Biglaw M&A to IB to PE?
Hi all,
I'm a third year associate at a V10 biglaw firm practicing M&A/PE. I have no business background and no MBA. I went to a top 10 law school, but not HYS. I've been thinking about what it would take to be on the business side at a PE firm, as I love M&A but find that the legal work seems to be a lot of paperpushing (even at higher levels) and on cursory search it looks like I'd have to go through IB to make it into PE from where I sit now.
What would you recommend in terms of next steps if I wanted to pivot to IB/PE? I understand that some people say it's best to break into IB during year 4 or 5 of biglaw, and that I might be able to start as an associate (skipping analyst years, if I'm understanding correctly). I'm at the beginning of my third year now (class of 2022).
Some posts on WSO recommend that networking + taking some modeling courses to be able to talk about modeling in interviews might be enough for a pivot in the next year or two, and that going back to school for an MBA is not necessary. But would pivoting without an MBA make it likely that I'll be able to obtain offers only from smaller, less desirable IB shops (as opposed to bulge bracket banks)?
One more question: How does comp also compare in IB as compared against market biglaw salary/bonus scale? Realize this is highly dependent on the particular shop, the sector/group, economy, etc. but wondering if there's any kind of standard accepted range that's something you can reasonably expect in a normal year as an IB associate.
Open to any and all advice, and please feel free to point out if any of what I've laid out above is not true/inaccurate from your view.
Thanks in advance!
Maybe I’ve been out of the banking game for a bit but a direct lateral to associate post-law seems a bit optimistic. I think for any strong banks, that type of move would require an MBA but I could be wrong. I actually saw this move years ago at my MM, but he didn’t last very long and team greatly regretted it when MD found out that the analysts were essentially giving a crash course to an associate on corporate finance. Did not end well, and I’m not so sure any sane person would want that. Lateral at the analyst level certainly seems possible if you were against an MBA. You’d be close to a ~30 yr old ASO 1 in PE which I’ve seen but I imagine will require you to swallow some pride, working subordinate to people significantly younger in some cases.
It's not an easy road. You're not going to fool anyone talking about modeling in interviews, they know what you do. Lateral market is very tight right now and with no experience in finance, they will go with someone from a smaller bank who has the reps.
MBA would be the path of least resistance, but that's 2 years MBA + at least 2 years IB before PE will consider you. Also, PE opportunities will be limited to the very small PE funds, the MF PE do not typically hire ASO laterals
I would stay where you are tbh, or go in-house to a PE firm if you don't like biglaw. IB/PE is going to be a herculean effort, and it's still quite a bit of paper pushing and useless work. Turnover in both jobs is pretty high
I'll echo the 1st comment. As someone who transferred from law to finance (passed the GMAT and did a MiF in Europe as I'm based there), I'm a bit surprised when I see people doing the law to finance road without no education (i.e. MBA) in between. The most plausible explanation I could think of is that those guy were on business majors during UG and focused on some finance electives during their JD + studied hard the CorpFin textbooks after work. Because comparing myself post MiF vs. previous me in a purely legal role (despite focusing on business electives) I'm extremely skeptic about the preparedness of someone that comes from a purely legal role. Sure, you may be more inclined to grasp the foundations of some finance topics that have a legal foundation (non-controlling interests, capital structure, etc.), but it's still a long road to compare your preparedness with some from finance which consequently affects as well your competitiveness for any role (unless you're extremely charismatic and you're a "fit" hire).
Thoughts on top RX Law to top RX IB shop in EMEA / London?
Edit: Delete
Bro just stay the course make the money in law and open up your own fund eventually. It literally makes no sense to make this change. By the time you hit vp/principal in pe you could be a partner at a law firm.
Congrats on Gibson Dunn
The easier path would be: move to LevFin/Cap Market/Debt (whatever your firm calls it) team, ideally work on the sponsor side, and then go in-house at PE.
I would suggest networking with law school graduates who started working in investment banking after law school. They would probably provide the most applicable insight. When I was in banking I saw many people who did their 1L summer internship at a law firm and then 2L internship + full time in investment banking.
There's a guy at Apollo who did Law -> IB MD -> PE, works in the FIG group I think.
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