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I've got no finance background and want to know some things before I join the Bank group at my firm full time (post-bar, not as an SA). What should I read?

You're going toh ave to be more specific. This field is so big and broad.

WSJ.

Barbarians at the Gate and When Genius Failed. I don't think I had a corporate law class in law school where one or the other wasn't brought up.

- Something that explains accounting---if your group is doing bank-loan transactions, understanding accounting is important
- Mastering Secured Transactions if you haven't taken Secured Transactions and your group does a lot of secured deals (although I wouldn't try to read this cover to cover---and in fact, maybe working through the E&E would be more effective if you want to learn it)
- Brearley et al., Principles of Corporate Finance or something else that teaches you finance (you won't need to know how to model things, but understanding basic finance on a conceptual level would probably be helpful)

And if you're looking for something that's more fun, I also recommend Barbarians at the Gate. Liar's Poker is a good one too.

Your school probably gives you access to Vault and there's a guide to Investment Banking or etc there. It's a short PDF. Read it to learn a bit about how a bank (your client) is organized (the different arms of the bank: IBD, Sales & Trading, Investment Management or the difference between coverage and product groups etc etc).

https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/a ... 0notes.pdf

I didn't make this but I found it super helpful when I interned at an investment fund in college.

iamgeorgebush wrote:And if you're looking for something that's more fun, I also recommend Barbarians at the Gate. Liar's Poker is a good one too.

I think Michael Lewis is great. Also recommend The Big Short (because people won't take you seriously if you don't have a basic understanding of the subprime mortgage crisis). I haven't read Flash Boys yet but it might also be worth checking out (although I don't know if there is a lot of intersect between legal work and high frequency trading).

Anonymous User wrote:I've got no finance background and want to know some things before I join the Bank group at my firm full time (post-bar, not as an SA). What should I read?

DealBook.

stoopkid13 wrote:

iamgeorgebush wrote:And if you're looking for something that's more fun, I also recommend Barbarians at the Gate. Liar's Poker is a good one too.

I think Michael Lewis is great. Also recommend The Big Short (because people won't take you seriously if you don't have a basic understanding of the subprime mortgage crisis). I haven't read Flash Boys yet but it might also be worth checking out (although I don't know if there is a lot of intersect between legal work and high frequency trading).

Flash boys (or better yet, Dark Pools by Scott Patterson) will give you an a look at how the markets actually function, but I imagine it's largely worthless for any biglaw prep. I worked in HFT prior to law school, and I can't really think of much use unless you are in a niche practice group representing broker dealers, and even then it will largly be a regulatory group.

Here's what the bankers are reading this summer:

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/l ... ding-lists