Law -> Distressed Debt at Fund / Bank
What are skills / credentials a lawyer should try to develop to move to a restructuring / special situations team at financial advisors such as Lazard / PJT or distressed debt investing at funds such as Oaktree / GSO? I realize that such a switch would be difficult. In addition to networking, interested to learn how to position myself better. Would appreciate any observations and advice. Thanks.
I’m currently a junior corporate associate at a V5 law firm in New York. I’ve done M&A and restructuring. I went to Ivy UG and law school and worked in PE before. I studied finance in college and passed level 2 of the CFA.
If you're at a V5 and interested in doing distressed debt I'd say the best move would be to get into your firm's restructuring group and develop that skillset. Understanding the bankruptcy law underlying distressed situations will give you a huge leg up in the areas you seem to be interested in. I'd say that this is one area where legal knowledge can add the most outsized advantage, even more than M&A. As long as you also understand the underlying finance well enough to perform in an interview setting, this switch should be pretty doable - law -> banking is a common move as far as these things go.
It may be tough to make that move because those kinds of funds are typically looking to hire from a pool of analysts rather than associates and above. What you can do is go to a good creditor side RX shop like Houlihan Lokey as they work frequently with those funds, build relationships with them through working on deals together and then make the jump over. There is no set process at that stage, it's mostly through relationships.
When did I say jr. lawyers are analysts? You need to work on your reading comprehension skills.
I said funds like to hire out of an analyst pool at a bank and not the associate pool. Because OP would be coming in as an associate if he switched over to IBD, he would be better served going to a creditor side focused RX shop so he can build the relationships he needs to be able to make the switch.
Math
Bankr Law -> Distressed Fund (Originally Posted: 03/21/2013)
Posted this in the Hedge Fund forum, but maybe it belongs more here:
Soon to be JD + MBA (finishing part-time MBA at Stern) who has been working in law in a top creditor shop for 4 years now. Interested in trying to make the jump to a distressed fund. Understand it will be very difficult, but trying to figure a few things out before I go into the job search.
Major questions are (1) how much will the combination of bankruptcy experience and MBA help and (2) what role within a fund should I realistically be targeting?
Again, understand this will be difficult, but figure there's no reason not to try to make the switch and see what happens. Just now finishing off my student loans so willing to take a pay cut, but don't think I could take a salary much less than 120k or so in NYC.
Figure if I fail at the direct to hedge fund transition I could try to go the FA route, but preference is by a significant margin to end up at a fund.
Thanks.
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