2021 SF/LA - Insight on These Offices/Locations?

Hi everyone, I really didn't see much relevant discussion on these offices in LA/SF. Coming out of school in the Bay Area, I wanted to know about these firms before recruiting really kicks off, if you have any insight please add. This is for 2021 SA.

  • RBC SF Tech M&A
  • HL SF Tech
  • Citi LA
  • BAML LA
  • HL LA CorpFin
  • Liontree SF

If you have any insight, feel free to add, thanks

34 Comments
 

Thanks for that, really wanted more insight than a couple of lines into each firm; your post was helpful though. I remember going through that thread before

 

Mostly MM that you listed. I wouldn't do HL CorpFin - limited exit opps there. These groups are all quite tiny and low-key too (I didn't even know BAML had an LA office).

If you're interested in LA, your best best are Moelis LA, CS LA, HL LA (RX),

Tons of great tech groups in SF out there, but HL and RBC are certainly lower-tier. I could list at least 15 groups better than both of these in SF - lots of threads on this site there. Also I didn't even know LionTree had an SF group - think they do most of their work out of NYC.

 

Barclays LA is excellent and so is MS LA. I know Barclays has an excellent culture and really good exits; MS on the other hand is pretty sweaty.

 

BAML LA is a good group. One of the bigger BBs in the LA area. Analysts and associates are generalists.

It covers random deals through one of rain makers in the office, FIG, media, and emerging markets (which is BAML speak for MM). There are quite a few MDs on the emerging markets team across the country. LA is one of two execution offices for the emerging markets team, executing all deals west of the Mississippi. So you could see deals in Portland or SLC, for example.

Because half of the team covers MM, there is a lot of PE interaction, and thus frequent exits.

I don't know too much about the hours at the analyst level, but from what I have heard, it's not HL level.

 

have heard liontree is a sweatshop but seems like junior bankers out there get great experience and strong dealflow

 

Not sure how involved he still is in day-to-day "banking" activites - but the GS co-chair of M&A is based out of LA, so there's definitely some senior presence.

On the west coast GS has been switching back and forth between the regional (West Regional Advisory - WRA) model, vs. breaking teams into specific coverage groups in each location (e.g. Aero in LA, Biotech in SF), other than tech, of course.

My impression is that LA is still a strong team, but it's going to be very small - so you have to know what you're getting yourself into.

 

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