Firm's office only has one practice area - help! Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm very lucky to have received an offer from a regional office of a large firm. The office is in the city where I want to work and pays above market (I'm paying sticker at school so that's a huge plus for me). My only reservation is that this office only does corporate/transactional/finance work. That's fine, and I knew that going in, but I have NO experience in that area and am slightly worried about being "locked in" to that type of work.

Is there anything to be said about choosing this firm over firms that would let me see the litigation side of things as well?

TL;DR: Firm only has one practice area that I'm not sure I'd be good at/will like. Bad idea or no big deal?

[IAFG]

Seems to me you probably don't have experience in litigation either, unless there's something you're not telling us.

At some point, you have to make the leap of faith and start letting doors close.

[NYstate]

I'm very lucky to have received an offer from a regional office of a large firm. The office is in the city where I want to work and pays above market (I'm paying sticker at school so that's a huge plus for me). My only reservation is that this office only does corporate/transactional/finance work. That's fine, and I knew that going in, but I have NO experience in that area and am slightly worried about being "locked in" to that type of work.

Is there anything to be said about choosing this firm over firms that would let me see the litigation side of things as well?

TL;DR: Firm only has one practice area that I'm not sure I'd be good at/will like. Bad idea or no big deal?

No one has corporate transactional experience. They expect you to learn as you go.
I like corporate so I can't comment on litigation.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks guys, that's helpful. I just need to calm down a little

[Anonymous User]

As far as I knew it's very rare to switch between lit/corporate even if you're at Skadden or whatever, so I don't really get what this thread is about unless you're just talking about summer rotations.

[Anonymous User]

As far as I knew it's very rare to switch between lit/corporate even if you're at Skadden or whatever, so I don't really get what this thread is about unless you're just talking about summer rotations.

Yup, summer rotations. The office only does one thing so that's all I would be doing too. Just freaks me out a little.

[AntipodeanPhil]

As far as I knew it's very rare to switch between lit/corporate even if you're at Skadden or whatever, so I don't really get what this thread is about unless you're just talking about summer rotations.

I met 3 people on my CB interviews that had done this (from corporate to litigation), so it must be possible. One of them did it within the same firm, after three years in corporate; another spent a year clerking and then went to a different firm for litigation; I forget how the third did it. The problem is that because the areas are so different, you start doing 1st year work in litigation - no matter how much corporate experience you have.

[Anonymous User]

Never mind. Sorry for prying.

[Anonymous User]

OP here (I'm not sure why the above response is anon), but my problem is less about switching from corp to litigation and more about being locked into one practice area as a summer. But I'm heavily leaning towards taking this offer over firms that pay less but offer more practice areas.

[Anonymous User]

OP here (I'm not sure why the above response is anon)...

Never mind.