Exit opportunities from lev finance Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm happy to answer any specific questions people in here have. I did 5 years in finance biglaw before moving in house last year. I went to a Fortune ~100 public company, and I'm now doing general corporate work. During the interview process, I was upfront that I had worked primarily in finance but I worked hard to sell myself as a corporate generalist. I work on finance matters whenever they come up (no one else in the legal department has any experience with them), but it's fairly infrequently. I've been really happy with the transition.

[Yugihoe]

I'm happy to answer any specific questions people in here have. I did 5 years in finance biglaw before moving in house last year. I went to a Fortune ~100 public company, and I'm now doing general corporate work. During the interview process, I was upfront that I had worked primarily in finance but I worked hard to sell myself as a corporate generalist. I work on finance matters whenever they come up (no one else in the legal department has any experience with them), but it's fairly infrequently. I've been really happy with the transition.

How did you sell the corporate generalist part to in house companies given that there's tons of big law generalists and M&A folk trying to lateral in house too? How many different interviews / how long did the search process take? What do you think helped you land that gig (i.e. do you think it's because you were very experienced as a 5th year, as compared to making a jump in house from finance more junior?) Assume you were doing company side work at least? Did you just do banking/finance or did you do HY bond deals too?

[Anonymous User]

@the above poster.

Could you tell me more about your experience transitioning from finance to the generalist in-house role?

Were there concepts or transactions that you were not familiar with? If so, how did you get up to speed?

Also, were you previously working on the lender or borrower side? And lastly, was the in-house hiring process generally receptive to your experience?

[Anonymous User]

How did you sell the corporate generalist part to in house companies given that there's tons of big law generalists and M&A folk trying to lateral in house too? How many different interviews / how long did the search process take? What do you think helped you land that gig (i.e. do you think it's because you were very experienced as a 5th year, as compared to making a jump in house from finance more junior?) Assume you were doing company side work at least? Did you just do banking/finance or did you do HY bond deals too?

Will try to answer as specifically as I can without outing myself. My overall timeline was about 1.5 years, with some fits and starts. My general process was to apply to everything that came up on the job boards that I was remotely qualified for. I'm in a secondary market, so openings aren't very common. While I was doing that, I was also putting in varying degrees of effort into networking. I cold emailed law school alums and just about anyone else in house I could find that I had some plausible connection to. Almost everyone agreed to get coffee and would be happy to chat about how (a) miserable they were in a law firm, (b) how happy they were in house, and (c) other people they could connect me with.

I had a couple of offers that I turned down, lost a couple in the final round, and had a ton of silence. In the end, the in house job I took was found through networking. I was recommended by someone I knew, which I think got me through the initial resume dump and into the interviews. There, I don't thin I have any specific advice other than to just be genuine and do your best to make connections with the people you meet.

As far as how I sold the generalist, I tried to emphasize all of the general corporate work that I did unrelated to the financing. Internal corporate stuff (resolutions), third party negotiations (DACAs, landlord agreements), real estate and mortgages, work on equity documents, review of acquisition agreements and various purchase agreements, etc. I think all of that helped solidify the idea that "this guy/gal can learn new stuff".

The in house legal department I'm in is mostly full of generalists. About half of us have very dedicated roles: the securities guy, the employment lady, the IP lady, and so on. But the other half, including myself, are just generalists that wear a bunch of different hats. All of the generalists come from very different backgrounds. So I don't think my finance background made a big impact either way. They were just happy with my pedigree and seemed content that my biglaw experience showed I was capable of learning.

[Anonymous User]

@the above poster.

Could you tell me more about your experience transitioning from finance to the generalist in-house role?

Were there concepts or transactions that you were not familiar with? If so, how did you get up to speed?

Also, were you previously working on the lender or borrower side? And lastly, was the in-house hiring process generally receptive to your experience?

I think I answered the last question in my post above but let me know if you have any follow up.

On the first two, it's been a challenging transition. I'm regularly called on to review and comment on agreements or arrangements that I've never seen before. Sometimes other attorneys review my work but usually they do not. It's weird at first, particularly coming from biglaw where everything is heavily vetted and perfection is required. At least at my in house department, though, the expectations are significantly lower. Some things really do matter, but many of the critical things are farmed out to outside counsel. We take a far more practical approach than I did in a law firm. Do the termination provisions that someone is getting really worked up about in a $20k IT contract really matter? Probably not. Just give it.

I am fortunate enough to have access to PLI/others, which I have started to use regularly when I come up against a document I've never seen before. That, along with the fact that other lawyers in my group have seen pretty much everything, help me get through. But the whole thing definitely still has a "flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" vibe to it. Which I'm still adjusting to.