Law to Finance

TLDR: Law student at top school with no background in finance interested in learning whether lateraling in may be an option after some time in biglaw.

Hey everyone! Just finished my first year of law school and am about to start a summer associateship at a V10 firm. I’ll be working on the transactional side, handling M&A and securities (from what I understand; the COVID crisis has put much of that work on pause).

I’ve known that I wanted to go to law school since high school and am happy to be here so far. Loving the material and looking forward to the next couple of years of school—which is to say that I’m not trying to escape the law. At the same time, I have an inkling that I’ll eventually get tired of supporting corporate decision-makers and be interested in making business decisions myself. The standard path for those who don’t see themselves at the firm forever appears to be an in-house role, but that would seem to offer even less oversight in terms of strategy. Hence, while not wedded to the idea, I’m interested in potentially moving into finance some time down the line. At the moment, I’m thinking that would be after a clerkship or two and a few years at the firm.

To be honest, I don’t know the first thing about finance. I spent a few years at a boutique consulting firm before law school, but that’s the extent of my business acumen. I would imagine that I’ll pick up some understanding of the industry by working in corporate law. However, for the sake of my long-term planning, I’m wondering what areas of finance (if any) would be the most receptive to someone with my background. I did my undergrad at an Ivy (not econ, finance, or STEM, though) and am at a top-three law school. We don’t rank, but I’m in the top 25% of my class based on our rough collective understanding of grade distribution.

I understand that moving from law to finance is a bear. However, based on my information, what should I start doing at this very early stage of my career in order to make changing industries as feasible as possible in the future? As I’m quite uninformed about the possibilities, any input is appreciated!