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Re: Best Tax Department NYC

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Apr 20, 2022 10:08 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Apr 19, 2022 10:57 pm
How is the tax practice in the New York office of Magic circle firms?
Not super familiar but a Freshfields partner teaches international tax at CLS and is a respected practitioner.

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Re: Best Tax Department NYC

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Apr 20, 2022 11:04 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Apr 16, 2022 1:20 pm
Senior associate in tax at one of the above-mentioned firms. Really good answers in here already. Just adding that:

- As a junior associate the distinction between "service work" and "pure tax work" is unlikely to make a difference to you--many PE/M&A/JV structuring-type assignments will require you to research complex legal questions and you'll be so busy just learning the foundation that whether you're doing it because a partner told you to research X to make sure something is deductible in a deal or because a client asked for a tax opinion on something is unlikely to feel any different from your perspective. Obviously just pushing drafts of documents around is less THRILLING than having to research some arcane tax law question at 11pm lol, but as a tax lawyer you will actually crave mindless work (or a break, but let's be realistic) -- compared with junior corporate associates who, I've been led to understand, have plenty of "go through and make sure these edits are all incorporated"-type work, your brain will be on-duty for an exhausting amount of time.

- Boutiques also exist (Caplin, Kostelanetz, Miller & Chevalier) and have interesting / more pure-tax work, I think. I think there are more "write a taxnotes article"-type assignments at those kinds of places too, and maybe better apprenticeship-style training since I think attrition isn't as bad so there is more of a vested interest in seniors to train you (whereas in biglaw after a couple years it's really seen as your job to care about your own development/career).

- How human the people in the group are is super important, especially in a field with so much learning / so many stupid questions / so many mistakes. Given the steepness of the learning curve, being around people who are forgiving and you aren't likely to resent after 24 months is imo especially important because you'll still have a lot to learn before being able to market yourself as having accumulated much intellectual capital.
Want to emphasize the second bullet. The boutiques (specifically the big DC ones—Caplin, Ivins, Miller) regularly work with the big firms to assist with tax technical parts of transactions and litigation. Their entire practices are designed around being the foremost expert in X, Y and Z.

I worked at one of the DC tax firms and hands down, they are the best tax attorneys I’ve ever worked with.

When I was there, we worked with Skadden, Baker, Morgan Lewis, Cravath, SullCrom and DPW on “thorny” tax issues our shared clients needed assistance on.

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nealric

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Re: Best Tax Department NYC

Post by nealric » Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:13 am

As a client, I find the biggest difference is between DC and NYC, not necessarily between firms. The NYC firms tend to be mostly deal focused, while the DC firms do more controversy/advisory type work. So going to an NYC firm will mean more deal structuring, while a DC firm will mean more opinions and internal restructuring type matters. Obviously, YMMV based on a firm's specific niche.

When my tax group hires counsel, it often ends up being based on D.C. It's NYC focused only when the deal team brings in counsel.

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Re: Best Tax Department NYC

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:21 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Apr 13, 2022 10:29 am
I know a VP of Tax at a F500 that regards both Baker and Skadden very highly for tax planning.
To business execs (non-lawyer), Skadden is very well-regarded for tax.

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Re: Best Tax Department NYC

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 21, 2022 1:08 pm

Echoing a few posters above. I think Skadden is considered the gold standard, but the other firms mentioned are great as well.

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sms18

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Re: Best Tax Department NYC

Post by sms18 » Fri Apr 22, 2022 4:48 pm

RMFT12 wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 4:23 pm
Wachtell has the best tax shop for corporate/deal work, next question
Wachtell typically handles the biggest sell-side public M&A deals in the market, but that doesn't necessarily translate to "best tax shop for corporate/deal work."

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Re: Best Tax Department NYC

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Apr 22, 2022 5:02 pm

sms18 wrote:
Fri Apr 22, 2022 4:48 pm
RMFT12 wrote:
Fri Apr 15, 2022 4:23 pm
Wachtell has the best tax shop for corporate/deal work, next question
Wachtell typically handles the biggest sell-side public M&A deals in the market, but that doesn't necessarily translate to "best tax shop for corporate/deal work."
Good point. Not to knock Wachtell's great tax group but I think the general consensus is that they're not in the running for the best tax group out of their peer NY corporate shops.

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