Advice for a Tax LLM student? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi all!

I hope one of you has some advice or words of wisdom for me.

I'm currently enrolled in the tax LLM program at a highly regarded, but not the top, school in this field. I have received an offer from one of the Big 4, field office, which sounds super tempting to little old me who has never made six figures in their life. With this being said, I am afraid of the exit opportunities or lack thereof that might follow if I do take this job, but I also feel caught between a rock and a hard place because I'm scared I won't get another comparable job offer down the line and don't want to burn bridges, as silly as they may sound.

I went to an unranked law school where my grades were not stellar, so BL from the get-go would be impossible to swing. All my legal experiences have been in-house, so I would love to at least get a taste of law firm life for once. A couple of BL tax associates have advised me to not take the position and instead target exec. comp. positions at a variety of law firms, while other people have told me to take the position and continue hustling to see if a better opportunity would present itself. I feel like I'm going crazy because I honestly don't know what to do.

I'm not tied to any market or region, so moving to or from a state is no big deal to me. I just want to make sure that I am setting myself up for success as best as I can under the present conditions.

Have any of you dealt with something similar or witnessed a colleague going through something similar? Thoughts?

[Anonymous User]

Accept and renege if you find something better. I was in a similar position in 2019/2020. Fortunately I accepted my offer in the fall of 2019. When covid hit in the spring, both accounting and law firms went on a hiring freeze. My fall offer was honored and I started shortly after graduating.

If you want BL and are based in NY or DC your chances are pretty high. You’ll have a better chance if you’re in WNT or M&A tax. Best of luck on your decision.

[Anonymous User]

I was a biglaw tax associate for 3 years and have been an in-house tax counsel since. I think biglaw would set you up the best for exit opportunities so if you have decent grades in your LLM program I would try as hard as you can to land a biglaw job. I'm not sure what the hiring timeline is for LLM student so it might still make sense to accept and then renege if necessary if you can land a BL job, or just accept and work there for a year or so while you look for other opportunities if you don't like it. You could also eventually try to transfer over to the DC office ("WNT") from the field office, which likely would be an upgrade in both pay and substantive work. A WNT position is a step below biglaw in terms of prestige and pay, but it certainly can be a comfortable and happy life.

[nealric]

I was in biglaw for 3 years, and have been in-house for 10 after that. I work with a lot of people from both law firm and big 4 backgrounds.

It's really all about getting relevant experience that will set you up for your eventual career. There's a huge range within the Big4 from dead-end jobs that will teach you nothing to jobs that with great training and exit options. Some local offices may have great subgroups and others may have mediocre ones. It's just very dependent on the specific personalities involved.

I wouldn't categorically say that Big4 has worse job options than Biglaw, it's just different. Big 4 will bring a lot more focus on technical tax, and the exit options will be more focused on that space. Biglaw is more M&A focused. You'll have to get a lot more comfortable with the quantitative stuff in the Big4, but may not get as much writing experience. I also wouldn't say it's necessarily a good idea to go executive comp just to get into biglaw. Yes it will pay more up front, but it only makes sense if you actually want to do executive comp for a living. It won't cross over to other areas of tax, so your exits would be much narrower.

[CanadianWolf]

Tough to offer advice without knowing the specialty area that you would be working in at the Big 4 regional office.

Helpful to know which classes you have taken in your Tax LLM program and how well or poorly you performed in each class.

Have you taken any deferred comp classes ?

Disagree that working in a Big 4 Washington National Tax (WNT) office can be a "comfortable and happy life". You may be able to find such a fit, but WNT partners & principals are often just as demanding as biglaw partners and you will be paid about 50% less than a biglaw associate.

Feel free to send a PM.

P.S. Agree that you should consider accepting the Big 4 position while continuing to interview.

[hangtime813]

Take the big4 offer and renege if needed. Most tax attorneys work at the accounting firms anyway and many make plenty of money there or inhouse.