In house VP Legal at Investment Bank Forum

[NoLongerALurker]

Seen a lot of posts around about making the jump from law to banking as a lawyer->banker career shift. But I know a few people who moved in their second-to-fourth year to work in the legal office of an investment bank. All of them really liked making the switch, but just wanted to get the ball rolling on a convo here --- anyone here who did it and hated it? Any tips on landing these jobs? What's the pay looking like these days? Any particular expertise ("I only do high yield / I only do derivative transactions / etc.") help, or do you want to go in as a general corporate transactions type? Lastly, everyone I know who made that leap did it by first scoring a secondment --- does that seem to be the normal way or do I just have an atypical sample size?

[Anonymous User]

Bumping this. OP, would be good to hear if you made the jump.

[Anonymous User]

Bumping as well. Particularly interested in any views on GS - seems like it's pretty much biglaw at slightly lower pay but would be great if anyone has any personal experience. Thanks!

[Anonymous User]

Bumping this. OP, would be good to hear if you made the jump.

Please tell us whether it's miserable as well.

[Anonymous User]

Not OP, but I went in-house at an i-bank, with a VP title. Four years of biglaw corproate, mix between capital markets, emerging companies, M&A, and general corporates. Applied through a posting from a recruiter, just one round of interviews where I met my direct boss, that boss's boss (the a managing director), and then more informal chat with the other members of the team. Pay was something like $180-190K base, $40K bonus target, generous 401K match, so a pay cut from biglaw but nothing to complain about. Another member of my team had done a secondment first, so it's definitely a path to these gigs, though going straight from biglaw is also doable. Generally a much better gig day to day than biglaw in terms of hours, though that's very group dependent (mine was probably on the chiller side, others that supported the larger/more obnoxious front office groups had worse hours).

[Anonymous User]

I didn't go in-house at a bank but have friends who did. Ibank counsels do not necessarily have a better lifestyle because they also support deals, and all Ibanks do are deals (M&A, debt, CM, etc.), so there will be a lot of work.