Top Law Schools

Any advice for how to choose your first rotation within corporate at Cravath? Summer associate weekend (which just ended) did not give me any information I didn't already have and I basically have no idea about how to make the choice.

If you aren't sure what you are interested in, and plan to be at the firm for more than one rotation, credit or cap markets is probably a better choice than M&A because you will get more substantive experience as a junior in those groups, then you can do M&A second where you will likely get more substantive work being a little bit more senior

Anonymous User wrote:If you aren't sure what you are interested in, and plan to be at the firm for more than one rotation, credit or cap markets is probably a better choice than M&A because you will get more substantive experience as a junior in those groups, then you can do M&A second where you will likely get more substantive work being a little bit more senior

I would choose capital markets. You really learn a lot from diligence about how to look under the hood of companies, how to draft, attention to detail, and you work a lot across from other law firms, which is useful. You also learn securities law. I think, on the whole, the cap markets partners are a little more personable than the banking ones.

I'd choose banking if you're genuinely interested in it, but it's a bit more specialized. You do get a lot of drafting experience, but...it also limits you to a specialty that you might find dead boring.

I agree that M&A hours are worse than banking hours...by a lot. I do think M&A is also useful for learning how to look under the hood of a company and from a deal mechanics learning perspective. I loved the negotiations aspect of it, and being "in the room" while this happened was one of my favorite parts about being a legal assistant there. It's also a bit easier to lateral to other firms because M&A is a bit more common than banking. It's also more applicable if you want to go in house.

All of this is based on my experience as a legal asst in an M&A group in NY (for Faiza Saeed and Sarkis Jebejian--Sarkis now heads M&A at Kirkland) and in the London office, working for Philip Boeckman, over ten years ago. Please understand you should try to choose carefully. It's relatively rare for people to stay past even two rotations, so if there's one or two things you really want to do at CSM, prioritize them.

It's a pretty intense but also really special place. Do not be a hero and say, "I can work long hours." I went from being an investment banking analyst that got killed to working at CSM, and CSM was definitely worse, and my body was extremely exhausted after 2 years. Bank all the sleep you can, do all the living you need to do before you start, because it's rough. I still keep in touch with certain partners, and I just attended Andrew Thompson's funeral last spring, which was incredibly tragic. It is a family, even if the whole family is workaholics. Like I said, a special place. Congrats.

RedGiant wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:If you aren't sure what you are interested in, and plan to be at the firm for more than one rotation, credit or cap markets is probably a better choice than M&A because you will get more substantive experience as a junior in those groups, then you can do M&A second where you will likely get more substantive work being a little bit more senior

I would choose capital markets. You really learn a lot from diligence about how to look under the hood of companies, how to draft, attention to detail, and you work a lot across from other law firms, which is useful. You also learn securities law. I think, on the whole, the cap markets partners are a little more personable than the banking ones.

I'd choose banking if you're genuinely interested in it, but it's a bit more specialized. You do get a lot of drafting experience, but...it also limits you to a specialty that you might find dead boring.

I agree that M&A hours are worse than banking hours...by a lot. I do think M&A is also useful for learning how to look under the hood of a company and from a deal mechanics learning perspective. I loved the negotiations aspect of it, and being "in the room" while this happened was one of my favorite parts about being a legal assistant there. It's also a bit easier to lateral to other firms because M&A is a bit more common than banking. It's also more applicable if you want to go in house.

All of this is based on my experience as a legal asst in an M&A group in NY (for Faiza Saeed and Sarkis Jebejian--Sarkis now heads M&A at Kirkland) and in the London office, working for Philip Boeckman, over ten years ago. Please understand you should try to choose carefully. It's relatively rare for people to stay past even two rotations, so if there's one or two things you really want to do at CSM, prioritize them.

It's a pretty intense but also really special place. Do not be a hero and say, "I can work long hours." I went from being an investment banking analyst that got killed to working at CSM, and CSM was definitely worse, and my body was extremely exhausted after 2 years. Bank all the sleep you can, do all the living you need to do before you start, because it's rough. I still keep in touch with certain partners, and I just attended Andrew Thompson's funeral last spring, which was incredibly tragic. It is a family, even if the whole family is workaholics. Like I said, a special place. Congrats.

This is an unusually helpful and detailed post for this site these days. Well done

Used to work there. Generally agreed w/ everyone above. Avoid M&A as a first rotation. The IP rotation is nice if you can get it.