BigLaw Deal Support Sub-Specialty Work Forum

[Anonymous User]

Currently practice in a specialty group (e.g., FDA, environmental, tax, etc.) and am considering applying to a Biglaw position where I'd be providing subject matter support for transactions. This would probably be quite different from my current job where I'm doing regulatory counseling and litigation in this space.

Any folks work in such a Biglaw sub-specialty group providing deal support? Positives/negatives?

[thisisme]

Biglaw M&A attorney do not in one of the groups you're asking about but rely on them heavily.

Specialist groups like this at high volume deal shops are on TONS of deals. One of the specialists I work with told me recently he had 45 active matters. Aside from tax, lots of these groups spend their time doing the same basic diligence and making the same rep comments (particularly for something like enviro), always on the m&a team's aggressive timeline.

[eastcoast_iub]

On the flip side, as a specialist you are not on the front lines with the client like M&A is, which is a major stress reliever. You also get easy hours in marking up the same reps over and over again. And if you're lucky, you can get in a specialist group where disclosures in the schedules against your reps are rare (like mine), which minimizes the drudgery of working on the schedules.

I would not want to do deal support all the time, and am in a specialist area where a significant portion of my work involves things other than deal support, but being a specialist is way less stressful than M&A. You can have a much longer shelf life in big law in a specialist group than M&A. I have flashbacks just thinking about working in M&A.

[Anonymous User]

these groups are small and don't make a lot of money for the firm. this means that the partners tend to be self-consicous and mentally ill. if you run into a POS partner, you are in trouble. they'll give you a hard time about hours too, even in slow times.

[flowersandsunshine]

these groups are small and don't make a lot of money for the firm. this means that the partners tend to be self-consicous and mentally ill. if you run into a POS partner, you are in trouble. they'll give you a hard time about hours too, even in slow times.

Going into one of these groups (ECEB) and this makes me nervous. Are you speaking from experience? Curious what "mentally ill" entails.

[Anonymous User]

these groups are small and don't make a lot of money for the firm. this means that the partners tend to be self-consicous and mentally ill. if you run into a POS partner, you are in trouble. they'll give you a hard time about hours too, even in slow times.

What a bad take. My specialist group a good number of equity partners and never gives us flak about hours. The partners (equity and non-equity) are also all pretty great. I vibe with some more than others, but none of them are objectively bad people or bad co-workers. At least at my firm, if you don't like a partner, you can pretty easily dodge them too, even in my smaller specialist group. I'm sure if you land in some 5 person group it might be hard, but many specialist groups at firms doing a lot of deals are 20+ people these days.

[Anonymous User]

these groups are small and don't make a lot of money for the firm. this means that the partners tend to be self-consicous and mentally ill. if you run into a POS partner, you are in trouble. they'll give you a hard time about hours too, even in slow times.

Going into one of these groups (ECEB) and this makes me nervous. Are you speaking from experience? Curious what "mentally ill" entails.

I've been in two different ECEB groups doing deal support for 7 years, and this has not been my experience - at least, the partners have been pretty great (generally nicer and more understanding than other partners at the firm). In any small group, if there's someone you don't get along with or who is a jerk then it's hard to get away from them, which is something to keep in mind. In years where my hours have been down no one has given me a hard time and I've never felt like I'm going to get fired, because the M&A lawyers need us for their deals and ECEB mid-levels are very difficult to replace, so you don't want to push out associates unless you need to because the business is truly gone OR the associate isn't working out.

[Anonymous User]

these groups are small and don't make a lot of money for the firm. this means that the partners tend to be self-consicous and mentally ill. if you run into a POS partner, you are in trouble. they'll give you a hard time about hours too, even in slow times.

Going into one of these groups (ECEB) and this makes me nervous. Are you speaking from experience? Curious what "mentally ill" entails.

I've been in two different ECEB groups doing deal support for 7 years, and this has not been my experience - at least, the partners have been pretty great (generally nicer and more understanding than other partners at the firm). In any small group, if there's someone you don't get along with or who is a jerk then it's hard to get away from them, which is something to keep in mind. In years where my hours have been down no one has given me a hard time and I've never felt like I'm going to get fired, because the M&A lawyers need us for their deals and ECEB mid-levels are very difficult to replace, so you don't want to push out associates unless you need to because the business is truly gone OR the associate isn't working out.

