First hand account
Timothy Burns
Law School: Connecticut School of Law
Offices: New Haven, Hong Kong
Role: Associate
My experience
I joined Withers Bergman as a first year associate, in New Haven in September 2007, working in the Funds, Investment, Trusts, and Tax group. In general, the majority of assignments received were income tax research questions, quite often involving an international aspect of US income tax, and/or partnership tax. At times, there were some drafting assignments, particularly drafting partnership agreements and transfer documents.
In May 2008, I moved to the Family and Business group in order to cross-train before moving to Hong Kong in September. In Hong Kong, my assignments have generally focused on international estate planning and my work has become more drafting oriented. Throughout my first year, I have had the benefit of being to client meetings and engaging with clients directly. On many assignments, I was at the initial client meeting and worked on the matter to its completion.
My training
There are a few different ways that Withers has trained me. First, there are formal training sessions for all associates. These sessions focus on everything from cross-border estate planning to entity tax and help you keep abreast with tax developments and new legislation. However, most of my training came "on the job" on assignments working with and learning from partners and other associates.
Expectation vs reality
Prior to joining the Firm, my expectations were that Withers would provide a platform to work on complex tax issues, supply adequate training, allow me to interact with clients more so than at some larger firms, and give me the real possibility to work abroad. As I am now in the Hong Kong office one year later, I really feel that these expectations have become a reality.
Advice to anyone thinking of joining
If you are thinking about joining a US office, be sure that you want to be involved in wealth planning, particularly tax planning and estate planning. I think that my desire to engage in this type of work helped make my first year enjoyable and allowed me to gain the most from my experience. I know that other offices have different areas of expertise, so I am hesitant about over-generalizing the firm on a global scale. However, it is clear that firm-wide there is an emphasis on training and client-morale, a factor that I think anyone should consider prior to deciding which firm to work for.