What courses to take for biglaw corporate practice? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm a current 2L and trying to decide some courses to take for next spring. Currently I am debating between these:
M&A
Antitrust
Negotiation (in the law school), or
Business school classes: either Negotiation, or Intro to Financial Statement Analysis, or Intro to Real Estate

Will also be taking Corp Finance. I'm fairly open as to Corporate or Real estate groups in the future. Would appreciate any insights as to what would be the most helpful courses out of those to prepare for these practice groups?

Is it better to take Negotiation as offered in the law school or B-school? At my school the law prof that teaches Negotiation doesn't get a good reputation, so not sure if it's a good idea to do it in the B-school instead.
Thank you!

[RaceJudicata]

M&A will be most relevant. I personally loved my school's negotiation class...can't speak for yours (ours was purely practical - each week we had a negotiation against an opposing party -- but it wasn't at all transactional focused).

Between M&A and Corp finance, you will be just fine. No need to overload just to get some corporate background where your potential firm will teach you everything anyway.

ETA: Also take whatever courses you think you will get the best grades in.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

1. Proofreading: Comma or Period?
2. Introduction to Papering the Deal
3. Corporate Practice: Sleeping under the Desk at 11am, or Working 48 Hours Straight

[orangecup]

M&A will be most relevant. I personally loved my school's negotiation class...can't speak for yours (ours was purely practical - each week we had a negotiation against an opposing party -- but it wasn't at all transactional focused).

Between M&A and Corp finance, you will be just fine. No need to overload just to get some corporate background where your potential firm will teach you everything anyway.

ETA: Also take whatever courses you think you will get the best grades in.

This. Don't worry about taking corporate-related classes. The coursework may not be useful, and even if it is you likely won't remember any of it, and you'll learn stuff on the job.

[Anonymous User]

Great, thanks for your advices guys

[sawyercb]

An advanced excel class

[BigZuck]

An advanced excel class

This and an advanced Microsoft Word class would likely be the most helpful

If your school offers a class in contract drafting just so you can get used to reading contracts and understanding what the different parts of a contract do that could also be helpful.

[ruski]

secured transactions. I think an accounting class would be more useful than corporate finance. also bankruptcy would be helpful, although less so. regardless of what field you're in, most corporate associates will run into a bankruptcy issue. you'll just field it to a bankruptcy lawyer, but helpful to know the lingo/major issues there. also negotiation sounds like a neat class, but highly doubtful it will be useful. the real negotiation is done by the business people before they ever call the lawyers. after all the real negotiation is done, they just throw the lawyers in a cage to battle out comma placements and the like.

[Devlin]

I'm a current 2L and trying to decide some courses to take for next spring. Currently I am debating between these:
M&A
Antitrust
Negotiation (in the law school), or
Business school classes: either Negotiation, or Intro to Financial Statement Analysis, or Intro to Real Estate

Will also be taking Corp Finance. I'm fairly open as to Corporate or Real estate groups in the future. Would appreciate any insights as to what would be the most helpful courses out of those to prepare for these practice groups?

Is it better to take Negotiation as offered in the law school or B-school? At my school the law prof that teaches Negotiation doesn't get a good reputation, so not sure if it's a good idea to do it in the B-school instead.
Thank you!

I actually think the Intro to Financial Statement Analysis would be pretty helpful, especially if you don't have a prior background/liberal arts major.

[sawyercb]

An advanced excel class

Also, forgot to mention, Securities Reg. Not fun to teach to yourself / figure out during a deal and highly technical.

[Anonymous User]

securities reg could be helpful (but dense and difficult). I didn't take it bc it was too early in the morning (and dense and difficult and I was a lazy 3L). I did take a hedge/PE fund class that my school started offering, and loved it, and actually I am now doing that type of work (after having done a few years of M&A/cap markets).

I have degrees in both finance and econ so I never worried about that stuff, but I'd imagine someone who has never taken an accounting course should try to do so, if possible.

[Anonymous User]

Corporations/Other Business Associations
M&A
Securities Regulation
Federal Income Tax
Entity Tax (Corporations/Partnerships)
Accounting
Secured Transactions

[inter-associate]

Corporate tax and bankruptcy.

[Anonymous User]

My school has a class called Securities Arbitration and Introduction to Asset Management and Legal Compliance, thoughts?

[tfer2222]

My school has a class called Securities Arbitration and Introduction to Asset Management and Legal Compliance, thoughts?

Securities arbitration prob not that helpful. Asset mgmt/legal compliance could be helpful if you're interested in fund formation/management work. I'm guessing it covers Investment Company Act/Advisers Act type material.

[sawyercb]

My school has a class called Securities Arbitration and Introduction to Asset Management and Legal Compliance, thoughts?

Securities arbitration prob not that helpful. Asset mgmt/legal compliance could be helpful if you're interested in fund formation/management work. I'm guessing it covers Investment Company Act/Advisers Act type material.

I agree with the above. If you are interested in fund formation work, it is extremely important to know the Investment Company Act/Advisers Act on the corporate side. I do fund formation on the tax side.