Would Law School in any way add value to a career in equity research?
Assuming cost and time are not factors, would law school (from a good school) add value to the skill set of an equity researcher?
As usual w law school threads, distressed.
No, not really.
Lawyer in equity research here.
It adds little to no value. Legal research is a completely different animal from equity research. Spending 3 - 4 years of focusing on case law and such really destroy your quantitative side. As a plus, it builds endurance for reading, but even then, reading 10-k/q is very different than reading cases.
Nope. Only way it helps is in a situation like Anadarko is currently in and chances are, you won't even have a strong command of the law anyway if you are not practicing and in ER.
very little, unless you maybe specialized in researching stock of distressed companies, maybe at firms that did restructuring (HLHZ?). do they even have a equity team though?
Another way that it could help is in special situations investing, particularly involving mergers that may be subject to anti-trust litigation. I remember reading about some firm in San Francisco that specifically hired lawyers to gage whether mergers were likely to go through or not. But again that is very specific and there are very few opportunities.
Attending law school to get into equity research would be one of the fastest ways to burn both your financial assets and your time.
I have never personally met an ER guy with a JD, and do not see any significant transferable skills.
Honestly the JD would have more value in distressed debt or restructuring (where I have seen JDs). So maybe fixed income research, focusing on distressed?
Litigation attorney seeking to get into equity research (Originally Posted: 03/04/2012)
Hey guys,
So I'm a 2010 graduate from a Top 15 law school, currently working with a medium-sized civil litigation firm. Passed the bar in both CA and NY. I caught the investing bug right before starting law school (go figure), and have managed a small US equities portfolio of some of my and my family's money, holding some shares on a long-term basis while trading others every few days. I focused mostly on TMT and financial stocks. After nearly 2 years working in law, I am starting to realize that I'd like to take some of these skills I learned from personal investing and law, and apply my efforts full time to equities research. Long-term goal is to work at a hedge fund or a sizable asset manager. However, I'm fully cognizant of the incredibly bad market we are in, and so am trying to formulate a strategy to break in.
I've been told that the extensive research and writing skills you build up as an attorney, along with attention to detail, could make me attractive in an equity research capacity. Obviously, I'd probably have to do an internship (I'm fine with doing unpaid for a good period of time to build the experience and get some of the financial modeling down better, I know how tough the hiring environment is). Through friends, I have ties to VP's and MD's in equity research at a couple major investment banks in NYC, so I'm arranging to speak with them and get some more input.
My basic question is, what do I need to do to get a position? Any firms that might be more promising for someone of my background to seek out for an internship or a full-time job? Anything in my background that I should particularly emphasize, or other things I should avoid? Any new skills I should pick up going in, or credentials I should have (graduate certificate, licensing exams)? I pride myself on being good with networking and building relationships, but I'm really trying to figure out the optimal approach at a time when firms are shedding these kinds of jobs.
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