In the ever-shifting landscape of tax law, staying clued up on the latest developments is key. We caught up with four tax experts at Cleary Gottlieb to break down the ins and outs of their practice.
Chambers Associate: What does practicing tax law involve on a day-to-day basis?
Kylie Barza, partner: My day is largely driven by what is required on each of the deals I’m handling. As a tax lawyer, I am often involved in many active deals at one time. Some may just be getting off the ground, while others are racing towards signing and thereafter, closing. Each stage in a deal’s lifecycle requires different things from the tax lawyers involved. During the early stages, we often engage in discussions about structure and conduct high-level thinking about the transaction’s tax efficiency. Once we are actively negotiating towards signing, I read and markup transaction documents (often on tight deadlines), have calls with the client and opposing counsel to negotiate contractual provisions, and research any new issues that arise. Once a deal has signed, there may be pre-closing transactions (i.e., a restructuring or asset carve-out) that is required, and we will be involved in ensuring that the restructuring is completed in accordance with the purchase agreement.
Maureen Linch, partner: My practice is primarily transactional, so I am usually in the middle of a bunch of different deals at various stages of the transaction lifecycle.
My typical day involves a combination of meetings, reading, writing, revising, and drawing. Meetings can be with clients, other lawyers at the firm, accountants, or counterparty counsel, and can involve negotiating, answering questions, giving advice, and explaining documents. I read all sorts of materials – the tax code, IRS regulations and guidance, case law, scholarly articles, news, contracts, emails, and forms. When I’m writing and revising, it is typically a contract, memo, or email. Drawing might not seem like something a lawyer does, but it is also part of my job. Tax lawyers often create complex structure charts, which are pictures of companies’ relationships with each other. We use different shapes to show the tax characteristics of each entity: corporations are rectangles, partnerships are triangles, etc. With multinational companies that have many subsidiaries or that are planning for multi-step transactions, the pictures can be extremely complex. I especially enjoy figuring out how to show intricate structures in pictures that are easy to understand.
Right now, among other things, I’m advising a number of clients about the implications of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was passed in July 2025.
Abdel Rodríguez, associate: A big part of what makes practicing as a tax lawyer exciting is that no day is alike. I looked back through my diaries, and during a single day I reviewed a partnership agreement, responded to questions from investors, prepared disclosure, reviewed a bond offering document, and dove into legal research for our pro bono clients.
CA: How does tax law intersect with other areas of law? Are there any other practices you collaborate with regularly?
ML: As a transactional tax lawyer, I interact with more lawyers from other practice areas than most lawyers at a Big Law firm. I get to work on a little bit of everything: M&A, renewable energy, intellectual property, capital markets, funds, bankruptcy, finance, and litigation. The bulk of my work is M&A, so I spend most of my time collaborating with my colleagues in the corporate groups.
AR: In the same way tax shows up in many facets of our day-to-day life, tax law intersects with most practice areas at Cleary. My practice has evolved during my time at the firm, and nowadays I work very closely with our private funds team and regularly work with our structured finance team in Washington, D.C. I’ve also had the opportunity to work alongside our Latin America group and capital markets group.
CA: Are there any trends driving work in the area at the moment?
KB: For most of my career I’ve focused on M&A work, and that has seen its usual ups and downs over the last few years. I’ve seen a rise in continuation vehicle transactions recently, which at a high-level are transactions in which a private equity fund’s investors and its sponsor are given the opportunity to remain invested in a particular asset (portfolio company) while the remainder of the fund’s investors seek liquidity (exit). Cleary’s fund and M&A practices have allowed us to be involved in interesting “CVs” and that comes with tax work – analyzing both fund and M&A related tax aspects.
ML: Right now, most of my clients are focused on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and its many tax-related changes. It will affect the tax treatment of companies’ debt, foreign investments, clean energy tax credits, and many other commercial activities and investments. Many of my clients need counsel about how the new law will affect their tax positions, their operations, and their supply chain relationships. Clients are looking to understand how the new law changes the treatment of transactions they are planning to complete and what changes they will have to make to structures and tax positions as a result of the new law.
CA: What interests you most about tax law? What drew you to this practice?
KB: The most interesting thing to me about the tax work we do is that although you have a basic roadmap for what the law is or should be (the Code, regulations and IRS guidance), it’s rare that the questions we receive are directly addressed by that roadmap; instead, we have to take all that we know, and apply the law to new and interesting facts. In a way, our job is like solving a really hard puzzle, using clues from another really big puzzle.
ML: My favorite part of my job is getting to collaborate with my colleagues to solve problems. I was a middle school teacher before I went to law school, and I had no idea tax was even interesting, let alone that it would become my career. In law school, I took a tax class as an elective because I didn’t know anything about it, and it seemed like something lawyers at Big Law firms should know at least a little bit about. The surprise for me was how much I enjoyed the class. It felt like solving puzzles but at the same time getting to consider big policy ideas. I was hooked after the first day of my basic income tax class.
CA: What are the highlights of practicing tax law?
