Watching Suits for the first time, great show. Had a question for the senior people on this app:
Are lawyers really this involved with M&A and hostile takeovers? It seems more like what the banker’s job would be, but I am genuinely curious.
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as accurate as my first dcf
in the first episode alone there’s like 8 separate actions that would immediately get you disbarred. also, nobody is leveraging clients like that.
It’s completely accurate. Especially how they do illegal things every episode and advise on multi-billion $ transactions that get completed within days. Every lawyer I’ve ever spoken with just tells me to watch Suits whenever I ask about their day to day
The part where the dude said "we're not lawyers, we're investment bankers and we saw you coming a mile away 🥶" was probably the most accurate part I say it to my wife's divorce lawyer every time.
whenever I get asked why IB i think back to that scene from when i was a kid
I think he name drops Wharton in that scene too.
I watched an episode recently where there was a pissing match to become Managing Partner and the goal was to get the other’s client to divest a division to avoid a conflict of interest, with no consideration as to whether it was good for the client. The ensuing sale closed days later.
So yes. That kind of stuff happens constantly in real life. Totally not illegal and unrealistic.
It's less realistic than Star Wars
Sidwell wasn't even an investment banker. Hard to believe the show was written by a guy who actually worked in investment banking
Yes the show definitely shifts a lot of banker work to the lawyers to make the lawyers' work more relatable to the audience.
In reality the lawyers are a lot more focused on getting the legal language of the merger agreement/schedules correct, and you could never do an interesting show about it.
What's funny is how much this tension also exists in real life. I'm frequently telling both our in-house and external counsel to stay in their lane and stop bleeding into business advice with their comments. Like, we're not paying you (with your zero business experience) to comment on which EBITDA addbacks are appropriate for this portfolio company.
the offices / suits are accurate (at least for the year it was filmed, now the offices are much nicer)
Some of the things they work on are also accurate but they usually do in a single day work that takes 2-6 months (the caveat is that the work is not 100% technically accurate, but the foundation/idea anchored in law is there). They also work across all fields (corporate/criminal/litigation/tax/etc.) which makes their work much more versatile and interesting, noting that actual lawyers are pigengholed in a single area.
They also skip all the mundane and boring work (99% of the process) that leads to that single moment of saying "aha, gotcha" / coming up with a valuable legal insight / showing off at someone's door (showing off at someone's place is also for dramatic impact, realistically you give some calls/join a Team and discuss it/send an email CCing 30 people to flex your muscles aka the legal insight you found)
Meeting in boardrooms/at the clients' offices everyday happens only if you're a partner. For 10 years you're in the cubicle like Mike Ross pulling 14 hours of billables a day (to not say that Partners also need to hit their billables).
I've read a view once saying that Suits was intended to be a show about investment bankers, but because it will not resonate with the average Joes, they had to make a legal drama which is usually more interesting as everyone knows what a lawyer does vs. a banker. That's why unsurprisingly many in finance also enjoyed Suits despite being a legal drama.
They changed it to be about law because faking a law degree to become a lawyer is actually illegal which made the stakes higher. The whole foundation of the show wouldn't work if Mike Ross joined a "Harvard-only" investment bank, it would just be an exception but have no legal consequences.
All of it. Most of being a lawyer is just making clever quips with thinly veiled animosity towards your colleagues while getting paid millions. Also the ladies will absolutely be all over you. You got this!
Not that anyone's asking, but I'd say out of all the shows that portray a specific industry (Suits, Billions, etc.) Silicon Valley was probably the most accurate. The whole show is obviously ridiculous but each individual character or situation has a corollary in the start up/VC world, they're just not all related to a single start up.
There are too many times recently where that show seems prescient.
Great show?
Are you a big NCIS fan too?
in Suits lawyers acts like real life investment bankers advising on corporate actions, M&A, IPOs etc.
while investment bankers act more like PE/Activist investors buying companies, doing hostile takeovers, leading campaigns etc
Are LAWYERS really heavily involved with M&A and takeovers? Really? Nah man, there's barely any legalese aside from the closing paperwork...
i heard that there are some bankers who are able to litigate, model, close, and still have time for the next client
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