Any Tax Lawyers?

[Connemara]

Going into law anytime soon is, as DNW pointed out, pretty friggin' dumb.

 

[AR_Six]

Have sympathy for those of us blindsided by the recession having started in 07... I was fortunate to only have to change cities.

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by JD_May

Have sympathy for those of us blindsided by the recession having started in 07... I was fortunate to only have to change cities.
And I hope nothing but the best for you--but down in this neck of the woods, you'd have less than a 50% chance of having your offer actually stick by the time you graduate. Then there's the junior associates bloodbath...

 

[AR_Six]

Not "stick"? That would be a breach of contract. Also, no firm here would ever do that; no matter what the economy looks like the big guys are still competing for the top 10% of the class just so that they have a succession strategy, and they don't want the reputation of "this firm might hire you and then change its mind once you've accepted".

But yeah, the juniors' bloodbath is universally a concern.

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by JD_May

Not "stick"? That would be a breach of contract. Also, no firm here would ever do that; no matter what the economy looks like the big guys are still competing for the top 10% of the class just so that they have a succession strategy, and they don't want the reputation of "this firm might hire you and then change its mind once you've accepted". But yeah, the juniors' bloodbath is universally a concern.
It's commonplace now to have firms defer or rescind offers altogether for some or all of the upcoming classes. Firm reputation is a factor, but at the end of the day...if money is tight, nobody can shield their pride forever. Just do a search for "rescinded" on abovethelaw.com and you'll see how far [and fast] most of the top firms have fallen.

 

[Grenadier]

I disagree with Hazad. I go to Arizona State University and am about middle of my class. I landed a summer associate position with a very reputable, local, mid-sized firm. I also work there part-time as a law clerk. Certainly, by grades I should not have gotten the job. I happen to love the firm I'm with.

Will I make as much money as a Skadden partner? No. Will I make a prettier penny in my day than most Americans? Absolutely. Do I need to make millions to be happy? No. Do I need to work on Fortune 500 cases to be happy? No. In fact, I don't want to work on Fortune 500 commercial litigation cases; there are just too damn many documents.

Hazad is right if you want to service the most elite of America's corporations or make millions of dollars outside the realm of contingency-fee plaintiffs' litigation (personal injury or otherwise). However, there are a great many people and businesses, even quite well off ones, who do not bring their legal needs to the AmLaw 100.

As concerns tax, getting into NYU, Georgetown, or Florida (Gainsville) for your LLM would be a great idea. Tax lawyers will generally always be eminently employable. One of the great things about tax is that you can really specialize and make a name for yourself as one of the few in the country who are experts in that particular area. Specialization, and a reputation for that specialization, is good for employability.

 

[Hazad]

Originally Posted by azlawstudent

I disagree with Hazad. I go to Arizona State University and am about middle of my class. I landed a summer associate position with a very reputable, local, mid-sized firm. I also work there part-time as a law clerk. Certainly, by grades I should not have gotten the job. I happen to love the firm I'm with.

Obviously, if you are content doing regional work at a regional firm (which MANY people are quite thrilled with), then law school at a lower tier school is not a bad investment - although I still would not recommended enrolling for another few years. However, given what the OP has stated (and the fact that this is styleforum and thus BIGLAW = GOD), I felt it reasonable to assume that he was looking at an LLM getting him into one of the V20 firms.

For reference, notice this was stated:

Originally Posted by randallr

I heard that if you complete an LLM at a top law school with a good tax program you are set for life.

Also, congratulations on your job. I don't mean that with any sense of sarcasm either, I am genuinely happy for anyone who has been fortunate enough to secure employment in this shithole of an economy.

 

[randallr]

It will be about four years until I will be done with my JD, so I don't think my current decision should be based on how the economy is right now. I also have a few connections in Chicago and the East Coast so hopefully that could help in the future. I am also not opposed to working for a few years and then going back to law school in my mid 20's.

 

[yerfdog]

I took a few tax classes in law school. I enjoyed them, but they were very difficult, and I didn't do very well in them. I would say accounting knowledge is helpful, but no more so than in many areas of law (eg, business transactions, trust & estates, family law).

I know a guy from my class who is a tax lawyer for a major oil company (they hire a lot of tax lawyers). He's enjoying it.

 

[crazyquik]

Originally Posted by JD_May

Not "stick"? That would be a breach of contract. Also, no firm here would ever do that; no matter what the economy looks like the big guys are still competing for the top 10% of the class just so that they have a succession strategy, and they don't want the reputation of "this firm might hire you and then change its mind once you've accepted".

That was the common line up until the end of 2008. 2009 has proven all of that wrong. Kids have been deferred twice, or deferred infininently. Others have gone to work and been fired 2 months in "for performance reasons," essentially making them unemployable afterwards.

Originally Posted by yerfdog

I took a few tax classes in law school. I enjoyed them, but they were very difficult, and I didn't do very well in them. I would say accounting knowledge is helpful, but no more so than in many areas of law (eg, business transactions, trust & estates, family law).

My anecdote is that the guy who worked at Ernst & Young prior to law school rocked out in tax class.