Should I Plan on Tax LLM for IRS Forum

A forum for applicants and admitted students to ask law students and graduates about law school and the practice of law.
Post Reply
Anonymous User
Posts: 427956
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Should I Plan on Tax LLM for IRS

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Oct 01, 2018 9:26 pm

I am a current 1L at University of Pittsburgh interested in tax. I am interested in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel Honors Program and was wondering if anyone could shed light on IRS hiring of tax attorneys from non-T14 without an LLM. Do I have a shot at the Pittsburgh regional IRS office assuming good grades and tax review / law review? Do I have a shot at the D.C. IRS office? Or should I be planning on doing either NYU or Gtown LLM first, then trying for the IRS honors program?

Obviously do not have grades back yet, but I am speculating I'll be in top 25% based on my interactions with my peers.

Anonymous User
Posts: 427956
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Should I Plan on Tax LLM for IRS

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Jan 18, 2019 7:26 pm

2018 Summer Honors hire here to start at an SBSE field office. LLM may be helpful for the National Office or the field offices if you want to be part of LBI (Large Business/International) because the work is very technical. I don't think it's as helpful if you are SBSE (Small Business/Self-Employed), provided you take all the available tax courses offered for your JD, because the work is less technical and the collections side of the job is as much property/secured transactions law as it is tax law. I do not plan on getting my LLM and only 2 attorneys out of more than 10 have an LLM at my office. I asked them whether I should get one and they didn't think it was worth the money. Procedure and Administration at the national office is also not tax-heavy.

You could always try to get a position your 2L year summer. If you don't get it without the LLM you could get an LLM for a second shot at the IRS Honors Program.

My stats:

T100 school
Top 10%
Law Review & Moot Court
Summered with IRS for two years (1L and 2L) before getting my full-time offer. Hadn't taken any tax before my 1L summer but took Federal Income Tax and Business Tax (Corp., S Corp., Partnership Tax all in one) before my 2L Summer. Am taking Estate Tax courses for my 3L year. Would have taken more courses but my school doesn't offer many. Participated in VITA and will be receiving "Tax Certificate" (pretty meaningless but this demonstrates interest in the field).

QContinuum

Moderator
Posts: 3594
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2017 9:52 am

Re: Should I Plan on Tax LLM for IRS

Post by QContinuum » Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:13 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I am a current 1L at University of Pittsburgh interested in tax. I am interested in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel Honors Program and was wondering if anyone could shed light on IRS hiring of tax attorneys from non-T14 without an LLM. Do I have a shot at the Pittsburgh regional IRS office assuming good grades and tax review / law review? Do I have a shot at the D.C. IRS office? Or should I be planning on doing either NYU or Gtown LLM first, then trying for the IRS honors program?

Obviously do not have grades back yet, but I am speculating I'll be in top 25% based on my interactions with my peers.
Not to rain on your parade, OP, but I have to say that this entire thread is incredibly premature. You're a 1L who hasn't gotten a single law school grade yet! It's simply far, far too early for anyone to say whether you'd be competitive for an IRS position, or for a NYU/Georgetown Tax LL.M. Heck, you don't even know whether you'd actually want to practice tax law - you haven't taken a single tax class yet. It's entirely possible you end up doing well in 1L, and take federal income tax in fall of 2L year and find you can't stand tax law. You should, at this point, be far more focused on securing a 1L summer job and on doing well in your second-semester classes.

I also caution strongly against estimating your own class rank "based on [your] interactions with [your] peers." There is no way to confidently estimate your final exam performance based on your friends' speculations regarding their own performance. First, you don't know everyone in the class (no one does), and it's entirely possible it's the folks you don't know who end up scooping up all of the As. Second, no student can confidently predict their own grade. Back in 1L, I got my worst grade in the class I thought I did the best in, and my best grade in the class I thought I did the worst in.

Hang tight, focus on the present, and return to the question of IRS Honors or Tax LL.M. once you're a 2L and have actually taken (at least) federal income tax.

Best of luck!

dabigchina

Gold
Posts: 1845
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:22 am

Re: Should I Plan on Tax LLM for IRS

Post by dabigchina » Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:47 pm

I was at the IRS my 1L Summer. IIRC honors hiring is mostly focused on grades. I think they had something like a 3.5 cutoff/top 10% cutoff for hiring out of law school, whichever is lower. I don't think a single attorney in my field office had an LLM I also remember that they don't hire directly int LB&I, but I obviously defer to the guy who actually works there full time.

Want to continue reading?

Register now to search topics and post comments!

Absolutely FREE!


Post Reply

Return to “Ask a Law Student / Graduate”