Top Law Schools

Hey guys,

I have an opportunity to switch to capital markets. My question is how marketable are capital markets attorneys outside of law firms? What do those attorneys do if they don't make partner? Are they competitive to get in-house jobs? I'm guessing there aren't a lot of in-house jobs available to them (i.e. securities attorney)?

Banks, financial institutions and public companies are all interested in capital markets attorneys. I think it has some of the better exit options out there.

Not as marketable as M&A or corp generalist for in house.

Pretty marketable. I worked in house my 1L summer, and the finance/treasury department of my F500 company had their own team of attorneys supporting all their capital raising deals.

Anonymous User wrote:Not as marketable as M&A or corp generalist for in house.

They're similarly marketable for financial institutions and more marketable in some cases.

Capital markets is a very desireable background for in-house at investment banks and edge funds.

Jumping on this thread, would be curious how marketable a public company reporting focused practice may be to companies, in particular? Not sure exactly what "capital markets" entails to be perfectly honest and how it may differ from public company reporting.

Anonymous User wrote:Jumping on this thread, would be curious how marketable a public company reporting focused practice may be to companies, in particular? Not sure exactly what "capital markets" entails to be perfectly honest and how it may differ from public company reporting.

capital markets implies raising capital via debt or equity markets. it is deal driven. public company reporting is not deal driven - its complying with various SEC rules (filling of 8k, 10K, etc) - its more of a regulatory practice. it is thus way more predictable. I would think the later has better exit options, but I wouldn't know because I haven't seen any person from our public company reporting practice leave, probably because their lifestyle is pretty decent (relatively)

Yep, capital markets lawyers are marketable to financial institutions. They would also be marketable to in house depts of companies that issue a lot of debt/equity.

Also, talking about capital markets:

wons wrote:
Exit options are excellent - every big corporate needs in house folks to oversee their cap markers offerings / interface with outside counsel. The nature of periodic reporting and the way that corporates tend to access the market regularly means that there's a good opportunity to build relationships with clients from early on. However, the market for high end securities legal work at firms has been decimated in recent years because of the commoditization of the practice, so it is extremely difficult to make partners these days as a cap markets attorney, unless you also do high yield.

Source: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6#p7636022

ruski wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Jumping on this thread, would be curious how marketable a public company reporting focused practice may be to companies, in particular? Not sure exactly what "capital markets" entails to be perfectly honest and how it may differ from public company reporting.

capital markets implies raising capital via debt or equity markets. it is deal driven. public company reporting is not deal driven - its complying with various SEC rules (filling of 8k, 10K, etc) - its more of a regulatory practice. it is thus way more predictable. I would think the later has better exit options, but I wouldn't know because I haven't seen any person from our public company reporting practice leave, probably because their lifestyle is pretty decent (relatively)

If you do a broad range of capital markets deals you'll have all those skills plus some M&A ones. Working on public stock offerings or IPOs and you're basically a generalist who will know SEC regulations. The same company will use you for their exchange act filings as well as follow on raises. Work alongside M&A teams when doing tender offers or spin offs. Work on high yield offerings or debt restructurings and you get credit experience. Advise on private funds and now you get some Investment Advisers Act and 40 Act experience as well as compliance work. I guess it depends on the firm. If you're at a top capital markets firm you'll get to do all of those deals. Many firms however specialize in one thing and in that instance you're kind of pigeonholing yourself.

General securities lawyers have good exit options for public companies and funds. If you're only doing structured products or leveraged finance then you're more attractive to banks and some funds but not as much for companies. Some firms specialize with startups and deal with VC financing and JOBs Act related issues - that's a good way to get in-house at one of those types of companies.