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2L here. Currently enrolled in a T20. Born and raised in the legal market I intend to practice. Enrolled in Federal Income Tax, fascinated by the topic, and seriously considering pursuing an LLM (GULC or NYU). Started a business in college, and very invested in it (both fiscally and passionately). Recently, offered a position as a 2L SA at ~V10 (hesitant on accepting due to what it would entail (on a substantive and motivational level)).

Advice? Option #1, LLM it up? Option #2 LLM then leverage my know-how to continue growing my business? Option #3 Go Biglaw and say fuck it, suck it up for a couple of years and possibly lateral to a department in line with my career aspirations (which brings up my next question, how feasible is it to lateral to something you're actually interested in...)?

Your post is unclear. What would you want to do after the LLM? If the answer is biglaw tax, you don't need an LLM to do that.

You don't need the LLM. Like, at all. Just apply for tax SA positions. They are more competitive than corporate though.

ETA: You will have a hard time getting a tax slot for next summer. Taking the 2L SA will put you in a good position to land an entry-level tax associate spot. I would do the SA for the money if nothing else.

Do the 2L SA. Silly not to.

And confused about the business thing... do you own a business? Also have no idea how an LLM will add "know how" to develop your business (or if you own a business to begin with)?

Also note that Federal Income Tax (aka, "baby tax") is absolutely nothing like corporate tax practice. Enroll in corporate tax classes to get a better idea (though still not perfect picture) of what being a tax associate will involve. The best thing you can do, as others mentioned, is a SA position in a tax group, if possible.

toast and bananas wrote:Also note that Federal Income Tax (aka, "baby tax") is absolutely nothing like corporate tax practice. Enroll in corporate tax classes to get a better idea (though still not perfect picture) of what being a tax associate will involve. The best thing you can do, as others mentioned, is a SA position in a tax group, if possible.

Work at my firm doesn't involve a ton of corporate tax. Way more partnership and international tax. I'm sure that differs firm to firm, just mean that taking corporate tax may not give you a great idea of practice either.

Wol wrote:

toast and bananas wrote:Also note that Federal Income Tax (aka, "baby tax") is absolutely nothing like corporate tax practice. Enroll in corporate tax classes to get a better idea (though still not perfect picture) of what being a tax associate will involve. The best thing you can do, as others mentioned, is a SA position in a tax group, if possible.

Work at my firm doesn't involve a ton of corporate tax. Way more partnership and international tax. I'm sure that differs firm to firm, just mean that taking corporate tax may not give you a great idea of practice either.

I totally believe this. Here I only know of one senior associate who specializes in reorgs. There's a lot of MLP work going on, and we also have a big tax controversy practice.

The big takeaway I was trying to give OP is that real tax is difficult as hell and Income Tax is, well, not. There's a reason why their rates are the highest in the firm.