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Switching from Corporate to Litigation Later
Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 2:49 pm
by Anonymous User
I'm currently a Summer Associate at a V15's regional office in which they are only hiring out of the summer class for the M&A group. I'm fairly confident that I will get an offer, but am not completely sold on M&A work yet. Just out of curiosity, have you heard of people switching from corporate to litigation after spending a year or two doing corporate work? I would like to pursue clerkships after working in the firm for a year, and was thinking that if I want to make a move to litigation, the transition might be easier following the clerkship. Is this naive?
Re: Switching from Corporate to Litigation Later
Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 12:48 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:I'm currently a Summer Associate at a V15's regional office in which they are only hiring out of the summer class for the M&A group. I'm fairly confident that I will get an offer, but am not completely sold on M&A work yet. Just out of curiosity, have you heard of people switching from corporate to litigation after spending a year or two doing corporate work? I would like to pursue clerkships after working in the firm for a year, and was thinking that if I want to make a move to litigation, the transition might be easier following the clerkship. Is this naive?
It isn't naive. I've talked to panels of partners who started in litigation and moved to corporate after a couple years. It's different strokes for different folks and, if the firm has the space in the dept, its better for them to have you doing something you don't hate.
And yes, it will be easier to make the change after a clerkship, particularly because they're an asset to litigators since they get a real feel for how judges think and how the process actually works.
Re: Switching from Corporate to Litigation Later
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 6:10 am
by Anonymous User
A guy in my office made the switch from M&A to litigation and another friend of mine made the switch from doing general corporate work. Both stayed at the same firm (both V20 firms in major markets) and said that the switch wasn't that hard because they were junior/mid-level. Both stayed at the same firm and said the harder part was finding an opening within the firm so that they will allow you to switch.
If you decide to clerk then lateral after, I would imagine it would be easy to pitch.