How portable is tax specialization outside the US? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I am committed to the corporate practice group as an incoming associate but I've really enjoyed tax and would not mind practicing tax exclusively. For personal reasons, I need the option to practice outside the US, preferably in London or Hong Kong. Will tax get me anywhere, or should I stick to M&A/CM as planned? Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous User]

Caveat I have never practiced law after graduating law school but am in an adjacent industry in HK and run into CapM, financing and M&A (less so with fund formation / restructuring) lawyers often enough. Anon because my user ID is identifying and HK is a very small place.

I have never seen a US qualified lawyer specialized in tax (unless you are also PRC / HK qualified) because most transactions in this part of the world do not have a major US tax angle (not many clients here are Delaware LLCs). If you only have NY bar, you are not authorized to read PRC / HK / whichever relevant local jurisdiction's tax law. Even for transactions with major US tax issues - it is much more efficient and cheaper (no COLA in NYC) for Skadden / KE / DPW etc to leverage their NY tax teams than to retain a tax specialist in HK.

In HK the bread and butter for any international firm will be CapM and M&A (fund formation (KE / STB) and financing (most MC firms) are also very important to certain firms, but less universally prevalent). However as a US-licensed lawyer, your roles in both CapM and M&A will be somewhat limited.

In CapM, you are likely doing mostly US IPO and reg S / 144a work. Given current political climate, you can forget about US IPOs which traditionally has been the largest practice area for the likes of Skadden, STB and DPW. In M&A you likely won't be involved in disclosable transactions of HK publicly listed companies unless there is a significant US angle due to licensing issues. All this is to say that your practice in HK as a US-licensed lawyer will be somewhat narrower than in NYC - there is unlikely to be a business case to specialize in US tax. That said, I don't think it is impossible (or even difficult if you are at a V10) to transfer back even if you specialize in tax in NY. However, OP should think carefully if you would want to learn an entirely new practice area as a mid-level in a new city and a (most likely) new firm.

[Anonymous User]

Not a practicing lawyer yet but am international 3L interested in tax, among others. I agree completely with the above poster. I was told by many that doing tax work would likely mean a dead end I plan to practice as a US lawyer in Asia/europe. I've also talked to recruiters in my overseas target markets and they've told me they've never had any tax specialist openings for US lawyers. All this to say it's gonna be very hard and as the above poster said retooling as a mid-level may not be ideal.

[Anonymous User]

I’ve only seen US-trained tax lawyers practicing abroad in London (and possibly, Paris) with a focus on fund formation at firms like Debevoise/KE/STB.

Would be cool to see more opportunities in Asia, but haven’t seen it yet.

[Anonymous User]

The Big 4 have US desks outside of the US that might be possible to get into. Law firms, as others have said, not particularly common. It's not particularly common for any practice group though.

[Anonymous User]

Tax lawyer here. You should stick to M&A/cap markets if you are looking to go to London or HK. There are a handful of US tax lawyers serving US tax function in HK / London / SG / Tokyo (MoFo, Baker McKenzie, Dechert, Withers, etc.), but they are few and far between. Every Asian/European offices with deals with US tax component just flip their drafts over to the applicable US office. Sometimes they don’t even do that and finalize everything with the big4.

The only real viable option is, as someone said above, going to a US Tax Desk at the big4. But this would generally entail significant comp cut.

[Anonymous User]

Tax lawyer here. You should stick to M&A/cap markets if you are looking to go to London or HK. There are a handful of US tax lawyers serving US tax function in HK / London / SG / Tokyo (MoFo, Baker McKenzie, Dechert, Withers, etc.), but they are few and far between. Every Asian/European offices with deals with US tax component just flip their drafts over to the applicable US office. Sometimes they don’t even do that and finalize everything with the big4.

The only real viable option is, as someone said above, going to a US Tax Desk at the big4. But this would generally entail significant comp cut.

Hi Just curious, are you a tax lawyer in HK or London? Because you seem very knowledgeable about the local market. I am currently doing US tax work in HK as well

[nealric]

Further down the line, there may be some in-house opportunities that would allow you to be based abroad. For example, I have a former college who is a U.S. tax advisor to a European company on a 100% remote basis, who would presumably be happy to have him local (he reports to a someone in Europe).

But I agree with the above that a Biglaw expat position is likely not viable in tax. Biglaw does not typically have U.S. tax partners abroad (maybe a small handful in London), and they certainly aren't going to put a brand-new junior associate where there are no partners in that practice area. It makes more sense to just call the tax group in New York when there are U.S. tax considerations on a deal.

[Anonymous User]

Not a practicing lawyer yet but am international 3L interested in tax, among others. I agree completely with the above poster. I was told by many that doing tax work would likely mean a dead end I plan to practice as a US lawyer in Asia/europe. I've also talked to recruiters in my overseas target markets and they've told me they've never had any tax specialist openings for US lawyers. All this to say it's gonna be very hard and as the above poster said retooling as a mid-level may not be ideal.

Hi just curious did you end up in tax?

[Anonymous User]

Follow the recruiters from Vargas partners on LinkedIn, they’ve advertised tax openings for US associates in Singapore and Milan in the past 2 months. They’re relatively rare, but international tax roles for US-trained associates do come up.