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Do you absolutely have to have a finance background to work in these areas? How much of an econ background? I'm interested in plaintiff's firm work if I can get it. Realistically, are you screwed without at least advanced econ or finance?

Ive heard for criminal antitrust having an econ background doesn't matter as much.....

I work with a number of attorneys in antitrust who don't have any background in economics. I think having an econ background helps quite a bit though. I know a number of attorneys at DOJ and the majority had some economics background prior to starting.

Finance background is absolutely worthless in terms of competition law.

I don't know anything about securities so I will let someone else cover that.

2L disclaimer. From what practitioners have told me, no, although it will probably help. One of the big tasks for an associate working in securities is due diligence, and if you have some understanding of finance it will probably help you to be able to detect problems.

Thanks for the replies guys! I'm planning on doing a masters in London next year (public policy related) and I was just trying to figure out if there's any coursework I should be doing. I was trying to decide between the LSE MSc in Regulation (which, daftly, has no econ component) or UCL's MSc Public Policy, which has a regulation component and a good econ component. Leaning towards the latter.

Can't speak to securities, but I can tell you I'm doing antitrust at the DOJ over the summer. I don't officially have an econ background (no degree), though have taken classes in it. It didn't really come up as an issue in my interviews. I think it can help, but I don't think it is necessary to get a job.

Normally, you do not need a finance background for plaintiff's securities regulation. I have relatives who deal with broker/dealer suits, and most of the cases ($1 million +) are repeat scenarios of previous cases. Once you learn how it works, it's not supposed to be too difficult. But the problem might be forming a connection with these firms. They are normally smaller and higher very few. Even class action firms will normally have 5-10 people in their firm, with one or two of the partner's children working for them. But there is lot's of money involved in these firms, ask Bill Lebrach...