Page 1 of 1

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

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:57 am
by 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?

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

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 10:03 am
by 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.

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

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 10:05 am
by NYstate
Anonymous User wrote: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.

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

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 10:17 am
by Anonymous User
Thanks guys, that's helpful. I just need to calm down a little :D

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

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 10:44 am
by 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.

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

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 10:50 am
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote: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.

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

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 11:12 am
by AntipodeanPhil
Anonymous User wrote: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.

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

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 11:53 am
by Anonymous User
Never mind. Sorry for prying.

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

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 12:14 pm
by 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.

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

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 1:11 pm
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:OP here (I'm not sure why the above response is anon)...
Never mind.