[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I’m a Canadian lawyer who recently moved to the US (just got hitched). I practiced family law for about 2 years. I have a plan to do an MBA with a specialization in Accounting. I’d like to eventually get my CPA designation as well. I’ll be about 31-32 years old when I graduate. I’m going to be living in Colorado and I won’t be eligible to be re-licensed as an attorney in this state so thats not something I’m currently pursuing. (Might reconsider if I move to Cali or NY in a few years and if the legal market miraculously recovers).

Are the Big Four firms more likely to look down on someone who has made a career change? Am I better of trying to get into a mid-size firm? I plan on attending whatever campus recruiting might be going on but that said the Big Four probably will not be recruiting at the smaller school that I’m looking to attend (University of Colorado at Colorado Springs). Any career/school advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Anonymous]

accounting is boring, life in public is miserable

stick with being a lawyer

[ppierce]

Get a masters in taxation. Get your CPA. You will be unstoppable.

FAR 80
REG 76
AUD 85
BEC 85
Ethics 98
DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

great advice Ppierce, yes that makes perfect sense

[Anonymous]

Lawyer+Masters in Taxation+CPA=tons of money….:)

[M.O.D.]

In the US, Lawyer/ CPA/ Tax expert is very valuable because they cannot be compelled to testify against their tax-cheating clients, (attorney-client privilege).

Whereas CPAs who are not attorneys are open to that possibility, unless hired and working through a lawyer. (Kovel letter).

BA Mathematics, UC Berkeley
Certificates in CPA and EA preparation, College of San Mateo
CMA I 420, II 470
FAR 91, AUD Feb 2015 (Gleim self-study)

[HFinn]

Can someone with experience comment on the validitity of Tax+CPA+Lawyer = success claims? I've heard it's not that good of a field currently….

Also, didn't the OP say he wasn't going to be licensed as an attorney anyways?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses everyone! Yes I've thought about the LLM in Tax but that's more a part of my 5-10 year plan. I just can't justify sinking $30 -50 grand on an LLM in the current legal job hiring market. I'll just have to hope the CPA market is a little kinder.

Edit: No I'm not eligible for licensing in Colorado unfortunately. I may consider doing so in California or NYC where I will be eligible but right now I'm locked into Colorado for the next 5 or so years (husband's in the military)

[Author]

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