Question for any JD/CPAs out there . . . Forum

[Anonymous User]

Just graduated law school, will be working at a big law firm on the West Coast. Prior to law school, sat for and passed all 4 CPA exams in a state that did not require work experience to sit. (Hated the whole process, hence me going to law school.)

Trying to figure out how to leverage my passing the CPA exams as a lawyer. Did some research, and saw that I qualify for the "non-reporting" CPA license in Massachusetts, which does not require work experience in public accounting. I could apply today, pay $175, and have this license in 4-6 weeks.

Literally the ONLY motivation I have to do this would be to put "CPA" behind my name, possibly add this to my firm bio, and hopefully be more attractive as a lateral or federal clerk applicant (or maybe to future clients I guess?) down the road.

Does this make sense? Anyone see any problems?

[Anonymous User]

I've read a CPA doesn't help much without strong work experience. This is because you learn far more when you work a couple of years at a big accounting firm than simply preparing for an exam that covers a bit of everything.

[Anonymous User]

I have my CPA and work experience as an auditor before law school. I think it helped me a lot over summer as an SA, everyone was asking me accounting questions so I was able to show them I could bring some value to the table.

The hard part for me is keeping it active, 80 hours of cpe every 2 years + an ethics exam can be a pain. I think that once I start working I will have to let it lapse because I won't have time for cpe.

If you can easily get the license, you might as well.

[nealric]

Are you in tax? A lot of tax CLEs also offer CPE credit.