Need Finance/Business Courses for Big Law Litigation? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I have an offer for a firm in BigLaw. Want to do litigation when I graduate. I have absolutely no background in corporations / accounting / finance / economics etc. I haven't studied the topics yet because I am more interested in environmental/toxic tort litigation. My concern is that at one of my interviews, some associates doing litigation told me I need to take securities. I've seen some other posts where people talk about corporate finance being a basic foundational course students should take. Which corporations/finance courses do I need to take over the course of my law school career to be a competent litigator come graduation?

[ruski]

you don't really need to understand any of the business/finance concepts that well - you more need to understand the vocabulary. most of the corporate vocabulary can be picked up from corporations and sec reg. it might help to take an intro finance or accounting course just to understand terms like net present value, ebitda, capital expenditure , etc. these are things you can just google as you come across your career but if you have the chance may be worth taking a course or buying a book. its nothing you should really go out of your way to learn. even if you are doing torts you may be talking to business executives or accountants of the firm so its helpful to know the lingo but it really isn't that complciated to learn on the spot

[traydeuce]

I don't know; there's a lot of big-money litigation that doesn't require an understanding of securities. I worked on a $40 million lawsuit between two insurers last summer, and it was surprising how much of the case came down to fundamental tort law concepts and how little one needed to understand the least bit about insurance to work on the case.