Lateraling to European Offices of BigLaw Firms Forum

[Anonymous User]

One dude at my office just lateralled to Germany. Never occurred to me before then that transactional biglaw associates might be in demand at European offices of big firms. I guess they are. Seems like a sweet way to spend a couple years. How common is this? I would totally spend 2 years pretty much anywhere in Europe

[Anonymous User]

One dude at my office just lateralled to Germany. Never occurred to me before then that transactional biglaw associates might be in demand at European offices of big firms. I guess they are. Seems like a sweet way to spend a couple years. How common is this? I would totally spend 2 years pretty much anywhere in Europe

"In demand" overstates it. I believe I read recently on American Lawyer or some other publication that over half of all biglaw JDs outside the US are in London alone, and that includes Asia. There's a permanent business need for JDs for transactional work, but it's niche. A qualified and persistent candidate has a chance of making it happen, but it's dependent on business needs, language demands, pure luck with timing, and a convincing narrative about "why Europe?" And, regarding the "sweet way to spend a couple years," it's a highly specialized subset of transactional experience that redirects your exit opportunities, so it's foolhardy to go after casually. Add in all the business risks roiling Europe nowadays, and it's best not to be too cavalier.

[Anonymous User]

One dude at my office just lateralled to Germany. Never occurred to me before then that transactional biglaw associates might be in demand at European offices of big firms. I guess they are. Seems like a sweet way to spend a couple years. How common is this? I would totally spend 2 years pretty much anywhere in Europe

London is the most common option unless some other extra factor. Most of the work is high yield capital markets, though other securities work is available. Hours are more unpredictable than in NYC, both in terms of down time and busy time. Teams are also leaner. Work is fairly niche so maybe some difficulty getting back to USA if you do it for too long.

[christianllang]

One dude at my office just lateralled to Germany. Never occurred to me before then that transactional biglaw associates might be in demand at European offices of big firms. I guess they are. Seems like a sweet way to spend a couple years. How common is this? I would totally spend 2 years pretty much anywhere in Europe

There are more opportunities than you might expect. But one thing to keep an eye on is the economics. I have friends who ended up doing pretty similar work as the US lawyer in a European market, but the ones who did that by way of secondments from US firms ended up getting paid between $80-150k more because of base salary differential and a cost-of-living adjustment. Something to consider before zeroing in on European firms.