Torn between IB & Law
Hey guys I’d love some advice. Essentially, when I started my undergrad I had the intention of going to law school right after. I had no clue what investment banking even was. However, through clubs and my school career centre I started learning about investing and finance and got a summer 2025 job at a good Big 5 Canadian bank (I’m located in Canada). I’m now looking back and unsure if I even want to do IB. I had tunnel vision when looking to break in and feel I did not consider the cons enough. Like the hours are terrible and fewer people exit to good PE shops in Canada. Idk if anyone has grappled with this before. I’m incredibly grateful for the summer position and am excited about it but am concerned that maybe IB is not for me and I lost sight of what I was originally passionate about. Idk if anyone has any tips going forward or opinions on these two different career paths but I’d appreciate any advice!!
You should watch season 2 of suits
Going from Big Law to IBD would be possible, but the converse does not hold true.
Very false. Same requirements for Law School apply ( LSAT, strong GPA, good essays, etc.), but there are ppl who do Law school after work experience (esp JD/MBA)
My apologies for not being clear. I'm saying it's possible for an associate at say Skadden or Cravath to lateral into IBD at a BB/EB. It's not possible for an associate/analyst at those banks to lateral into a law firm without taking a 3-year opportunity cost that is law school.
Bump
I had a similar dilemma in my early 20s so maybe this advice would help? Just a couple of points to make:
1) To be admitted into Law School or IB depends heavily on having a good University GPA and Grades. I am going to assume you have these. If not you need a third plan.
2) Law only pays well depending on the type of law you want to do. Be aware of this. Please do your research before going into too much student loan debt.
3) Both careers have a human touch element that is hard to automate (where I think Law is safer than IB in this regard). Nonetheless, automation trends especially for these careers are worth watching.
4) You have not said what your undergraduate major is actually in. This matters as the type of Law or Finance work "Can" require certain academic prerequisites over others. Let me explain this further. Let's say hypothetically you truly want to work in Mining Finance at a Bank. Did you know that people with Undergraduate Science backgrounds (Geology/Chemistry/Geophysics) who also have MBAs or CFAs are typically more employable for these types of Finance roles? Another legal example is that people with good grades in Computer Science have a lot of demand in the world of Intellectual Property law because they understand the technology. I cannot cover every situation or example, however, my point is that due to later specialization sometimes having a technical undergrad matters (or is superior). Or, at least, such choices can provide more flexibility than a Business or Arts education. Just watch out for this kind of bait and switch and do your research via job postings and LinkedIn as to whether they are flexible regarding an undergraduate education "Major Type" or not.
5) Regardless of either choice get good grades in your Accounting electives if you have any. Both jobs benefit from such knowledge.
On each of these points, in the end, I had personal reasons such that NEITHER Law nor Finance was the right choice for me. This is despite thinking they were the only two options at that time. However, that ended up being more than okay as I moved on and chose my third (unknown option at the time) of Supply Chain Management. Now I have a great career ahead of me.
I hope these considerations help you regardless of what you want to do next in your life.
I have to disagree, the people with geology geophysics degree might have a robust foundation in terms of the mining equipment and process to extract ore, however they lack in other things like due diligence, finding the LTM data and just modeling in general, not to mention communicating financials to clients
Wouldn’t they be able to build that up with work experience and/or undergrad finance clubs
My two cents is that you should give IB a genuine try for a year or two, why not? Worst case scenario is you don’t like it and end up having some cash to help pay for law school. Won’t hurt your chances of getting in, if anything it’ll help since you will have had exposure to some of the legal process in the real world. From what I’ve heard, there’s plenty of “mature” (non straight out of undergrad) students in law school, and if you end up wanting to do law on Bay st then I’d bet a year or two of banking will help you there. Literally no harm in doing banking first.
I recently left banking for corporate and have a lot of ASO/VP level banker and 6-9 year law associate friends so can somewhat comment on the differences in grind.
First off, if you are actually passionate about practicing law and care about maximizing your chance of a long tenured career in either field, maybe consider a pivot just because being a lawyer/banker is pain and you usually need more than a love of money/prestige to want to keep going many years in.
