Former Lawyer currently working in Finance taking your questions
Background: State university, Top 5 law school, law firm for 1.5 years --> buyside associate
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I'll ask the obvious: what did you like about each job and what do you enjoy more?
did john stockton ever throw you bad passes?
but seriously, why switch to finance after law.
I worked in a practice area that had mostly PE/HF clients. I originally didn't ever consider a job in that industry. I was fine with being a lawyer. What happened was, I got to know some of my clients and they thought I was smart and capable. One of them approached me with a job offer. I accepted it because the compensation had higher potential upside (although base was significantly lower), and because I believe that service industries such as law and banking are changing for the worse.
I enjoy what i'm doing now more because I get to be more creative and look at the bigger picture. My legal job was about getting the details and minutiae 100% correct. My current position I get to think more strategically, and to work on solving problems which is something I wouldn't be doing until I was far more senior within the law firm. The law job did have more perks though (office, secretary, etc), and a high base salary was really good during the last year or so when all my finance friends were struggling because they were counting on a bonus that didn't happen.
How do you feel you've been [negatively] affected by a lack of hard core finance experience? Were you a business ugrad? What's the learning curve been like and how have you navigated it?
To be honest, I don't have any valuation experience and I don't know how that will affect me later on. Right now it's not an issue because I'm in an associate program that has me rotate through different departments of the fund and I haven't worked for the investments group yet. I believe the goal is to eventually get me into working on client mandates and structured products anyways, but that might change as time goes on.
I was a liberal arts major and I don't know really know how to use Excel... I'm learning though.
which firm are you at now?
HQ in CT
.
There is only one law school worth mentioning in New York.
But seriously I didn't even think of it that way. 5 seemed like a nice and round number.
HQ in Connecticut, rotational Associate program, structured products and client mandates? Sounds like Bridgewater to me. I say this because they also tend to be the most open in terms of accepting people with non-traditional backgrounds.
And I could be completely wrong, but I can't think of many CT based sponsors with an investments group that also has client mandates. So, sounds more like a asset manager/hedge fund.
What advice would you give to someone in a similar situation to yours (very similar in fact) but without the law firm experience who is looking to break into finance?
[just noticed the thread is "four fucking years old" (@Solidarity); I blame Shogun for resurrecting it, disclaim my negligence for not checking the OP date]
What do you think were your main selling points to move from law to finance?
I made the same move, although much later in my career. I think the key things that sold bankers on the transition were: - Execution ability ie ability to get complex things done and done properly - Ability to think commercially about legal issues, rather than doing what many lawyers do ie only opining on strict legal issues and not offering any view on what is a sensible commercial outcome; another aspect of this is being able to link the legal issues to commercial goals/risk assessment - Smart client service attitude - as a lawyer, you're not afraid of thinking hard for the client, coming up with creative solutions rather than just applying precedents, working hard
On the last point, I find it counterintuitive that lawyers I've worked with - who charge by the hour - typically think of smarter ways to do things faster, whereas most bankers I work - who charge based on the deal getting done and not on hours worked - tend to do things they have always done them, even if it means working later, and do not think too creatively.
I commented on a 4 year old thread but that resulted in some very good points which could very well help me in my attempted transition.
Do you mind if I ask you how you made the move? Was it just a good relationship with a client?
This thread is four fucking years old
My apologies! I read through the thread, saw it was right up my alley and posted before I noticed how old it was. Though maybe I'll inadvertently resurrect it...
No one ever responded to Shogun...
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