Tax Associate Attorney

Seniority

• 48 years of experience in transactional tax at a law firm

Education

• JD from accredited law school (transcript required upon submission)

Miscellaneous

• Based in Los Angeles
• 4 days/week in office required

Work Experience

• Income/transactional tax experience at a law firm (not accounting/advisory firm alone)
• Advising on tax aspects of M&A partnerships and restructurings

Hard Skills

• Drafting/negotiating tax provisions in transaction documents
• Federal state and local tax knowledge for business transactions

Soft Skills

• Comfortable billing 1900 hours annually

Miscellaneous

• Compensation must align within $230K$350K base range

Work Experience

• Experience with privately held businesses family offices or high-net-worth clients
• Mid-market or large law firm background preferred

Education

• LLM in Taxation

Hard Skills

• Experience with partnership structures S corps and C corps

• Too junior less than 3 years practicing law at a firm
• Tax experience limited to compliance/returns only (no transactional)
• Job hopper with multiple short stints

One thing worth flagging: the currently public JMM posting describes the position as requiring a minimum of 3 years whereas your recruiting criteria specify 48 years. The public posting otherwise strongly matches your JD on transactional tax M&A partnerships/S corps/C corps restructurings and private/HNW/family-office clients.

Must have: 48 years practicing transactional/income tax at a law firm; M&A partnership restructuring or other business-transaction tax experience; experience drafting/negotiating tax provisions in deal documents; federal and ideally state/local transactional tax knowledge; JD; willing to work in Los Angeles 4 days/week; $230K$350K target compensation.

Strong preference: Mid-size sophisticated boutique AmLaw/BigLaw background; partnership/LLC S-corp and C-corp structuring; privately held company family-office or HNW exposure; Tax LLM.

I would not require BigLaw. JMM itself is a sophisticated mid-market platform so attorneys from strong regional and tax boutiques can be highly relevant.

Highest-priority Los Angeles / Southern California: Latham & Watkins Gibson Dunn Greenberg Glusker Loeb & Loeb Sheppard Mullin Buchalter Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp Glaser Weil Holland & Knight Greenberg Traurig DLA Piper ArentFox Schiff Venable Proskauer Withers Willkie Farr Pillsbury Manatt Sidley Austin Mayer Brown Morgan Lewis McDermott Will & Emery Skadden Kirkland & Ellis OMelveny & Myers Paul Hastings Crowell & Moring Rutan & Tucker Allen Matkins Snell & Wilmer. Several of these are currently recognized in LA tax corporate or M&A rankings including Gibson Dunn Greenberg Glusker Greenberg Traurig Holland & Knight Latham JMM DLA Piper and others.

National transactional-tax powerhouses worth targeting: Latham & Watkins Kirkland & Ellis Skadden Simpson Thacher Davis Polk Sullivan & Cromwell Cravath Cleary Gottlieb Weil Gotshal Paul Weiss Debevoise & Plimpton Ropes & Gray Goodwin Cooley Wilson Sonsini Fenwick & West Sidley Austin Mayer Brown McDermott Will & Emery Morgan Lewis DLA Piper Holland & Knight Baker McKenzie White & Case Milbank Willkie Farr Proskauer Akin Vinson & Elkins Gibson Dunn Paul Hastings Orrick Morrison Foerster Pillsbury Sheppard Mullin Greenberg Traurig Foley & Lardner Crowell & Moring Winston & Strawn.

These are particularly useful when you identify lawyers whose bios specifically mention M&A tax partnership tax private equity tax reorganizations corporate transactions or fund/LLC structuring. For example Legal 500 identifies Cleary Weil and Latham among leading non-contentious tax practices while Morgan Lewis has substantial M&A JV and partnership-tax work.

Strong mid-market/boutique targets: Greenberg Glusker Buchalter Loeb & Loeb Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp Glaser Weil Withers Manatt ArentFox Schiff Venable Rutan & Tucker Allen Matkins Snell & Wilmer Farella Braun Martel Hanson Bridgett Miller Nash Tonkon Torp Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt Taft Barnes & Thornburg Ice Miller Faegre Drinker Stinson Polsinelli Husch Blackwell Foley Hoag Mintz Nixon Peabody Lowenstein Sandler Cole Schotz Goulston & Storrs Morris Nichols Richards Layton & Finger.

High-value JD schools: Yale Stanford Harvard Chicago Columbia NYU Penn Carey UVA Berkeley Michigan Duke Northwestern Cornell Georgetown UCLA USC Gould Vanderbilt Texas WashU Boston University Boston College Fordham Notre Dame Emory George Washington UC Irvine UC Davis UC Law San Francisco Loyola Los Angeles Pepperdine Caruso SMU Dedman Houston Minnesota Wisconsin Washington William & Mary Wake Forest UNC Ohio State Moritz Indiana Maurer Illinois Iowa.

Especially useful Tax LLM programs: NYU Georgetown Northwestern Florida Boston University Loyola Los Angeles.

Example of an ideal candidate: A Loyola LA or Pepperdine graduate with 6 years of sophisticated partnership/M&A tax at Greenberg Glusker or Buchalter is probably much more on-target than a Harvard graduate whose practice is tax controversy or tax compliance.

NOTE: Firm name is shared with qualified candidates during the interview process if chosen.