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Am 7th year. For some personal reasons, had to move around.
So ended up doing 2 year of Finance+CM, 2 year CM, and 2 year Finance+M&A.
Want to lateral in next year or two.
But I feel like I don't have any specialty or expertise in one area of law - like I know how to do every corporate/transactional but no expert in one.

Would it be a big issue when i try to lateral as 8th year?
How to I play this when I lateral?
Should I at least try to focus on one area this/next year then? If so, which area would give me a best shot at lateralling (biglaw)?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 30, 2020 11:42 pm

Am 7th year. For some personal reasons, had to move around.
So ended up doing 2 year of Finance+CM, 2 year CM, and 2 year Finance+M&A.
Want to lateral in next year or two.
But I feel like I don't have any specialty or expertise in one area of law - like I know how to do every corporate/transactional but no expert in one.

Would it be a big issue when i try to lateral as 8th year?
How to I play this when I lateral?
Should I at least try to focus on one area this/next year then? If so, which area would give me a best shot at lateralling (biglaw)?

If you wanted to retain class year, I'd try to market myself as an M&A attorney. I think it's the easiest practice to pick up as a senior since a lot of it comes down to project management and just understanding how transactions work, plus understanding finance and cap markets is a good value add to an M&A process. However, I'd just be open to all opportunities and pitch myself that way unless there was a particular need the firm was filling.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 01, 2020 9:31 am

If you wanted to retain class year, I'd try to market myself as an M&A attorney. I think it's the easiest practice to pick up as a senior since a lot of it comes down to project management and just understanding how transactions work, plus understanding finance and cap markets is a good value add to an M&A process. However, I'd just be open to all opportunities and pitch myself that way unless there was a particular need the firm was filling.

Should I just say I can do all three areas? At 8th year wouldn't that look too generalist without expertise? i feel like firms would want a specialist at that level no?

I know you said you have bounced around a bit, but what have you been doing primarily over the past two years? I’m assuming at your current firm you are taking a senior associate role on your deals and not the role of a junior associate, so if you are good enough to do M&A at your current firm as an 8th year that’s how you should market yourself to the new firm. You don’t actually need 8 years of dedicated experience in a single practice area to be an 8th year associate in that area. As long as you have been the senior-most associate on a transaction in a given practice recently, you should feel confident about saying that is your practice area. Now if you have ran CM deals but have only been the second chair associate on M&A deals, for example, maybe you would say something like “CM is my primary practice area and I also have some experience in M&A” rather than marketing yourself as a true CM/M&A double threat.