RX Firm Lateral Advice

Currently at a JEF / Roth caliber firm in RX, and got an offer to join a M3 / Portage Point / Teneo level firm. Know that it'll be a move from IB to consulting, but is this a worthwhile transfer? Main considerations are quality of life long term, WLB, culture, how diverse the work is, and comp.

Interested if anyone in here can chime in with opinions.

15 Comments
 

Based on what I hear through the grapevine is below:

PPP and M3 are similar in their sweatiness. PPP has been growing and will pay more with ability to work on different engagements from CRO work to performance improvement, M3 I've seen less in in-court roles and heard they're doing more operational rx engagements, but have heard their culture's decent.

Teneo's much more of a nascent team that's growing organically with a solid culture. Pay's similar to M3, and work is largely debtor-side spanning FA/CRO roles to other interim roles (CEO, CFO, FP&A).

 

I believe what was stated above is true; however, just slightly revising. 

When I was offered a role at M3 the comp was far beyond what I expected, and those that I know that joined informed me it was notoriously sweaty, so perhaps the pay/hours are closer to PPP than most think.

Can confirm the majority of their work is out-of-court.  Seemed as if they were trying to change this. 

 

Very helpful, thanks! Two questions that I’ve got:

  1. Why did you not take the M3 offer?
  2. What were you expecting in comp and how different was it, if you could quantify 
 

Hey, I’m currently at Teneo and have had a very positive experience. I really enjoy the work and the culture; the team is collaborative, supportive, and focused on growth. We receive 25 days of PTO starting, in addition to the normal holidays, and there’s a happy hour almost every week, which makes it easy to get to know people across the team. There is also a lot of outings with lawyers (if that's your thing), so can have a cheeky afternoon just grabbing drinks or food if you're on a good project.

The firm is also expanding across all of its major offices. Every RX intern this year received a return offer, which reflects how much the group is investing in its people and future growth. They are very specific though as to who they take in, and normally everyone here is former IB/Big 4 rx. Pay is in line with the Street, if not above depending on the level you come in. The hours are generally very manageable, but I expect them to get worse as the bigger deals start coming in. We are also owned by CVC, if thats of any importance? Most days are close to 9–5, with the occasional evening extending to around 7 or 8 p.m. depending on the engagement. We do have protected weekends, but you know how things like that can be I suppose.

The office is constantly expanding atm, and as the other comment said - in a more organic matter. I believe they've found a real growth opportunity within RX / FA, so that's where the focus is right now. I do know we are on some very large mandates in the UK/EU, and are partially considered a T1 there, but in the U.S there's still room to grow and prove ourselves.

 

This is so helpful, thanks! A couple of follow ups if you don’t mind:

  1. What does career growth look like? Do most people get stuck in the middle of the ladder?
  2. How is turnover? Do people exit the firm?
  3. Is your comp based on billable hours? Basically goes up the more you bill
  4. When you say comp is in line with street, do you mean in line with the brackets set by FTI, BRG etc or A&M, Province etc? I guess there are two different levels of street comp, and curious about which camp Teneo falls into.
 
Most Helpful

Happy to answer based on what I’ve seen so far:

  1. Career growth: The team is actively growing, so there seems to be meaningful room for progression rather than people simply getting stuck in the middle. Promotions still depend on performance and readiness, but I have not gotten the impression that there is a structural bottleneck. There is growing demand for senior level positions, hence all the job openings I'm sure you've come across.
  2. Turnover: People do leave, as they do at any advisory firm, but turnover has not felt unusually high from my perspective. The firm is expanding across its major offices, and all of the RX interns this year received return offers, so the emphasis currently seems to be on building and retaining the team as mentioned.
  3. Billable hours: Compensation is not simply a formula where every additional billable hour directly increases your pay. Utilization and contribution matters a little more as part of overall performance, but compensation is assessed more broadly rather than being purely “the more you bill, the more you earn.”
  4. Street compensation: By “street,” I mean broadly competitive with the other major restructuring advisory firms, including firms such as FTI and A&M (comparable). There can obviously be differences by level, year and bonus performance, so I would not claim every number is identical, but Teneo is not positioned as a discounted-compensation platform or as being cheap. You can see for a lot of lateral hires the salaries are publicly listed at certain offices, so that's your decision to make haha.
 

Is this for the US arm? My gut tells me you're either not actually at Teneo OR you're an intern who's very green. Either way, please get your facts straight before disseminating information.

Corrections - PTO is unlimited, 2026 intern return offers have NOT been decided, and there is no such thing as protected weekends which is unheard of in the industry.  

Nuances - Hours are variable and more often not 9-5. Sure, if you're on a certain litigation support or wind down / trustee roles, or working on less urgent pitches, it can be close. However, generally expect 9-8 with occasional midnight oils burnt (i.e. during sprints preparing for Ch.11 or getting an out of court sale over the line).

 

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