Both jobs are brutal if you work for a “sexy” firm that will give you the big bucks (relatively speaking). If you can keep your head above water, the marquee experience you fight for here will serve you in your transitionary years from junior to senior. In banking, especially if you can come in as a hardworking MBA associate and learn quickly (with reasonable debt loads and maybe a roommate), you can catch a wave of good economic years and clip big bonuses and make it to director in 6 years. COVID bonuses were more of an outlier, but IF you can survive the boom bust cycle for 5-6 years, the immediate financial reward is greater than law. That being said, threat of mass layoffs is real and always lurking, and you have to get lucky with group, deals, etc.
Law school is typically more expensive, and the hours and pay are more standardized and widely published (bschool and law school and entry level banker and law salaries being coordinated seems like a racket to me, but that’s another story…), but it seems like big law is more resilient to economic downturns. You’ll probably need to work transactions or litigation and do 10 years as an associate to make partner. By this time you will be earning at least as much as an average podunk MD at a BB, but junior partners in law typically work way more than banking MDs. Maybe I am biased but I know a couple law partners who still do a few all nighters a month.
Still, if you can somehow make it that far and entrench yourself as an originating senior partner at a reputable law firm, you can make millions with a chill life. Most people I’ve seen like this are at least 50.
In either field, chance of exit (both voluntary and not) is super high. I’d argue you have more optionality as a banker exiting but chances you get fired is also consistently higher. If you leave big law to go in house, you will still probably be doing law.
Anyways, congrats on the summer job! Great spot to be in. Getting traction in either banking or law is awesome for a career; good luck doing whatever you choose! It’s painful but I think worth it if you can (somehow) stay sane and be happy. :)
+ on big law having just as brutal of an experience in workload/hours and an extremely long road to partner (they've invented a nerfed partner position to continue the idea of upward mobility).
Law exit opps are cool and can seem more varied than IB, but also come with the same monetary drawbacks. example- have a big law friend who was offered a counsel position at king ranch for a sizable paycut. You also have the opportunity for jobs in the public sphere that are not overly terrible: gov, clerking, etc
Something worth keeping in mind is it is relatively straightforward (but certainly not “easy”) to go from law to high finance. Like 4 of the last 16 Goldman CEOs were lawyers. BAML and MS have recently had CEOs who were previously lawyers. If you want to look at PE, most of the MF and UMM funds were founded by investment professionals who were lawyers at one point. Hell, Roberts went straight from law school to Bear. Bonderman was advocating before the Supreme Court before TPG. Lloyd was a just another random associate before leaving for J. Aron. Wasserstein was a top Cravath associate before dipping for First Boston.
That’s not to say it is an easy switch. Just that law doesn’t foreclose a career in finance.
I have a Harvard / Yale law degree and am in finance. This is less true any more. Back in the old days, when finance was smaller, law was a dependable training ground for young talent and there was less of a banking / PE / consulting pipeline. These days, that’s obviously less true. Finance is more technical and has such a strong pipeline from undergrad and mba programs. These days, a lot of firms are pretty tough on lawyers trying to switch out. I wouldn’t count on being able to make the transition easily. Only go to law school if you’re comfortable enough practicing law if you have to.
Thank you for providing support for what I said
not anymore, a law degree stopped being the "swiss-knife" it was known for since decades ago
Blankfein just got lucky. Applied twice at GS to get rejected and then the brokerage house where he was working was acquired by GS without laying off much personnel
Thank you for providing support for what I said
To me this is simple. Law is a professional career requiring prior professional knowledge. Finance simply requires no professional knowledge to start with.
When I was in the same crossroads you were at (for me, it was medical school or finance), my parents told me I could do finance after medicine, but not the reverse. So I picked medical school to 'keep my options open'.
Bad move. I have a skill set that is too highly specialised, and a set of professional knowledge that is not applicable outside of clinical medicine. I could not do finance if I wanted to (given I am not in the US, where such a move is still doable).
Always go for the non-professional (but competitive) career first and try it. If you hate it/don't like it then it is easier to exit to law school (the path is very straightforward). Going from work to post-grad school is easier than going from career A to career B. This is assuming you don't know what you like. If you have a clear preference/interest then follow that instead. Both careers have good prospects.
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