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I assume that the real estate practices were among the hardest hit in big law, but I'm not sure. Is my assumption correct?

Secondly, I currently have about 4-5 years working experience,.....I worked as an Analyst at a REIT, in which I underwrote deals which included quite a lot of due diligence review associated w/ real estate deals. I currently work as an analyst for a major bank doing asset risk mitigation for CMBS pools associated w/ Fannie and Freddie. I also have a commercial real estate certification, indicating that I have qualified working knowledge in that field.

I got into UVA and I'm scheduled to start next fall,...I just wanted to get a feel for how far all of this will get me regarding BigLaw real estate practices and how much leeway they would give per my class rank given my practical experience.

moose wrote:I just wanted to get a feel for how far all of this will get me regarding BigLaw real estate practices and how much leeway they would give per my class rank given my practical experience.

Nobody knows.

Kohinoor wrote:

moose wrote:I just wanted to get a feel for how far all of this will get me regarding BigLaw real estate practices and how much leeway they would give per my class rank given my practical experience.

Nobody knows.

Yeah, I should probably talk to a lawyer, but the ones I know probably wouldn't know either.

I assume that the real estate practices were among the hardest hit in big law, but I'm not sure. Is my assumption correct?

Anecdotally, that seems to be the case, at least in Florida. I interviewed with a BigLaw firm with a smaller office here in Florida. The office used to have a real estate department with 8 lawyers, both partners and associates. It got rid of everyone besides 1 partner and 1 associate. The associate who survived told me at one point she was billing 20 hours a month.

Anonymous User wrote:

I assume that the real estate practices were among the hardest hit in big law, but I'm not sure. Is my assumption correct?

Anecdotally, that seems to be the case, at least in Florida. I interviewed with a BigLaw firm with a smaller office here in Florida. The office used to have a real estate department with 8 lawyers, both partners and associates. It got rid of everyone besides 1 partner and 1 associate. The associate who survived told me at one point she was billing 20 hours a month.

I just took a look at some biglaw firm sites and most seem to have multiple practices relating to real estate, for example REITs, RE finance, RE developement, etc etc. Which is encouraging for me since I have solid experience in both a REIT and RE financing. The only question is how much work they get in these fields. I'm not sure Florida is a good barometer because their real estate market in general is a huge mess, in addition to the fact that it was a small office. I guess I need to get in touch with a real estate lawyer in DC or NY to check out their workload.

Anyone else willing to chime in on how much of an effect my work experience might have during OGI's?

moose wrote:Anyone else willing to chime in on how much of an effect my work experience might have during OGI's?

Short answer - don't express such a narrow focus during OGI. Say that you're interested in transactional work and in explaining why, tell them about your work experience. I would be very hesitant to focus in too much. You should (a) keep your options open, (b) recognize that you might not like the legal side of real estate, and (c) know that at a certain level, big law real estate is really just a form of corporate/transactional work.

vamedic03 wrote:

moose wrote:Anyone else willing to chime in on how much of an effect my work experience might have during OGI's?

Short answer - don't express such a narrow focus during OGI. Say that you're interested in transactional work and in explaining why, tell them about your work experience. I would be very hesitant to focus in too much. You should (a) keep your options open, (b) recognize that you might not like the legal side of real estate, and (c) know that at a certain level, big law real estate is really just a form of corporate/transactional work.

I highly appreciate this answer,....sounds like sage advice.