JD/LLM career path to REPE advice
Current JD/LLM, with coursework in corporate bankruptcy and partnership tax law. Pre-law school I was a portfolio property manager (residential, and commercial retail brick & mortar) and also handled midrise/highrise condos. I did all of Kivel's excel courses and REFM 1-3.
Wondering if law firm experience then lateral into a RE company, or do Big4 tax consulting m&a and then lateral into RE company.
Long-term future, I'd like to do my own real estate development (8 unit-32 unit buildings).
Do RE big law for a few years and then go off and do your own deals. Solves for credibility and capital which are two major roadblocks when getting off the ground.
Yup. OP should work for the best RE law firm they can get a job in and network with clients.
If OP becomes a trusted attorney who “gets it” and streamlines deals instead of overcomplicating them, they’ll make some friends for life.
You have all the formal education you need - full stop. Do not get any more degrees.
RE runs on reps (ability) and contacts (credibility); and the more they exactly match your desired employment and employer the higher your legibility. The sooner you get the reps and contacts (and network) in your desired RE area - the sooner you will get to your desired position/outcome.
If you cannot get the RE deal reps then RE law serving those parties could be best from a useful skill perspective and a contacts perspective. That said, stay too long in the law seat and you can become entrenched and possibly typecasted without your own strong body of quantitative and direct investment work.
Conversely, I can see other folks weighing in here saying if you cannot get direct invest roles —take your background and go to a major metro (where you want to end up ) top shop (the type that work with repe in their acq pipeline) in commercial brokerage and do ~5 years there and parlay that into the buy/investment side.
Google around for anecdotes and inspiration (and archetypes to model) as both paths have led to success for attorneys looking to pivot into re acquisitions etc.
Given the current market and job competition (and that your repe route is a bit circuitous/non traditional given you are coming from law), steel yourself to facing a bit of an uphill battle in this adventure and enjoy the process (and folks, and learning) along the way.
in the past I would have recommended a JD for real estate as its so transactional. nowadays with chatGPT I dont think it's worth it. good lawyers used to save your ass though
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