Law to M&A

I'm a 30 year old career-changer to law in the UK. I am currently working as a paralegal whilst completing my GDL (postgrad conversion course), but only now realising that maybe I would prefer to be making the deals than simply facilitating them. 

My undergrad was a 2.2 from a semi-target (with extenuating circumstances). As such, I know I will be fighting an even-more-uphill uphill battle. But, I have looked into my options. 

Looks like best best, if I wanted to really do this, is go into CF departments of accounting firms like BDO or Grant Thornton. I would be doing much smaller deals, but at least I would be involved in the financial modelling, managing the deal process, negotiating (I realise this is less for the juniors). 

One of the main things drawing me to this is the money. There is so much more upside in banking than in law (unless you make partner, which is very unlikely). 

But money aside, I feel like the work, or at least my conception of the work, is more exciting, and more me. I don't want to be the bitch making sure the deal is compliant, I want to be finding the deals and making them happen. 

Lastly, the opportunities. The upside is endless in finance. You could go over to buy-side and be involved in even more interesting work.  With law, you're pretty much stuck in that role. 

Is this feasible? Am I being dumb?  

3 Comments
 

Whilst I think your general intuition is correct (more interesting work, higher potential upside pay etc), you definitley seem to overestimate how much you will be 'making' a deal (especially when you join as an analyst).

I would think of it more as facilitating the financial aspects of the deal, whilst you have been facilitating legal aspects of a deal previously. this can still be appealing though.

 

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