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I'm a current fourth year cap markets associate in NYC (V30 if that matters). I've worked almost exclusively on cross-border transactions/offerings over the past few years. I am currently looking at various cities to be closer to where my parents live in North Florida. I am considering Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Atlanta, and Charlotte. Of course, these cities don't have much (if any) cross-border cap markets practice, so I am wondering how I can best go about getting into these markets and if anyone has any advice regarding practice areas. Thanks!

Just from my experience, the big firms in Florida secondary markets tend to have small transactional practices. I'd look for firms with transactional practices (including small and mid-sized firms) and just apply widely. Those aren't easy markets to break into for a transactional attorney. But if you stick with it, you should be able to find something.

You just have to find a way to spin your experience into other transactional areas. You mainly see real estate (or construction), healthcare, and the business (corporate generalist) transactional practices in the Florida secondary markets.

I should also ask...why Charlotte and Atlanta but not South Florida? Is it preference?(I don't blame you if you'd prefer not to live/practice there) South Florida would give you a lot more transactional opportunities. It's about the same distance from North Florida as Atlanta and Charlotte are (by car).

Not sure about the other cities, but Charlotte definitely has some capital market shops, some that pay the same as NYC. These firms do a lot of structured finance/securitization (primarily CLOs and CMBS).

I know some people who do transactional work in Birmingham, so that might be another market to consider.

Not sure if it's on your radar at all, but Dallas has a ton of cap markets work. I moved to Dallas from the Northeast to do transactional tax. My boyfriend is from North Florida (near Destin) and there are cheap, quick direct flights from DFW every day. It's one of the reasons we picked Dallas (that, and the corporate legal market sucks in Florida IMO, unless you want to move to Miami (which I don't...)).

Might be able to help with Charlotte - PM me.

Anonymous User wrote:I know some people who do transactional work in Birmingham, so that might be another market to consider.

I'm a junior associate in Birmingham. Firms here have pretty sophisticated M&A and real estate practices, but I doubt there is very much cross-boarder capital markets.