[Corporate biglaw] Where you should be for your class year Forum

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[Corporate biglaw] Where you should be for your class year

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Jan 04, 2018 9:05 pm

I keep hearing this phrase -- where you should be for your class year. But there's no established list of what you should know as a first year, second year, third year, etc.

Does anyone have any resources to share regarding the list of items you need to have down for various class years, if you're practicing corporate/transactional, ideally for emerging companies practices?

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4LTsPointingNorth

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Re: [Corporate biglaw] Where you should be for your class year

Post by 4LTsPointingNorth » Thu Jan 04, 2018 9:33 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I keep hearing this phrase -- where you should be for your class year. But there's no established list of what you should know as a first year, second year, third year, etc.

Does anyone have any resources to share regarding the list of items you need to have down for various class years, if you're practicing corporate/transactional, ideally for emerging companies practices?
Just on its face, this question seems unanswerable. Doesn't it all depend on where you should be relative to whom with respect to what skills in particular within the idiosyncratic context of the particularized needs of your supervisors?

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Re: [Corporate biglaw] Where you should be for your class year

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Jan 04, 2018 9:38 pm

My firm has a list like this, benchmarks, but it's expressly not tailored to VC/Valley-style representation, so it's useless. Someone in an emerging companies group does not need to know how to do public filings as a first year, for instance.

My off-the-top-of-my head list:
-be able to put together a full "incorporation package" for a new company
-understand par value/paid-in capital
-understand basic bylaws provisions
-understand how a post-financing charter works (where are the protective provisions, anti-dilution, liq pref, etc.)
-understand capitalization tables and pro forma cap tables for financings. Generate pro formas/understand how pre-/post- tables work. Working basic knowledge of Excel for these reasons.
-understand basic term sheet terms for a bridge financing and for an equity financing. Know where the terms go in the typical NVCA financing documents/charter. Be able to amend NVCA forms to draft a set of financing docs based on a term sheet
-be able to draft simple consents for financings, and financing ancillary docs, like officer's certificates. be able to draft simple consents for company rep reasons--hire a new officer, create an advisory board, accelerate options that were not previously subject to acceleration, etc.
-understand reps and warranties and how those dovetail with disclosure schedule. be able to diligence a company to poplulate a disclosure schedule, in conjunction with management
-understand and be able to draft typical option agreement terms (single/double acceleration, vesting for employees v. consultants), employment agreements for rank-and-file and for execs, consulting and advisory board agreements
-have a basic understanding of blue sky and typical exemptions for securities issued under 701 and to outside investors. know how to work with paralegals to make necessary filings
-have a basic understanding of merger agreements and the merger process (and your role), LLC agreements, fund formation

That's probably more than a first year needs to know but a good first year will get there by the end of his or her first year. There are great resources--check out the Halloran treatise or Venture Deals by Feld and Mendelson if you're not getting the training you need from your firm. Take a basic Excel class on your own if you're not great at Excel. You can do this!

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cellardoor

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Re: [Corporate biglaw] Where you should be for your class year

Post by cellardoor » Fri Jan 05, 2018 11:59 am

This is what I struggle to understand as well. Our firm has benchmarks but they are not tailored for each class year. Does anyone have an idea on where a 3rd year real estate associate should be by the end of the year?

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Pokemon

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Re: [Corporate biglaw] Where you should be for your class year

Post by Pokemon » Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:33 pm

This is really silly. You either know or you do not whether you are up to par for your year and that is group and firm dependent. Like if your classmates are writing operative documents and all you do is due diligence you are behind. As long as you are doing what they are doing, you are fine.

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Re: [Corporate biglaw] Where you should be for your class year

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 17, 2018 8:58 pm

This is beyond phenomenal. Thanks so much. I also take the other's points -- I should just average out what others in my group are able to do. But it's actually quite hard to gauge that, unless we took some kind of survey systematically measuring a list of skills.

if you have any time for follow-ups:

1) how are you generating this, given your experience in a different practice?

2) what resources should I seek to understand the answer to the same question for a 2nd/3rd year ("Where should I be for my class year")?

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Re: [Corporate biglaw] Where you should be for your class year

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jan 17, 2018 10:03 pm

Can someone do this for a first year in debt finance (cap markets and banking)?

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