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I am going to be starting at a firm in their capital markets group. I'm interested in being closer to the business in terms of helping them, especially in corporate and commercial matters and I have a particular interest in startups/venture capital where you can really help a business grow and where they actually rely on a lot of your expertise since they are new. And I just think it's exciting to be around that kind of energy. It just seems you are close to the business in helping them grow, their day-to-day matters, and the negotiations and drafting, etc. which is what I'm interested in. Anyways, I already feel as if my interests already diverge in that, I think a lot of capital markets work is very prescribed and business decisions have already been made, there are less negotiations and drafting, etc. And looking down the road in terms of exit opportunities, I'm more interested in the business side of things or at least being legal counsel assisting with corporate matters in a sort of general capacity versus assisting with securities compliance/regulations for an entity that frequently does capital markets transactions (or doing their form checks, etc.). I think at this current firm I will have the opportunity to work on venture capital transactions/financings but I'd have to fight for that work while doing the capital markets work that comes up (markets are hot right now) so there is a lot of work. There may be a few M&A transactions when a public company wants to buy a private company (perhaps?) and I think it's very rare, but there may be public M&A...Anyways, I assume that private M&A deal work plus the venture capital transactions would be more in my interests, especially since I think it links better to the exit opportunities that I have been eyeing.

So, my question is, knowing this about myself ...and now getting an insight into the fact that people don't last very long in at a big law firm...(I've seen people leave after 2 years), is it best for me to apply to other law firms to get more of that private M&A/private equity, etc. deal experience now? As in, the earlier I switch, the better? Or maybe try out this capital markets job for a year and see if I can switch into M&A or switch to another firm after that? Does starting off doing private M&A make you less marketable to public company in-house roles? Although, the general impression I get is that the exit opportunities for securities lawyers are more in compliance roles or doing form checks in-house, etc. which sounds like absolute torture. So I guess what I'm afraid of is...if I start to go down this path, then I'm wasting my time because the exit opportunities are ones that I'm not even interested in.

If you want to work with startups, and have the option to lateral from a firm that either doesn’t do a lot of that work or won’t give you easy access to it, and you’re able to go to a firm that does a lot of startup work (e.g. Fenwick, Cooley, Wilson, Gunderson, a few others) and they’d specifically let you do that kind of work, I would definitely make that move as soon as you can.

If you’re stuck where you are and it’s between CM and M&A, M&A is probably a better option for getting into venture/startup work, though both can be viable. When I was at a firm doing startup/VC work, they stressed that they want people who can be “five tool players” - meaning someone who can do the venture deals, can do the capital markets work when those startups are ready to go public, can do the M&A work when the startups are either being acquired or making an acquisition, can do the day to day contracts and issues that pop up, etc. So getting a background in CM or M&A will be helpful for doing venture/startup work down the road if you don’t have the chance now since you can develop one of those other tools, and later sell yourself to firms on that (this may vary somewhat by firm, however; Gunderson does a lot less CM work, for example). And M&A deal just look more like a VC deal than a CM offering does and has more of the cadence of an VC deal, while CM deals are more of their own beasts, so it’s a bit more of a natural transition from M&A deals to to VC deals than from CM offerings to VC deals.

M&A is also generally regarded as more versatile for going in-house and lets you pitch yourself as a transactional lawyer that a startup might be looking for, though there are CM jobs that might also get you where you want if you’re ok with a later stage company (for example, I was offered an in-house gig with a startup that was eying an IPO in the next ~18 months, in part because I had worked on IPOs of other companies in their industry while at my firm, and that role would have entailed doing their IPO and managing the ‘34 Act/Section 16 stuff going forward, but would also including general corporate and transactional work).