Top Law Schools

So I’m a 2L interested in potentially pursuing L&E after law school. I have the luxury of being picky with my bidding choices for OCI because I have a return offer to my 1L SA firm. My question concerns L&E exit options: how good are they? Further, how variable are they? I’ve read that L&E is one of the few lit practice areas with solid exit options, which is one of the reasons I’m interested in pursuing it (in addition to general interest), but I haven’t seen much on the details of those exits. Are the exits usually contained to the region that one’s biglaw office is in or spread out nationally? How much does the biglaw firm affect these exits?

Besides L&E, I am interested in Tax as well tho a bit less so (maaaybe tech transactions too but probably not tbh). I like the idea of specializing in something a bit niche, and downstream career flexibility is really important to me. I enjoy litigation and transactional matters but prefer litigation slightly.

Sorry if any of these Qs are dumb: just trying to do my due diligence.

Rising 3L so I can't speak to exit opps but I do have experience with L&E and tax. Depending on what attracts you to tax and L&E, you might also want to look into employee benefits.

Po$eidon wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 13, 2020 2:10 pm

So I’m a 2L interested in potentially pursuing L&E after law school. I have the luxury of being picky with my bidding choices for OCI because I have a return offer to my 1L SA firm. My question concerns L&E exit options: how good are they? Further, how variable are they? I’ve read that L&E is one of the few lit practice areas with solid exit options, which is one of the reasons I’m interested in pursuing it (in addition to general interest), but I haven’t seen much on the details of those exits. Are the exits usually contained to the region that one’s biglaw office is in or spread out nationally? How much does the biglaw firm affect these exits?

Besides L&E, I am interested in Tax as well tho a bit less so (maaaybe tech transactions too but probably not tbh). I like the idea of specializing in something a bit niche, and downstream career flexibility is really important to me. I enjoy litigation and transactional matters but prefer litigation slightly.

Sorry if any of these Qs are dumb: just trying to do my due diligence.

Everyone needs an employment lawyer so obviously it is a good path.

Of litigation practice areas it is probably the one with the greatest likelihood of getting you into a general counsel's office. Lots of larger companies have employment issues and, if they need litigators, people with experience in employment lit are valuable. If you specialize more in employee benefits/ERISA, you'll be able to transition into a more compliance role.

Some L&E litigators can also transition to human resources and away from law. I've seen a few smaller companies where their general counsel is also their head of human resources. I think people with those jobs also previously had MBAs or experience in HR, though.

Government side you have the employment division of the DOJ Office of Civil Rights, which I think could be a pretty rewarding job. Also--a bit easier to get but also less exciting--many states have either branches of the EEOC or EEOC-affiliates that investigate claims of employment discrimination. Most investigators are non-lawyers (and aren't paid especially well) but the higher-ups in the departments are.

You could also transition to PI and represent unions.