacation I can actually take. I've heard of raises for associates who take higher pressure jobs.

OP here. Something like that sounds great. Is it hard to get from a decent biglaw firm? Is it much harder than it would be for a similarly-placed corporate associate?

Above poster here. I was at a lower V100 firm that was not well known in the market I moved to. Therefore, I did not have the option of going to a client, which is probably the easiest and most common in-house move. Nevertheless, I ended up with about 5 options (I say "about" because a few were pending formal status when I accepted my current job) after 6 months of legwork (informational interviews, networking, etc.): two biglaw firms (both would have been a move-up in rank and prestige), a boutique, and two in-house jobs. I did not look at accounting firms on advice of some accounting firm partners (would have been a pay cut but still law firm hours and difficult advancement prospects). Government tax jobs are very limited outside of DC. I got my job the old-fashioned way- applied to a job posting and had a family friend (not someone I knew well) who worked for the company forward my resume to the department head.

I think corporate associates actually have it a bit harder than tax. Every large company has a tax department, but not every company is regularly involved in every type of corporate transaction. For example, a private funds associate would be mostly limited to funds for in-house options. A tax associate can go to any company large enough to employ tax lawyers.

Was in house a significant pay cut from biglaw? Curious about industry salaries. I know someone who got an entry-level in house gig for about 10-15% less than big law market (which I would consider insignificant). Are experienced hires are about the same?

[Anonymous User]

Comp is structured a bit different. My base is 10% under biglaw 1st year market, but "target" bonus is 15% of salary. The company also matches 401k up to 7% and contributes an additional 7% of salary to a pension (benefits vest after 3 years and are paid as a lump sum at retirement- basically an additional 401k you can't control). Retirement benefits have the added benefit of being tax-sheltered. I'm also in a much lower tax jurisdiction than NYC to start with. All in, it compares favorably to biglaw.

Can't really compare new hires to entry level. As far as I know, Exxon is the only company that regularly hires entry-level tax attorneys (and only a small handful per year). When I looked into it, they were paying 135k to start- not sure about other comp. Non-promotion raises in my industry tend to be about 7% a year when times are good.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for your comments. Junior biglaw tax associate here and your comments are very helpful.

What year were you when you made the jump? What market was your v100 in (major or secondary?) What kind of tax work did you do? I assume a lot of deal work? Also, what was the split for your work between partnership, corporate and international tax and what kind of experience do you think most in-house departments prefer? I've heard corporate/international tax are the most sought out.

Thanks in advance.