Most Recognizable Names In the Restructuring / Special Situations Space

Why would you get hate for HL?

Largely agree, with the caveat that leader in creditor side deals on Legal side is Gibson Dunn.

Agree with everything but Latham. DPW, Paul Weiss and GD have better practices but Sobolewski is a great addition

re. law firms, S&C became very active recently in bx/rx

Funds: Elloitt, PIMCO, SVP, Sculptor, DK

Rx Consulting : Providence, BRG and Ankura alongside Big 3

1. banking > law > consulting > claims. For banking it's statistically hard. For law need JD and top school, which is somehow in your control. Consulting preferably good school, with less grind as law. Claims less competitive than the previous 3.
2. from banking very flexible exits across PE/credit/distressed. from law firms no exits, you're a lawyer and you only exit in-house for WLB. consultants usually enjoy their work and stick around if they are a top 3 rx co firm or try to move into banking. claims no idea
3. banking to law no, need JD. law to banking yes, but competitive. banking and law to consulting yes, harder the opposite. claims no idea.

Also, if u seem to want to be specialize in restructuring/special sits, my view is that law firms are the place to be. Distressed as an investor is mostly LMEs nowadays, so lawyers have the upper hand. Think it this way: You do your investment DD, think you got something good, but then some creditor pulls some doc loopholes and your investment is a loss/ur pushed down in recoveries. The field became very procedural and legal-oriented with very low returns recently, so prob not the best asset class to be in now, and even less in the following years

1. Hardest is banking, law and consulting I'm not sure, on on hand consulting has less than 100 seats per year across all firms but law is similarly hard. Claims is the easiest.
2. Banking: traditional IB exits + distressed exits. Consulting: depends really, I've seen people go everywhere. You won't be the first person a distressed PE shop calls because recruiting bankers is the path of least resistance, but if you get on their radar by either reaching out to them or something, I don't see your consulting experience being disqualifying, provided you know / take the time to learn the more "investing" focused side of things. Law: in house law, government law, bankruptcy clerkships. Claims: back office finance, lateral to another shop, legal project management
3. Take law out of here entirely, it's virtually impossible to move into law whether you're a consultant or a banker because of JDs and bar exams. Which leaves banker, consultant and claims agent. Relatively easy to move from banking to the other two, though retooling might be needed. It's easy to move down from consulting (never heard of anyone doing that), harder to move up, but if you learn the skillset it should make it easier. Hardest to go anywhere from claims.

Bump

From what I’ve seen, the zero exits isn’t true at all. Will be very limited to distressed PE funds, but will still be competitive for most IB & PC ops, and almost all corporate fin/dev/strat exits. Also, think Rx CO would still be very solid for M7 MBA/T14 JD-MBA programs if that interests you, but with that being said, this is mostly applicable for those with less than 5 YOE, can’t speak much to once you’ve crossed that threshold.