Please help me decide - NY Tax practice Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi everyone. Currently in a very fortunate position to be able to choose from DPW, S&C and Skadden, all NY. I am interested in tax, but open to transactional work. Exit opportunities are very important for me, as I generally lack stamina and every single one of my bodyparts hurts when it comes to working long hours (part of the reason I want to do tax), and I doubt I'll last long in big law even if I want to. I got good vibes from all three interviews and am truly unable to decide. Any suggestion/insight would be helpful. Thank you!

[Anonymous User]

Hi everyone. Currently in a very fortunate position to be able to choose from DPW, S&C and Skadden, all NY. I am interested in tax, but open to transactional work. Exit opportunities are very important for me, as I generally lack stamina and every single one of my bodyparts hurts when it comes to working long hours (part of the reason I want to do tax), and I doubt I'll last long in big law even if I want to. I got good vibes from all three interviews and am truly unable to decide. Any suggestion/insight would be helpful. Thank you!

right on point. CBed there last year, met some tax partners and decided not to go.

[Anonymous User]

I think the prevailing market wisdom is that Skadden has the best tax practice by a large margin, and then it's a three-way tie between Wachtell, Cravath, and DPW (all fantastic tax practices btw, no knock on them intended). Below them, probs S&C and Cleary?

[Anonymous User]

^I'm at one of the NY shops you mention that isn't Wachtell. The view in our group is that Wachtell's tax department is weak relative to their other groups. My impression is that they are pure deal support, whereas the others you mention are often engaged on their own for structuring / tax opinions. That being said, you'd have to be a real tax freak to turn down the compensation for the chance to work on more opinions.

OP -- if you are set on tax then one thing I'd weigh heavily is your impressions of folks from the tax groups you've met. As the groups are relatively small, these will be your people. When a partner sends you a cryptic late night research request, are there midlevels at the firm who you will feel comfortable picking up the phone and asking for help? Do they sound (reasonably) happy, interested in the work? Of course, this all must be judged recognizing that most will be in sell mode.

[Anonymous User]

OP - Thanks everyone! Probably going to talk to as many people in the tax group as I can. Anecdotally from my CBs experience, I felt like the S&C people have better sense of humor, and the DPW people are a liiiiitle bit more uptight, but that's just my experience and probably won't matter much once I start grinding away at any of these firms. Curious if anyone else have CB experience to share.

[Anonymous User]

These are all fantastic options for tax. But as a warning, you will work long hours at all of them. I think the post above is overstating the 'prevailing market wisdom,' and deciding on personalities and feel probably makes sense given how small the groups are. DPW does more financial products work, which can be boring when the products are simple, but interesting when they start to get complex. I also think they are the largest group out your options: a quick glance at websites shows S&C with 11 associates in NY (from graduation dates though it doesn't look like they've updated it for a bit) while DPW lists 35. Skadden may do more M&A given their strength in that area more generally? Idk, regardless of what you choose you will end up working on a variety of different things at all of these firms, and, if you like tax (liking tax is key), you will get great experience. One last thing to consider is that you might not get a tax offer. It might be especially dicey if the summer is virtual. Most of these places only offer a few spots each year (maybe DPW offers a few more?).

[unlicensedpotato]

I'm a non-NY tax associate, but my impression is that Skadden tax does more M&A/transactional whereas DPW and S&C do more debt/financial products work. I personally would rather do M&A more than debt offerings, but there are definitely people with the opposite view. Debt/financial products work tends to be more tedious but also more nuanced. Setting aside preferences for a given type of work (which is hard to determine with any accuracy as a law student), I agree that the personalities of the people you'll work with are more important than relative prestige when the firms you're talking about are all well-regarded.