Patty Troy is a JRCLS member living in Norwalk, Connecticut. She works as a tax attorney at GE specializing in Tax and Mergers & Acquisitions. Before working at GE she worked for several years at a Big Four accounting firm in New York City. She earned her bachelor's degree at BYU and a joint J.D./MBA in Accounting degree at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Thanks, Patty, for answering our questions!
What have you done since law school and where do you work now?
I worked for EY for 6 years doing M&A tax. I am both an accountant and an attorney and I have always worked in the intersection between business, accountancy, and law. At EY I assisted large corporations and PE firms with the sale/purchases/ due diligence/structuring of large corporate acquisitions. I have worked for GE Capital since December of 2012 and I am assisting in the internal restructuring of GE Capital’s legal entity structure.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
The people--I am part of a truly great team. I work with a lot of different businesses
within GE and enjoy the people I work with. The people I work with are not only
nice individuals, but they are very technical and smart. It is wonderful to come to work
every day and be surrounded by nice smart people.
Has your path in law differed from your original expectations? If so, in what way?
Yes, I always knew I wanted to work with businesses and law, what I did not expect was
the areas I would be drawn to and the different/non-traditional opportunities that
would afford me. My natural inclination is numbers, there is a shortage of attorneys out
there that enjoy numbers, accounting, and complex modeling but there is a large need
for this skill set. My business degree has opened up a lot of opportunities that would not
have been available to me otherwise. I spend a lot of time helping people access, interpret, and create
statistics and important business information that I would not have had the tools to build
without my business degree and would not have been able to assemble without my
understanding of why it is important to a tax attorney. I also spend a good deal of time
translating between the finance folks and the legal folks.
What are your future professional goals?
Continue to expand into helping bridge the gap between legal and financial sides of the
house.
How do you juggle your personal and professional lives?
GE is really a great place to work if you have a family. I often work from home one day a
week and regularly go home for lunch (I live 6 minutes away). My husband works from
home 80% of the time and I have a nanny. Between my husband and I, my little boy is
only home alone with my nanny about 1 day a week, we are really fortunate. The team I
work on is really great when it comes to flexibility and my hours are very regular.
Tell us about your family.
I am married and have a 2-year-old little boy and just had another little boy this June.
What advice would you give to other women either interested or already working in the
law?
Talk to as many people as you can. I don’t think that most undergrads really understand
what they are getting themselves into. Law school is very expensive and a lot of the
market is saturated. I would encourage them to talk to as many people as possible and
ask themselves if they think they would be happy doing the same thing (I know a lot of
unhappy attorneys and understand to get the job they want they may have to work really
long hours for the first 5-10 years out of law school); understand the cost and how long
it will take to pay back the student loans; and think about joint degrees (the fact that I
have a joint degree opened doors that would not have been available to me otherwise).
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