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I am sitting on offers from the above firms and I need to reject 2 of them within 2 biz days (school allows max 3 open offers from the same market). Pretty set on doing corporate tax. Skadden has the "best" tax practice according to Firsthand and S&C has the "worst" but how accurate are those lists really? Is there any meaningful difference that is reflected in the rankings? Should I just go with fit? Appreciate any advice.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:25 pm

I am sitting on offers from the above firms and I need to reject 2 of them within 2 biz days (school allows max 3 open offers from the same market). Pretty set on doing corporate tax. Skadden has the "best" tax practice according to Firsthand and S&C has the "worst" but how accurate are those lists really? Is there any meaningful difference that is reflected in the rankings? Should I just go with fit? Appreciate any advice.

Per Chambers (which is substantially better than Firsthand), Skadden, S&C, and STB have Band 1 practices while PW and Latham have Band 2. Unless you have a compelling reason to pick PW/LW, pick whichever of the three Ss suits you best.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:25 pm

I am sitting on offers from the above firms and I need to reject 2 of them within 2 biz days (school allows max 3 open offers from the same market). Pretty set on doing corporate tax. Skadden has the "best" tax practice according to Firsthand and S&C has the "worst" but how accurate are those lists really? Is there any meaningful difference that is reflected in the rankings? Should I just go with fit? Appreciate any advice.

I would choose based on fit. Your absolute #1 goal as a new attorney (tax or otherwise) is to find good training and development. You won't get that if you don't click with the personalities involved.

I don't think there is a meaningful difference in quality between the tax practices at those firms. They are all going to be very M&A support focused practices, and all of the firms named do large complex deals that will give you good training fact patterns.

Skadden does have a tax good practice, but it is absolutely a sweatshop (based on talking to former Skadden NYC tax folks). That's not to say the other firms won't have any sweat shop aspects.

You should consider how likely you are to actually get tax. Not everyone who wants it actually gets it.

Latham has an unassigned rotation program, which could result in you doing non-tax work early on unless you seriously communicate your desire to only do tax work. Something to consider.

nealric wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:34 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:25 pm

I am sitting on offers from the above firms and I need to reject 2 of them within 2 biz days (school allows max 3 open offers from the same market). Pretty set on doing corporate tax. Skadden has the "best" tax practice according to Firsthand and S&C has the "worst" but how accurate are those lists really? Is there any meaningful difference that is reflected in the rankings? Should I just go with fit? Appreciate any advice.

I would choose based on fit. Your absolute #1 goal as a new attorney (tax or otherwise) is to find good training and development. You won't get that if you don't click with the personalities involved.

I don't think there is a meaningful difference in quality between the tax practices at those firms. They are all going to be very M&A support focused practices, and all of the firms named do large complex deals that will give you good training fact patterns.

I second the bolded above. These firms are all in an elite-tier doing cutting edge, mostly deal-oriented tax work. Tax also has a steep and long learning curve.

So, I would go where you think you’ll get the training that suits your learning style the best.

I think that will at least partly be a function of the culture/personalities you click with the best. All great choices— congrats!

Do you enjoy working with crippling hangovers after going out with your boss (partner) --> Skadden
Otherwise, pick whatever u want