Would you mind sharing more about your experience? I'm in an ECEB group where I do a bit of deal work, but it's mostly institutional clients, but I'm lateraling to another firm in a few weeks where I'm (almost certainly) doing more deal work. Obviously firms will vary, but I'm curious what your overall experience has looked like.

[Anonymous User]

these groups are small and don't make a lot of money for the firm. this means that the partners tend to be self-consicous and mentally ill. if you run into a POS partner, you are in trouble. they'll give you a hard time about hours too, even in slow times.

Going into one of these groups (ECEB) and this makes me nervous. Are you speaking from experience? Curious what "mentally ill" entails.

I've been in two different ECEB groups doing deal support for 7 years, and this has not been my experience - at least, the partners have been pretty great (generally nicer and more understanding than other partners at the firm). In any small group, if there's someone you don't get along with or who is a jerk then it's hard to get away from them, which is something to keep in mind. In years where my hours have been down no one has given me a hard time and I've never felt like I'm going to get fired, because the M&A lawyers need us for their deals and ECEB mid-levels are very difficult to replace, so you don't want to push out associates unless you need to because the business is truly gone OR the associate isn't working out.

I’ve been in multiple ECEB groups as well and agree that this is the case. I think associates are only pushed out when business is truly gone. I have experienced low hours (1200-1400) and know of people who survived with sub 1000 hour years, but barely. No one ever brings up the low hours because there isn’t really anything you could do. But I think some people are pushed out when it’s multiple years of sub-1000.

Also, I’ve seen firms keep associates they didn’t really like because they know that replacing that associate would be difficult. One of my prior firms had an associate stay for 9 or so years even though the chair hated working with him. He was too valuable to fire since there are maybe a handful of ECEB senior associates looking (he was a Title I specialist, which is even rarer).

Also, while the partners I work with/for are service partners, many of them do well comp-wise.

[Anonymous User]

these groups are small and don't make a lot of money for the firm. this means that the partners tend to be self-consicous and mentally ill. if you run into a POS partner, you are in trouble. they'll give you a hard time about hours too, even in slow times.

Going into one of these groups (ECEB) and this makes me nervous. Are you speaking from experience? Curious what "mentally ill" entails.

I've been in two different ECEB groups doing deal support for 7 years, and this has not been my experience - at least, the partners have been pretty great (generally nicer and more understanding than other partners at the firm). In any small group, if there's someone you don't get along with or who is a jerk then it's hard to get away from them, which is something to keep in mind. In years where my hours have been down no one has given me a hard time and I've never felt like I'm going to get fired, because the M&A lawyers need us for their deals and ECEB mid-levels are very difficult to replace, so you don't want to push out associates unless you need to because the business is truly gone OR the associate isn't working out.

Would you mind sharing more about your experience? I'm in an ECEB group where I do a bit of deal work, but it's mostly institutional clients, but I'm lateraling to another firm in a few weeks where I'm (almost certainly) doing more deal work. Obviously firms will vary, but I'm curious what your overall experience has looked like.

Sure! I've been at two AmLaw 100s (but not a V5 or anything), in non-NYC markets. So if you're going to a V10 in NYC then I imagine you might have a different experience. I did about 30% deal work at my first firm and 70% counseling work, and have swapped that at my second firm. I enjoy doing more of the deal work because with the types of deals we do I get to work on a really wide range of issues, and I didn't want to get pushed into becoming a qualified plans specialist or a Title 1 specialist or have that kind of narrow focus. I also think that it's really very difficult these days as an ECEB lawyer to build the type of client portfolio that you can make equity partner with in Big Law (unless you get incredibly lucky or someone retires and leaves you their clients, and the partners in my group are young enough that I'm unlikely to benefit from that), but the M&A team always needs ECEB help and they have the clients, and if you're going to be a service partner at least do it with a steady stream of work you don't have to constantly be hustling for. The partners I have worked for have been almost universally great, even the assholes have really only been assholes compared to other ECEB partners. The good news is that from what I've seen it's pretty easy to lateral as an ECEB associate, so if your new firm doesn't treat you well or you don't like the people, don't be afraid to find a place that suits you better. Hopefully that helps - good luck with your new job!

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Thanks, all.

Sounds like it could be a chill gig where I do the same thing over and over.

Seems problematic that I have no idea what a "rep" or "schedule" is. Where can I learn these basic terms?