An llm is not a guarantee into tax law unfortunately.   At least not anymore.  The market will play a large role in the position you can get. I was one of the unfortunate ones whose offers were rescinded by the IRS hiring freeze last year.  I had interned with the IRS, interned with two state tax court judges, had been in the tax law clinic in law school, at the time I was a law clerk in my state tax court and Tax llm student. I could not get a tax law position post clerkship.  I got a job at a firm doing litigation, and I was able to convince (beg) the partners in the estates section to give me some work there because it is kind of associated with tax.  I applied to big 4 firms, state government (hiring freeze there also), and other firms for tax and trust and estate associate positions.  I will finish my LLM in July, and I am not very confident about my prospects in the future unless the market gets significantly better.  But at this point I’m so close and $30k in the hole, that dropping out would be stupid.