Voice of Experience: Kristen Garry, Tax partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP

Kristen Garry will always remember the advice she received while interviewing for an associate position at Shearman & Sterling LLP.

“Do something you enjoy because you’re going to be spending a lot of time at it, and do it with a group of people that you’ll enjoy being with,” advised a firm partner.

Today, Garry, a tax partner in Shearman & Sterling’s Washington, D.C. office, is still enjoying her work and her time with fellow lawyers at the firm and her clients.

Unlike many successful professionals who take a bit of time to find their way, Garry’s path to becoming a tax partner was more of a straight line:She majored in government in her undergraduate studies at Cornell University, with an eye on law school, and gained exposure to the tax field before choosing NYU’s law school, top-ranked for tax, where she subsequently earned her LL.M. in Taxation.

After clerking for Judge James Halpern in the U.S. Tax Court, she decided to stay in Washington, D.C. and join Shearman & Sterling at a time when there were no women in the tax department in D.C. – though she was soon joined by another. She became a partner in 2008, an achievement she is particularly proud of since the firm has been such a perfect fit for her.

Always a New Challenge

Garry concentrates on both transactional and planning work, helping clients with IRS audits and appeals as well as with matters at the U.S. Tax Court. She recently had a victory on a highly technical issue where auditors had proposed significant adjustments – to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars – and she and her team were able to prove to the IRS that the client was 100 percent correct on the law.

On a policy front, the team is busy advising clients, including helping to interpret sparse IRS guidance in certain areas that continue to present challenging situations to clients.There is always ambiguity in the law, and tax law is no exception.As a result, the firm’s clients – both in the U.S. and globally – often struggle with tax rules that might be old or outdated and look to Garry and her colleagues for guidance.“You want to be able to offer your clients some level of comfort in a scenario that’s not cookie cutter, especially with respect to financial products,” she says.

Earning the Recognition You Deserve

Garry advises young women who are starting out to remember that they often need to advocate for themselves.“It took me a while to realize it was OK to self-promote.I would know that I had done a great job, but then I realized I had to advocate for myself.You can’t always let your actions speak for themselves,” she says.

And, she emphasizes that careers are more apt to flourish when women are doing what they enjoy, whether it’s through a practice group or industry focus. “You won’t work as hard if you’re not enjoying it,” she says, “and if you’re only putting in the bare minimum, you’re not going to be as successful.”

Maintaining a Pipeline for Women

Since there are few women in tax at Shearman & Sterling and, generally speaking, in law, Garry has appreciated an outside informal tax study group where tax professionals meet to discuss financial products.“It’s an interesting group of men and women from both law and accounting firms,” she says.“It’s encouraging to see other women who have succeeded in the tax field.”

Garry has noticed that the numbers of women in senior leadership positions in law seem to dwindle as they climb the career ladder.“I look around and wonder why we aren’t better represented,” she says.She notes that while law school classes are roughly half women, only about 20 percent of partners in big law are women.She encourages her peers to join her in letting women associates know that it is possible and there is a path to partner if they want it.

At Shearman & Sterling, she has been active in the firm’s women’s inclusion network – WISER (Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention) – since it formed nine years ago.Garry has also played an integral role in the Women Partners’ Initiative, which has steadily gained momentum over the past few years.At the firm’s annual partners retreat, for example, the Women Partners’ Initiative has evolved from a fledgling add-on session to become its own event as a mainstay of the larger partner gathering.

Two years ago the women partners held their first separate formal business session to define key objectives where the group could accomplish the most positive change.Now the program includes sessions focused on business development initiatives to learn more about each other’s practices, which creates the opportunity for cross selling and referrals.At the last meeting this past January, noted leadership expert Dr. Arin Reeves of Nextions discussed unconscious bias.Her presentation, which was open to both men and women partners, focused on how to be aware of the issue and overcome it when it comes into play.Garry is currently working on securing another compelling speaker for the upcoming meeting, which will take place in January in Florida.

Away from the office, Garry has found golf to be a wonderful way to unwind – and also an important outlet for networking. She first started playing when a tax client she represented was invited to a golf outing hosted by Shearman & Sterling.

“I did so much work for and with this client that I realized it was important to go, and I didn’t want to sit on the sidelines,” she says, adding that was the spark that first led her to pursue the game.

As she has gotten more adept at the game, she finds it to be a good way to relax and spend time outdoors.“Golf offers a great way to spend time with clients,” she says. “But social and business benefits aside, I am competitive and always want to improve.As all golfers like to say, I’m getting better!”