Ability to switch IB or PE after 1 year of biglaw transactional?
Know this has likely been posted before but wanted to get a sense of my odds given my specific situation.
Passed the bar exam last year but a C&F issue has delayed my admission and could prevent it altogether (nothing major, just forgot to disclose a trespassing violation from when I was 18, but the bar is up my ass about it). At the very least it’ll be another 6ish months of delay until my admission, which my firm is unlikely to tolerate. Started November 2025 so I'll leave with about 1 year as an associate.
Was already interested in eventually moving to the investing side someday, particularly PE or VC, but this has accelerated the timeline considerably. My background:
- Undergrad: top 10% at a T20–25 semi target; major along the lines of PPE/political economy.
- Law School: top 20% at one of Columbia/Penn/Chicago.
- Firm/experience: Transactional generalist at well known firm in the PE dealmaking space (think Kirkland/Latham/Simpson). Primarily debt finance (acquisition financings, refis, and some LMEs and RX work) plus a bit of M&A and fund formation stuff.
Realistically, what are my odds of landing something in banking or PE? I’ve done enough independent learning that I’ll be fine with the technicals, but I imagine the bottleneck here is going to be getting an interview in the first place given my pretty nontraditional background.
I imagine PE is out of the question since IB is a prerequisite for that, but how realistic is banking? I’m guessing levfin and RX groups might be easier to swing given my debt finance experience but at this point I just want to maximize my odds of getting something. I sense I'd have to start out at the analyst level with a big pay cut from my current role, but I'm ok with that.
Any thoughts on how realistic this is or where i should focus my efforts would be much appreciated.