Should I get a tax LLM? Forum

[Anonymous User]

OP, I've been trying to switch from tax to M&A. I'm a bit more senior than you, have done some M&A work (i.e., non-tax parts of transactions), and am willing to start as a third/second/first year. No dice. I think large part of it is the market, for both of us.

Even "transactional" tax, i.e., deal support, involves a lot of research (and does tax law have all manner of sources... the code, the regs, the proposed regs, rev. rulings, PLRs, treaties, case law...). You have another layer of clients (your corporate team) "above" you, making your hours even more unpredictable. Pretty much everything requires a lot of brain power (no signature packets, no conforming defined terms in the entire agreement, no duping out exhibits and other easy hours), and the learning curve is very, very steep (with new stuff constantly coming out). I'm sure you already know all of this, as you've talked to your friends in tax. But just wanted to briefly outline why tax wasn't for me in the first place (rather than outlining why "corporate" practices like M&A are a better fit for me... no, it's not just the signature packets and similar tasks ). I think I do decent work and my reviews have always been good (meets expectations as more junior, and exceeds expectations since hitting mid), but I want to cry every Sunday night (whether I'm already working or not ).

Thanks for the inputs. Very insightful. Take this with a grain of salt. The "easy hours" I spent on diligence, sig packets, conforming changes, exhibits, ancillary documents and all the other monkey work really wore me out to the point that I started to question the meaning of life. Tax is more difficult and requires more brain power, but M&A (junior and mid-level) is just boring and soul crushing. It'll be pretty easy to transition to M&A when the market gets better as they will need lots of juniors.

[Anonymous User]

Got it, OP. Sounds like you'll like tax more than I do. And if you do a full time LLM, that may be a nice little break from big law (despite still being quite a bit of work). Best of luck!