Top Law Schools

2L here at a strong regional with grades right at top 10%. So I landed a job for next summer a mid-sized firm (<30 attorneys) that pays fairly well but no where near BigLaw salary and the firm does not do tax work. I'm pretty sure that for the long term I would like to do T&E taxation and I was wondering how the hiring process, if any, worked at the top Tax LLM schools. Does Florida/NYU have like an OCI process for the tax LLM or do these grads have a hard time finding jobs before finishing the degree? I could stand to do another year of school and forego taking a decent job at the firm if I were positive that the LLM would lead to something better in the field I want to work in but I am fairly risk-averse and would not want to do it if there is a strong chance that I end up in a worse position. Thanks for any replies!

NYU and Georgetown do a combined Tax Interview Program in the spring that is basically OCI for tax LLMs. The success rate isn't as high as NYU's actual OCI (I've heard only like a quarter of NYU's LLM class gets something out of it), but overall stats for NYU tax LLMs are solid. There's also fall on-campus interviews and resume collects throughout the year. Maybe like 50% of the class gets work at firms of 100+ and another 35% get Big 4.

For Big 4 comp, you're looking at 105-120k as an LLM with a 5k signing bonus (in NY).

If your goal is doing tax at a law firm or a big 4, then doing an LLM at NYU might make sense for you. Not sure what the employment stats for Georgetown and Florida are, but I assume lower.

wiz wrote:NYU and Georgetown do a combined Tax Interview Program in the spring that is basically OCI for tax LLMs. The success rate isn't as high as NYU's actual OCI (I've heard only like a quarter of NYU's LLM class gets something out of it), but overall stats for NYU tax LLMs are solid. There's also fall on-campus interviews and resume collects throughout the year. Maybe like 50% of the class gets work at firms of 100+ and another 35% get Big 4.

For Big 4 comp, you're looking at 105-120k as an LLM with a 5k signing bonus (in NY).

If your goal is doing tax at a law firm or a big 4, then doing an LLM at NYU might make sense for you. Not sure what the employment stats for Georgetown and Florida are, but I assume lower.

Are people worried about the effect a possible republican tax policy could have on tax career outlooks/

s1m4 wrote:

wiz wrote:NYU and Georgetown do a combined Tax Interview Program in the spring that is basically OCI for tax LLMs. The success rate isn't as high as NYU's actual OCI (I've heard only like a quarter of NYU's LLM class gets something out of it), but overall stats for NYU tax LLMs are solid. There's also fall on-campus interviews and resume collects throughout the year. Maybe like 50% of the class gets work at firms of 100+ and another 35% get Big 4.

For Big 4 comp, you're looking at 105-120k as an LLM with a 5k signing bonus (in NY).

If your goal is doing tax at a law firm or a big 4, then doing an LLM at NYU might make sense for you. Not sure what the employment stats for Georgetown and Florida are, but I assume lower.

Are people worried about the effect a possible republican tax policy could have on tax career outlooks/

Lol. Taxes aren't going away.

s1m4 wrote:

wiz wrote:NYU and Georgetown do a combined Tax Interview Program in the spring that is basically OCI for tax LLMs. The success rate isn't as high as NYU's actual OCI (I've heard only like a quarter of NYU's LLM class gets something out of it), but overall stats for NYU tax LLMs are solid. There's also fall on-campus interviews and resume collects throughout the year. Maybe like 50% of the class gets work at firms of 100+ and another 35% get Big 4.

For Big 4 comp, you're looking at 105-120k as an LLM with a 5k signing bonus (in NY).

If your goal is doing tax at a law firm or a big 4, then doing an LLM at NYU might make sense for you. Not sure what the employment stats for Georgetown and Florida are, but I assume lower.

Are people worried about the effect a possible republican tax policy could have on tax career outlooks/

A substantial change in tax policy will likely result in even more work, at least in the short term.

wiz wrote:NYU and Georgetown do a combined Tax Interview Program in the spring that is basically OCI for tax LLMs. The success rate isn't as high as NYU's actual OCI (I've heard only like a quarter of NYU's LLM class gets something out of it), but overall stats for NYU tax LLMs are solid. There's also fall on-campus interviews and resume collects throughout the year. Maybe like 50% of the class gets work at firms of 100+ and another 35% get Big 4.

For Big 4 comp, you're looking at 105-120k as an LLM with a 5k signing bonus (in NY).

If your goal is doing tax at a law firm or a big 4, then doing an LLM at NYU might make sense for you. Not sure what the employment stats for Georgetown and Florida are, but I assume lower.

this is all true. OP, if you want to do T&E work though, the LLM is not that great of a thing. I don't think one biglaw firm has hired out of NYU in the last 3 years for T&E work. And smaller firm that do T&E, dont really hire out of the llm, plus itd be the ame as your 30 person firm. IF you want to do exec comp, ERISA, or intl tax, LLM is a good investment.

WokeUpInACar wrote:

s1m4 wrote:

wiz wrote:NYU and Georgetown do a combined Tax Interview Program in the spring that is basically OCI for tax LLMs. The success rate isn't as high as NYU's actual OCI (I've heard only like a quarter of NYU's LLM class gets something out of it), but overall stats for NYU tax LLMs are solid. There's also fall on-campus interviews and resume collects throughout the year. Maybe like 50% of the class gets work at firms of 100+ and another 35% get Big 4.

For Big 4 comp, you're looking at 105-120k as an LLM with a 5k signing bonus (in NY).

If your goal is doing tax at a law firm or a big 4, then doing an LLM at NYU might make sense for you. Not sure what the employment stats for Georgetown and Florida are, but I assume lower.

Are people worried about the effect a possible republican tax policy could have on tax career outlooks/

A substantial change in tax policy will likely result in even more work, at least in the short term.

yeah companies are sitting on billions overseas. they would need to structure transactions to bring that money back if the republicans granted some sort of holiday. also, the complicated as hell structures now could be simplified so lots of work would come from that.

Anonymous User wrote:2L here at a strong regional with grades right at top 10%. So I landed a job for next summer a mid-sized firm (<30 attorneys) that pays fairly well but no where near BigLaw salary and the firm does not do tax work. I'm pretty sure that for the long term I would like to do T&E taxation and I was wondering how the hiring process, if any, worked at the top Tax LLM schools. Does Florida/NYU have like an OCI process for the tax LLM or do these grads have a hard time finding jobs before finishing the degree? I could stand to do another year of school and forego taking a decent job at the firm if I were positive that the LLM would lead to something better in the field I want to work in but I am fairly risk-averse and would not want to do it if there is a strong chance that I end up in a worse position. Thanks for any replies!

Wouldn't do the LLM if you are wanting to do T&E tax at a biglaw firm. It's kind of an extinct practice for biglaw these days.

OP here- thanks for the replies that was very helpful. I get that T&E work has kind of disappeared from BigLaw but I was kind of thinking we would see a lot more of it in the future with recent stability in the gift tax exemptions ceiling. I probably won't end up doing an LLM but thanks for the input