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So I'm selecting practice groups for my SA position (V10, NYC) and was wondering if anyone had any opinions/first hand knowledge about the following practice groups in terms of exit opps (particularly in relation to entertainment law):

M&A/Private Equity
Banking/Credit
IP (transactional)

Any help would be much appreciated

What do you want to exit to brahhhh

jfree wrote:So I'm selecting practice groups for my SA position (V10, NYC) and was wondering if anyone had any opinions/first hand knowledge about the following practice groups in terms of exit opps (particularly in relation to entertainment law):

M&A/Private Equity
Banking/Credit
IP (transactional)

Any help would be much appreciated

Client list matters a lot. Banking/credit practices in the V10 are likely to be heavily focused on the lenders, meaning you'll have better exit options there. M&A is famously the "generalist" corporate track with a broad array of exit options. Probably somewhat true for PE as well.

Ask around at your firm, it's not as taboo a topic as you might imagine. Just know it's extremely individual, so it's hard to know how or why any one person traveled any one path.

jfree wrote:So I'm selecting practice groups for my SA position (V10, NYC) and was wondering if anyone had any opinions/first hand knowledge about the following practice groups in terms of exit opps (particularly in relation to entertainment law):

M&A/Private Equity
Banking/Credit
IP (transactional)

Any help would be much appreciated

Banking / credit has good exit options, but they are very narrow. After a couple of years, your expertise is pretty much only suited for in-house counsel positions at banks. A limited number of PE megafunds or very large companies have in-house lawyers for loans and bond issues, but these are pretty rare.

IP transactional is also very hot right now, but again is limited in terms of the breadth of exit options.

M&A is very generalist. You'll have the broadest exit options, but not necessarily the "best" since you have generalist (rather than specialized) skills, and many other lawyers have similar skill sets.

If you really want entertainment, then stay away from banking / credit. IP transactional and M&A will both be decent backgrounds in different ways. But, it's worth noting that a big determinant of your ability to break into entertainment law is going to be if your firm has a large practice with big entertainment clients. People are going to want to see that you worked on these types of deals - they don't care if you're an awesome M&A lawyer if you've only been doing energy deals - they'd rather take the pretty good lawyer who has experience in entertainment.

Off the top of my head, Proskauer, Skadden and Covington are the firms with big sports practices (formerly Dewey too because of Jeffrey Kessler - not sure if that has travelled over to Winston with him). Irell and some of the other LA firms do a lot of filmed entertainment.

Banking / credit has good exit options, but they are very narrow. After a couple of years, your expertise is pretty much only suited for in-house counsel positions at banks. A limited number of PE megafunds or very large companies have in-house lawyers for loans and bond issues, but these are pretty rare.

IP transactional is also very hot right now, but again is limited in terms of the breadth of exit options.

M&A is very generalist. You'll have the broadest exit options, but not necessarily the "best" since you have generalist (rather than specialized) skills, and many other lawyers have similar skill sets.

If you really want entertainment, then stay away from banking / credit. IP transactional and M&A will both be decent backgrounds in different ways. But, it's worth noting that a big determinant of your ability to break into entertainment law is going to be if your firm has a large practice with big entertainment clients. People are going to want to see that you worked on these types of deals - they don't care if you're an awesome M&A lawyer if you've only been doing energy deals - they'd rather take the pretty good lawyer who has experience in entertainment.

Off the top of my head, Proskauer, Skadden and Covington are the firms with big sports practices (formerly Dewey too because of Jeffrey Kessler - not sure if that has travelled over to Winston with him). Irell and some of the other LA firms do a lot of filmed entertainment.

Thanks for the help. I was also thinking that M&A or IP transactional would provide the best background, but thought about choosing Banking/Credit as I think parts of it are very similar to film finance. I'm leaning towards M&A just because its broader and I think that IP is one narrow part of entertainment law (feel free to tell me otherwise, its just the sense I get). I had not thought about the importance of the firm's client list so I'll definitely make sure to inquire. I've heard Skadden are Proskauer are good for entertainment and I've also heard a lot of good things about Paul Weiss for entertainment as (although not so many good things about their general corporate practice).

Client list matters a lot. Banking/credit practices in the V10 are likely to be heavily focused on the lenders, meaning you'll have better exit options there. M&A is famously the "generalist" corporate track with a broad array of exit options. Probably somewhat true for PE as well.

Ask around at your firm, it's not as taboo a topic as you might imagine. Just know it's extremely individual, so it's hard to know how or why any one person traveled any one path.

Thanks -- yeah from what I've heard this banking/credit group's practice is very lender side focused. I'm thinking M&A just because of the broad array of options. I'm planning to ask around and find out what others have done so hopefully that will give me more of an idea.

I would like to add a few questions to OP's original question, if he or she does not mind. How do V10 exit options stack up for offices that are in major cities but not quite the "main offices?" I'm thinking Skadden LA/DC/Chicago, Latham DC/Chicago, K&E DC, etc...? In that case, does it still really depend on what companies that particular office works with?

Also, more generally, what are the exit-options for tax controversy work for the V10 (or others)? I've seen threads on this forum and taxtalent about exit options for tax transactional work, but never controversy.

Thanks!