Investigations work in big law Forum

[Anonymous User]

What's the day to day and exit options (I know it's heavy doc review). I'm thinking of switching from corporate into it.

[Anonymous User]

I know a few people who have gone into compliance roles at banks after doing it for around 4-6 years (I think at that level you're a VP, not just an analyst). YMMV. If you do FCPA work, you have good opportunities to travel and rack up frequent flier miles but I question the skill set you actually develop-- you're not really trained to litigate, nor can you really run a transaction.

[Anonymous User]

Depends on whether a prosecution ever gets to court, but as a junior- doc review, doc review, doc review, writing memos of calls, preparing interview materials, ocasionally traveling for interviews, preparing presentation materials and summary memos, sometimes working on proposals for settlement.

As a midlevel/senior - managing doc reviews, dealing with vendors, attending interviews, drafting interview outlines, supervising teams of juniors doing memos and prepping for interviews, updating client (unless it is a massive investigation, then junior partners will probably meet with the client), drafting submissons and maybe revisions to policies (although usually the client has a consultant do that), attending meetings with the government.

Exit ops- typically government, or in-house. Most common in house exit options are banks, followed by multinationals.

[Anonymous User]

The hours are much more predictable than corp though right? I don't enjoy writing briefs are using west law either so this sounds perfect. Just worried that too much doc review means I won't be able to lateral to another firm with a lack of skills if I get let go earlier than anticipated as a junior.

[Anonymous User]

I think it has less predictability than civil lit, because there's almost never pending litigation in a court. You're beholden to client demands or discovery requests by a regulator. Still think it's less insane than general corporate work.

[Anonymous User]

The hours are much more predictable than corp though right? I don't enjoy writing briefs are using west law either so this sounds perfect. Just worried that too much doc review means I won't be able to lateral to another firm with a lack of skills if I get let go earlier than anticipated as a junior.

On balance, the hours are much less predictable than commercial lit, securities lit, or mass tort, but probably slightly better than someone who specializes in bankruptcy or M+A lit. There are a ton of reasons for this: companies want to get these wrapped up quickly, they generally want to do interviews in a compressed time frame so as not to disrupt business operations and give lawyers more time to bill, and whatever the government wants the government gets, on time or before deadline. In civil lit you have much more leeway to negotiate extensions or even blow off the other side if they are being unreasonable.

Not as familiar with corporate work. I'd imagine hours as more predictable than M+A but less than in some other areas.

[Anonymous User]

double post

[Anonymous User]

Bump- any additional info that others may like to add? Thanks

[jd20132013]

Uh, based on the experiences of those i know it is extremely unpredictable, approaching corp levels. But then, even pure lit is more unpredictable than people suggest

[84651846190]

Uh, based on the experiences of those i know it is extremely unpredictable, approaching corp levels. But then, even pure lit is more unpredictable than people suggest

It depends on how involved you are with the more important aspects of the investigation (interviews, summaries for clients, etc.) as opposed to almost pure doc review. Pure doc review is some of the most predictable work in biglaw, if the investigation is big enough.