For people who will be working in London Forum

[bendurnotes4me]

PM me if you have accepted/plan to accept a job in London. Would love to talk to some other JDs who are going to hop the pond after graduation.

[Anonymous User]

Currently thinking about this also and would like some thoughts. First year pay you can cop dat cost of living allowance, making significantly more than 160k is appealing

[piccolittle]

Going to be applying for a London rotation and hopefully starting there after graduation.

[Anonymous User]

Do you know exactly how much more the salary is? I've heard around 50k, is that true?

[unc0mm0n1]

Do you know exactly how much more the salary is? I've heard around 50k, is that true?

depends on the firm, also depends if they pay in pounds or dollars.

[Anonymous User]

As someone who is really interested in applying for positions in London in the future, I was just curious if any of you, based on your own experiences, would mind sharing what you think are qualifications London firms are looking for (i.e. European LLM, undergrad study abroad, foreign language fluency, etc.). I know it's been discussed in varying degrees in other threads, but I thought maybe somebody who has been lucky enough to get a London position/rotation could share some unique insight.

Thanks!

[Anonymous User]

FWIW - if you are an American trained lawyer practicing American law, then you normally get paid NY market. If you are going through the English trainee system, then the pay scale is very different (more like 50k), since their university costs are much lower and law is an undergraduate degree.

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone provide any details on how to approach the London market as a US law student... how competitive you need to be... would being from another European country (not England) constitute a connection?

[unc0mm0n1]

Can anyone provide any details on how to approach the London market as a US law student... how competitive you need to be... would being from another European country (not England) constitute a connection?

Well I'm not sure what the grade cut-offs are or whatever but I do know that they look for people who have experience. Being from Europe is most definitely helpful especially if it is an EU country. This is because then they don't have the same visa issues with you like they do with American candidates. Also it helps if you speak another language. Also at least for the Magic circle firms they are prestige whores so they prefer students from the top schools. I did a few interviews out there and lowest ranked school I saw represented was NYU in the callback pool. (they normally put you up in a hotel with the other people who are there for a callback.

[bdubs]

There is a very narrow practice niche for U.S. lawyers in London. All of the positions are in some form of cross border deals, so M&A, capital markets, and project finance. Freshfields calls it the "US Corporate Group." Even if some of the other work doesn't technically require formal overseas legal training, they don't hire for it from US schools (in my experience).

[unc0mm0n1]

There is a very narrow practice niche for U.S. lawyers in London. All of the positions are in some form of cross border deals, so M&A, capital markets, and project finance. Freshfields calls it the "US Corporate Group." Even if some of the other work doesn't technically require formal overseas legal training, they don't hire for it from US schools (in my experience).

I think you're right but I was told you could convert and become a solicitor as well. Although by the time you did you'd have been in your practice group for a few years so you'd probably be stuck there. Also they aren't paying you a ton of money to do the work they can get some English lawyer to do.

[piccolittle]

There is a very narrow practice niche for U.S. lawyers in London. All of the positions are in some form of cross border deals, so M&A, capital markets, and project finance. Freshfields calls it the "US Corporate Group." Even if some of the other work doesn't technically require formal overseas legal training, they don't hire for it from US schools (in my experience).

I think you're right but I was told you could convert and become a solicitor as well. Although by the time you did you'd have been in your practice group for a few years so you'd probably be stuck there. Also they aren't paying you a ton of money to do the work they can get some English lawyer to do.

What are our thoughts on London non-finance in-house exit options from one of the US practices in London? It is only possible if you're doing, say, M&A work at Skadden? Or not at all?

[unc0mm0n1]

There is a very narrow practice niche for U.S. lawyers in London. All of the positions are in some form of cross border deals, so M&A, capital markets, and project finance. Freshfields calls it the "US Corporate Group." Even if some of the other work doesn't technically require formal overseas legal training, they don't hire for it from US schools (in my experience).

I think you're right but I was told you could convert and become a solicitor as well. Although by the time you did you'd have been in your practice group for a few years so you'd probably be stuck there. Also they aren't paying you a ton of money to do the work they can get some English lawyer to do.

What are our thoughts on London non-finance in-house exit options from one of the US practices in London? It is only possible if you're doing, say, M&A work at Skadden? Or not at all?

Don't really know I only inquired about finance exit options. When you say in-house do you mean in house in the states or in-house in London. I would assume you'd have a hard transition to in-house in London because you wouldn't be a solicitor and couldn't practice English law. Even if you became a solicitor later you still would have had very limited English law experience probably making you less desirable than an associate who understands and has experience in the English system.

[hermanblume]

Is attrition as high among associates working in the US practice of London firms (Magic Circle or US V10)? What are the typical exit options- in-house finance in NYC?

As someone who got London SA callbacks and offers, the whole process seemed pretty random. School prestige is important; grades did not seem to be important (I go to a school with H/P/LP grading, and I would guess that the London offices are not interviewing enough people to get a sense of what are good grades. Or they don't care). Ties to London/UK were helpful, but there were people without any ties who did well. Generally these people spoke in-demand languages and a lot experience working abroad.

My advice if this is your goal: Have a backup plan, because there are very few positions and getting one is probably more a function of luck than anything else. Find a 1L job that exposes you to transactional work, especially capital markets. Then you can decide if you actually enjoy that work and talk about it during interviews.

[piccolittle]

Is anyone else going to be splitting NY/London for the summer? My firm does rotations so I have to apply for that later, but I have high hopes. Would be great to do a few meetups in the last month or so of the summer if others are also planning to split.

[unc0mm0n1]

Is anyone else going to be splitting NY/London for the summer? My firm does rotations so I have to apply for that later, but I have high hopes. Would be great to do a few meetups in the last month or so of the summer if others are also planning to split.

I'll be there. Where is everybody going to live? The rents are so much cheaper in many of the outlying neighborhoods like Canary Wharf area but the fun stuff tends to happen in the more central areas.