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Is one year too soon to leave for another job?
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Our Philadelphia-area boutique firm whose practice works exclusively with nonprofits and charities is hiring due to growth. Tax is the basis of Exempt Org work. That is why I am posting here. Great practice working to further charitable missions of our clients. Good WLB (1300 hour billable requirement). Opportunity for the right person to work remotely. DM me or email to recruiting@laurasolomonesq.com. Www.laurasolomonesq.com
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Bowl Leader
I quit my job and went to NYU. Also had two small kids at the time. In Biglaw now. Totally worth it. Prior tax experience is like cheat codes in the program.
Bowl Leader
I lateraled to a US satellite office of a large-ish international firm and now bill about 1800. I am a very involved dad - just bill more when I don't have the kids and wind up working late at night sometimes. But I have the flexibility to do that and be present for everything.
Before that, I was at a V20 and it was a struggle. Billing fewer hours there, but just completely chaotic hours so hard to be consistent. But it was doable.
I think if you want to go, either see if your employer will pay and go part time or leave and go full time.
Don’t count in big law out of the program, but rather specialty big4 with LLM pay, which could easily be 160-175 for someone who had some experience before the program.
Yes it would be M&A. I don’t have a great sense on what international is T this point, but it was 10-15% lower when I was coming out.
Of course that was almost 10 years ago now.
I quit my job and did the NYU tax LLM full time, no scholarship. I did really well and got into biglaw tax afterwards. I think biglaw looks at your grades a lot, so if you want to shoot for biglaw then I would make sure you can devote yourself to studying hard. It might be easier to do that full time as opposed to part time. I also have a toddler now (but didn’t back when I did the LLM). Feel feel to DM me to chat.
DM you!
Shoot for biglaw but also have a backup plan. It’s highly competitive, you’ll need to have good grades, which may be difficult with a full time job and a kid. As noted above, see if your current employer will work with you on this. Quitting your job seems too risky to me. Markets are tightening and firm hiring is slowing or in some cases on ice, so leaving your job now seems like a rash decision to me.
Are you a lawyer now? If so, just apply to biglaw directly if your grades are good enough. The LLM will help you get in, but may not be necessary.
Yeah OP, I just finished my tax llm in 2020...I never heard of anyone in any market starting higher than 125k. Idk where the 170k is allegedly coming from
OP shouldn’t be an associate - he has prior international experience. Should be picked up as a senior. That’s where it’s coming from.
Edit: NY is ~140k these days for A1s. Perhaps OP can’t get an SA role if the market goes to shit, but even back in 2014, people with prior tax consulting experience were brought in at the senior level.
To supplement… I understood even with llm I could still end up in Big4 which I could probably get in without it…However I think if without the llm it’s nearly impossible to break into decent law firms
This is 100% incorrect. We have plenty of people jump from Big 4 M&A tax to big law. Happens every year without fail. LLM will help, but it is not necessary.
I suggest you reach out to alumni who have gone this route - it will cost a lot less money and you’ll get to where you want to be.
Could you ask for a reduced schedule at your firm?
Thanks for replying. I could potentially but I think the part time students can’t participate in campus interviews so the chances of getting into biglaw will supposedly be lowered. Whether it’s full time or part time the total tuition investment is the same. Also I guess I can’t receive the llm salary premium (assuming a big4 outcome) until the completion of the program which is several years out? The upside for PT is I don’t lose the 1yr salary and job security. Such a hard situation!
I started part time but just couldn't wait the years it was going to take so quit and went full time. Now in big law.
It’s not good. Billable requirements for tax folks are the same for anyone else. It’s biglaw, if you’re expecting WLB.. then change your mindset.
Given all these people who got big law from a LLM program. What year did you graduate and what percent of the class roughly went biglaw?
I was 2014 and I could count on one hand the number of people who did (I probably would have been competitive and had a good chance of I had wanted to stay in a major market, but did not). It seems like the market has shifted materially since.
Yeah it’s probably less than half of that I would guess then. Still more than 2013-2014 that was under 5%
Go to big4, have them pay for your llm (assuming your current employer wont). Stay the 2 years you need to afterwards so you don't have to pay back the tuition, then make the jump to biglaw.
They paid for mine 3 years ago.