Tax Boutiques in the South? Forum

[Anonymous User]

What are some firms in the South that are considered "boutiques" and do substantial Tax work? I just want to be paid above market and be able to toil away in my office for 90 hours a week until I make partner.
Is Vandy the best bet if this is the goal? Or should I go to a true T14?

[crazywafflez]

Vandy is a great spot for this- Idk any tax boutiques aside from one in my small city (which has no firm that pays market). Idk any city in the South aside from Atlanta or Charlotte that have market paying firms (unless you count Texas, in which case I think Houston, Dallas, and maybe Austin now?). Research Triangle might? Nashville doesn't, and the next tier down- like Nola, Memphis, Bham etc I think have Baker Donelson and akin around 150k or so. Jackson and Little Rock won't be on that scale, and I think Butler snow is at 125k, but someone will need to confirm for me.
I'd say Duke and UVA are your best bets so you could pick any firm here. Otherwise, Vandy does great, and from what I've seen places comparably in the South (again, I don't count TX as the South- I think Duke, UVA< and obviously UT, outperform it in Texas, albeit, I think it does okay in Houston and Dallas).

[crazywafflez]

I'll also say, I'd rather attend Vandy with $$$ than Duke or UVA at sticker if I intended to stay in the South, personally.

[nealric]

What are some firms in the South that are considered "boutiques" and do substantial Tax work? I just want to be paid above market and be able to toil away in my office for 90 hours a week until I make partner.
Is Vandy the best bet if this is the goal? Or should I go to a true T14?

Sounds like you want to work at Bendini, Lambert & Locke. Best graduate from Harvard and avoid talking to the feds when they ask about your work.

But in all seriousness, I can't think of any tax boutiques of size in the country that pay above market. Even the big D.C. tax boutiques like Caplin and Ivins are generally under market for associates. I suppose it depends on what you mean by the "South" and "Boutqiues." If the South includes Texas and Florida and other major metros, it's a bit different from just the deep south. Big city tax boutique work is going to be pretty similar to Biglaw in terms of recruiting. Really small boutiques in the deep south are probably much more reliant on personal connections.

[Anonymous User]

I would not plan to waltz into any "tax boutique", especially in the South, and expect to make market, let alone "above market". Tax work lucrative enough to merit market compensation for associates is typically tethered to the tax needs of large corporate and financial sponsor clients, and therefore further tethered to the larger full-service firms covering those clients. I think this needs more thought.

[Sackboy]

Generally, the only ways to generally get paid above market bonuses (or base comp) are to (1) work at a lit shop that does plaintiff-side lit and wins, (2) work at firm with a sizable M&A/Capital Markets group driving the profitability of the firm, or (3) work an insane amount of hours where your "above-market" bonus is them throwing you a very small amount of the scraps from the profits you earned them by nearly killing yourself. A tax boutique doesn't fit in buckets (1) or (2) and generally doesn't provide enough work for you to realistically work 2,400+ hour years.

[Anonymous User]

I would strongly advise against going to a “tax boutique” that isn’t one of the 3 in DC (Ivins, Caplin and Miller), Roberts & Holland or Kostelanetz & Fink. The others either don’t do sophisticated work or pay very little (starting salary is probably low to mid $100s). I worked at one of the above and have friends at most of the others.

Big firms also have very good tax practices, so I wouldn’t rule them out.

[nealric]

I would strongly advise against going to a “tax boutique” that isn’t one of the 3 in DC (Ivins, Caplin and Miller), Roberts & Holland or Kostelanetz & Fink. The others either don’t do sophisticated work or pay very little (starting salary is probably low to mid $100s). I worked at one of the above and have friends at most of the others.

Big firms also have very good tax practices, so I wouldn’t rule them out.

Agreed. Outside the national boutiques, you are mostly looking at either midlaw firms that started with a tax focus (Chamberlain), or small-law practices with a tax focus. The thing is, most of the sophisticated tax work out there concerns the needs of large business, and large businesses are mostly going to go to the Big4/Biglaw for their tax legal needs. The national boutiques have a niche as well (especially in the controversy world). If you want to do big M&A deal work, that's pretty dominated by biglaw, as the M&A team typically picks the firm for the deal - separate tax counsel would only be brought in if there was a very specific reason for it. The old McKee Nelson law firm (now defunct) used to be able to originate M&A work on their own, but they were a very rare creature.

Beyond that, you are either looking at high net worth individual (which is a very different world and overlaps a lot with T&E), or small and medium size business issues (which can be tough to scrap out a living in as these sorts of entities tend not to have serious planning/controversy needs that justify big billing rates). I do know of some reasonably successful tax solo practice that mostly do small and medium size business work, but it's not like some new grad is going to get hired by one and make "above market."

[Anonymous User]

What are some firms in the South that are considered "boutiques" and do substantial Tax work? I just want to be paid above market and be able to toil away in my office for 90 hours a week until I make partner.
Is Vandy the best bet if this is the goal? Or should I go to a true T14?

Sounds like you want to work at Bendini, Lambert & Locke. Best graduate from Harvard and avoid talking to the feds when they ask about your work.

But in all seriousness, I can't think of any tax boutiques of size in the country that pay above market. Even the big D.C. tax boutiques like Caplin and Ivins are generally under market for associates. I suppose it depends on what you mean by the "South" and "Boutqiues." If the South includes Texas and Florida and other major metros, it's a bit different from just the deep south. Big city tax boutique work is going to be pretty similar to Biglaw in terms of recruiting. Really small boutiques in the deep south are probably much more reliant on personal connections.

I looked into DC and NY tax boutiques a couple years back and I think the idea is that Caplin pays below market but gives a bonus (and I think the same for Miller - although Miller is closer to market), whereas Ivins pays market (or at least starts at market) and does not pay a bonus (and I believe the same is true for Roberts and Holland).

I don't know anything about Kostelanatz and Fink.