Monday Mentors with Austin Tax Litigator Danielle Ahlrich

Danielle Ahlrich, partner and tax litigator with Reed Smith in Austin, joins us on todays show! Danielle talks about going from a boutique to Big Law, understanding how your piece of the puzzle fits, and how the next generation of leaders thinks about work-life balance.

Her firm/practice

• Partner at Reed Smith in Austin; international law firm that does everything on the civil side
• 2000 lawyers
• She is in their state tax group for Texas
• Helping businesses with Texas sales and franchise tax matters
  • If a business is under audit
  • To prevent an audit
  • Sales tax is over 50% of Texas' budget
  • Shoutout to Amanda Taylor (listen to her episode here!) who helped her get a position in a boutique state tax litigation law firm after spending some time in state government
  • The practice is heavy on statutory construction, not as much on actual taxation/math as one might assume (if you are on the controversy side as she is)
  • Allows her to practice at the trial court level all the way up to the Texas Supreme Court
  • She doesn't even do her own taxes!
• Joined Reed Smith in January after being at a boutique, which is the opposite of what most people do
  • She wanted to grow and have some larger opportunities with companies who have tax issues all over the country as opposed to just in Texas
  • The reality is most large companies choose to use large law firms
  • The pandemic gave her the clarity, space, and courage to make the move.
• No straight career line that is the same for each lawyer
• Reed Smith operates much more through practice groups, so she reports up through the state tax group which is located in other offices as opposed to Austin.
  • Which means Austin colleagues are in a variety of practice areas

COVID update (As of 5/5/21)

• Travis County has been doing a LOT of things remotely and keeping cases moving
• Reed Smith is putting together a new policy regarding how we work post-COVID.
  • Expects there to be a mix of in-office time and remote time
  • Will be an office to office question

Advice for lawyers in practice

• Is the associate trying to understand how/where this assignment fits into the larger case / how their piece fits into the larger puzzle
  • Much more likely to get back a work product that is plug and play (e.g. drop their work into the motion/brief)
  • The result will be a better refinement of the research and/or a more direct application
  • Example: if estoppel is raised, she doesn't need a primer on estoppel, she needs to know how it applies here.
• Take ownership of cases and be mindful of what is coming next
  • THE due date is not YOUR due date! The partner may need to review/revise; clients may need to approve or provide feedback, etc. before the submission/due date.
  • (Jennie Knapp talked about this as well!)

Advice for lawyers in the job hunt

• Start right now to build a network; curate people in your life who will help you achieve your goals and/or make you a better person
• Mother Attorney Mentor Association (MAMAs) - active Facebook page that is helpful on so many issues.
• Practical
  • Keep a master list of where you've been and what you've been doing. Good for a conflicts check too. Can be used to construct your resume as well as supplemental materials such as a list of representative cases or deals, presentations, papers, etc.
  • Keep a brag book with kudos or thank yous from colleagues, clients, etc.

On work-life balance

• Have a big-picture focus. Don't look at it daily or weekly. Some days and weeks won't be balanced. Monthly or yearly is more realistic.
• Need to get rid of the toxic work culture that doesn't have any boundaries; it needs to come from firm leadership. Optimistic a new generation of leaders will have success making these changes.
• "A boundary is a place from which I can love both you and me simultaneously." - Prentis Hemphill
• Choose a position and role that allows you to do the work you want while balancing the other parts of life according to your values.
• Example about whether or not vacation time is real in a specific firm.

Rapid fire questions

• Name one trait/characteristic you most want to see in an associate: coachable
• What habit has been key to your success? calendaring deadlines when they come in and always setting up a two week reminder
• Favorite app/tool: N/A
• Favorite pen: Pilot G2 1.0 / blue (no fine points where you are chiseling in stone; need some glide!)
• Favorite social distancing activity: 5am walks in the dark with a podcast
• Favorite legal movie: A Time To Kill (also loves My Cousin Vinny and Legally Blonde)

Thanks again to Danielle Ahlrich for joining us on today's show!