AR: I am always learning – about substantive tax law, business dynamics in M&A transactions, Islamic finance, non-profit law, and accounting. The practice of tax law interacts with and requires an understanding of so many other areas of business and law that there's always something new to discover.
ML: There is never a dull moment practicing tax at a Big Law firm. I get to work on a variety of matters, so each day ranges in activity. The law is continually evolving, sometimes because new regulations are issued, sometimes because the IRS puts out new guidance, but also because Congress changes the tax code every few years. When a new law is making its way through Congress, like this year with the One Big Beautiful Bill, tax lawyers need to follow it closely and evaluate the impact on their clients so they can help them understand the implications for their structures, transactions, and tax positions. New laws create a level playing field where junior lawyers can quickly become as well-versed, or even more so, than their senior counterparts.
CA: And conversely, what are some of the challenges?
ML: The ever-changing nature of the law is a challenge. It takes an enormous amount of work and focus to keep track of fast-moving, complex legislation, especially when you have so many other things to do on a given day. Tax is one of the most intellectually challenging areas of the law because you have to understand so many ever-changing rules and the economics of the transactions your clients are planning to undertake.
KB: The best part of the practice is also one of the hardest – the fact that there are often no clear answers to the questions we receive. It is difficult to tell clients that there is no clear “yay” or “nay” on the question, which sometimes means they will not go through with a transaction structure that is really desirable and important for their business objectives. Being the messenger in that case is a challenge for me.
CA: What are your responsibilities as a partner/associate?
KB: My responsibilities as a partner fall into several categories. On deals, as the tax partner, I ensure clients understand the tax consequences and risk allocation, aligning these with their expectations. However, our work extends well beyond the billable time spent on client matters. As a tax partner I also consider it a primary responsibility to train and mentor our tax associates (and other associates) so that they can be successful as they advance in their careers. I also consider it our responsibility to set the example and create a pleasant, respectful, and engaging culture both within the tax group and firm as a whole.
ML: My responsibilities to clients include answering questions that come up for clients and colleagues, helping facilitate transactions, negotiating agreements, and advising clients on decisions they have to make. My responsibilities to my colleagues involve training associates, communicating openly and promptly, and being a good teammate.
AR: Something that differentiates the Cleary tax practice is how much tax associates are asked to delve deeply into issues relevant to our work early on in their time as practicing attorneys. We’re often dealing with unique issues where there’s no obvious answer, so as a junior associate, you’re the one tasked with trying to solve the problem. On a more day-to-day basis, I am usually taking a first pass at the documents that we’re asked to review, responding to questions from investors (and conducting research to respond to those questions), or preparing tax disclosure.
CA: What kinds of clients do you typically work with?
ML: My clients include big companies from a variety of sectors. I work with companies in the technology, pharmaceutical, fashion, electronics, and entertainment industries.
KB: I work with many different types of clients – banks, private equity funds, tech companies, and multinationals.
AR: Lately, I’ve been working more with private funds and financial institutions. That said, I’ve worked with sovereigns, operating businesses, and small newly formed non-profits.
CA: What unique opportunities does practicing tax law at Cleary offer to young lawyers?
KB: Tax law offers a young lawyer the opportunity to engage with difficult questions from early on in their career, and to assume responsibility from a relatively junior level. For example, many of our teams on the tax side are staffed with just a partner and an associate, which means the associate will inevitably get a lot of exposure to the client and other senior lawyers at the firm, and will “run” the deal from the tax side much sooner than may otherwise be the case.
ML: At Cleary, you get to work on deals that are on the front page of the newspaper with some of the most interesting, collaborative, smart, and engaging people in the legal industry.
AR: All Cleary tax associates attend training sessions as first and second years that introduce basic concepts and delve into how those concepts overlap with our day-to-day practice. We also have weekly lunches as a group where we discuss the latest developments in tax law and in our practice. There’s a strong culture of mentorship in the group, and the more senior associates and partners are deeply dedicated to ensuring the success of the more junior associates.
CA: Are there any misconceptions about tax law among law students which you’d like to clear up?
ML: The biggest misconception about tax law is that it’s dry and only about math. The practice is not dry at all. As a tax lawyer, you get a window into every practice at the firm, and you get to do all sorts of different types of work. You can’t be afraid of math to be a good tax lawyer, but you don’t have to be a math whizz.
KB: I often hear a concern from students that tax lawyers are “siloed” from the rest of the deal team and the deal, which has not been my experience.
AR: There’s little math involved, and we rarely deal with tax forms!
CA: And finally, is there any advice you have for aspiring tax lawyers?
ML: Make friends with people in other practice areas. You will need good lines of communication if you want to do your job well.
KB: Approach your practice with genuine curiosity, and in the process you will learn the substance (and it will be more fun).
AR: I’d recommend taking partnership tax and becoming familiar with tax research. Tax research is in many ways much like any other form of legal research, but it’s also sufficiently different, so having some background will be helpful. That said, these are both things I didn’t do as a law student (so it’s ok if you don’t – all that you need to succeed is the willingness to learn), but I think it would have been helpful.
