Career Clinic: How can I get into a more client-facing role?

Caution...

I would be careful with the assumption that high net worth/private client work is necessarily more client-facing. The fact is that both corporate and individual taxation are complex technical areas where you cannot expect to be given too long a leash at 1PQE (easy for juniors to run into big trouble). Equally, high net worth individuals even more than corporate tax clients generally like the partners to do the talking and the juniors to keep quiet....

If, on the other hand, what you are talking about is a complete switch out of tax and into family law, that is different. But the usual caveats about leaping into the unknown at a time when there are plenty of unemployed NQs with relevant experience on the market apply...

If you would like to stick with tax, then whether it is corporate or individual tax you are doing it is a long game and it takes time to get really close to the client action - you need to learn the technical stuff first!

If you want to try and shift the focus from corporate to individuals, maybe stay put and perhaps get some "formal" training in relevant areas - have you thought of trying the CTA courses and exams?... You could start on those and then work up to doing the advanced individual tax papers rather than corporate ones. That would at least give you a grounding from which to scout around for high net worth tax positions if that is still what you want to do.

Assistant X -12 Nov 2009 | 08:28

Why do you want a more client-facing role? They're the most annoying part of the job.

Anonymous -12 Nov 2009 | 11:40

The best advice in the current market is probably to stay put for at least the next six months but, that said, I completely understand the need to be a bit more commercial/client-facing than is possible as a junior in a stuffy corporate tax department in a law firm.

Depending on how wedded you are to corporate tax, would you consider moving to an accountancy firm? Their cultures tend to be far more entrepreneurial than law firms at a junior level, and you would get more client exposure. The trade-off is that they tend to pay less at any given PQE than law firms. Only the big 4/top ten tend to take on lawyers, as only the largest teams are specialist enough to justify non-accountant staff. This would be a good move in terms of opening up broader opportunities in the future - be it a move back into law, commerce or indeed into banking. It goes without saying that his would be tricky in the current market, but things are starting to improve.

Making the switch to private client work would probably be more difficult, but one approach might be to look at tax boutiques which design tax avoidance schemes and often require legal input. This could enable you to build up your skills on the private client side. It would be worth contacting a specialist tax recruiter such as Brewer Morris/Morgan McKinley/Pure Recruitment as they have a pretty good idea of the market. Good luck!

Tax Man -12 Nov 2009 | 16:44

Do the clients want to see your face?

Hmmmm -13 Nov 2009 | 12:09

Stay put for now

Hi there. Look, you're only just qualified for goodness' sake. You'll see more of the client in due course, when you are able to do your work without much or any supervision from more senior lawyers. And think carefully about private client work; individuals tend to be much more picky and emotional and make worse clients for lawyers than corporate clients. You can't really blame them, because they are dealing with their own affairs. Quite a lot of private client work is as technical and complex as corporate work and yet you're unlikely to be able to charge as much as with corporate clients. I'd wait and see for another few years, get some more experience and stay put now because there are very few jobs out there. M

may kasahara -13 Nov 2009 | 16:11

I agree with the other posts here - there is very little to be gained by moving to a private client role simply to get more direct client contact (unless you happen to have a preference for private client work), because chances are there will be very little difference between corporate tax and private client tax in terms of the amount of client contact you get as a junior solicitor. Also, don't forget that private client work doesn't just involve taxation of individuals (usually HNWIs) but also includes non-tax areas such as wills, trusts, probate and inheritance issues, so you need to consider whether you would be interested in dealing with those areas as well. Also, tax is one of those areas where technical ability has to be gained first before one can get any significant exposure to clients, particularly in a law firm. I also agree with the poster that mentioned the Big 4 - working in an accountancy firm not only gives you much more client contact at a junior level but also gives you a practical insight into tax that clients find far more relevant than esoteric finer points of legislation. There are drawbacks, however. Aside from the lower pay, lawyers often do not receive the same level of support as accountants because, unlike accountants, they haven't been doing computations and audits from day 1, which makes them technically less experienced than their ACA counterparts. If you feel you need a solid foundation of tax knowledge across a wide range of areas I would advise either doing an LLM with appropriate tax subjects or a CTA. Most firms are usually willing to support this if there is a good business case, so it might be worth asking your firm to see if this is something they would support. Good luck!

Anon -17 Nov 2009 | 22:16