How transferable is secured lending experience to EC/VC work? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 6th year doing mostly lender-side secured lending work. I'm looking to broaden out my practice to more general corporate work, and think EC/VC might be a good fit. Would this be an easy switch (from the perspective of a lateral firm, I guess)?

[persia1921]

It’s a corporate practice so you have that going for you, and all corporate practices probably have more similarities than differences. That said, there will still be a learning curve with EC/VC work, but I’d imagine you could talk a firm into taking a chance on you (especially now given the demand). I’d expect any firm to ask you to take a rather substantial class year hit (probably 2 maybe even 3 years) since you are a 6th year already. Hard to swallow for sure, but you have to keep in mind that the Cooleys of the world often have associates running basic VC deals by the end of their 2nd year).

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 6th year doing mostly lender-side secured lending work. I'm looking to broaden out my practice to more general corporate work, and think EC/VC might be a good fit. Would this be an easy switch (from the perspective of a lateral firm, I guess)?

Current EC/VC midlevel at a top SV shop. It's definitely an adjustment and your prior experience will for the most part not be applicable. Very likely that wherever you're looking to lateral to asks you to take a haircut to being a 2nd/3rd year and you'll have to be mindful that that's around the time that firms basically ask associates of that level to be leading deals with only occasional partner supervision.

Every EC/VC practice right now is drowning in deals and they need bodies, so they'll definitely take a look at you, just have a good explanation for why you're okay with all of the aforementioned. If you don't mind making a throwaway account, happy to DM and chat more.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 6th year doing mostly lender-side secured lending work. I'm looking to broaden out my practice to more general corporate work, and think EC/VC might be a good fit. Would this be an easy switch (from the perspective of a lateral firm, I guess)?

Current EC/VC midlevel at a top SV shop. It's definitely an adjustment and your prior experience will for the most part not be applicable. Very likely that wherever you're looking to lateral to asks you to take a haircut to being a 2nd/3rd year and you'll have to be mindful that that's around the time that firms basically ask associates of that level to be leading deals with only occasional partner supervision.

Every EC/VC practice right now is drowning in deals and they need bodies, so they'll definitely take a look at you, just have a good explanation for why you're okay with all of the aforementioned. If you don't mind making a throwaway account, happy to DM and chat more.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but would an M&A or CM associate junior at a NY V10 also need to take a haircut to do EC/VC work at one of the SV firms?

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 6th year doing mostly lender-side secured lending work. I'm looking to broaden out my practice to more general corporate work, and think EC/VC might be a good fit. Would this be an easy switch (from the perspective of a lateral firm, I guess)?

Current EC/VC midlevel at a top SV shop. It's definitely an adjustment and your prior experience will for the most part not be applicable. Very likely that wherever you're looking to lateral to asks you to take a haircut to being a 2nd/3rd year and you'll have to be mindful that that's around the time that firms basically ask associates of that level to be leading deals with only occasional partner supervision.

Every EC/VC practice right now is drowning in deals and they need bodies, so they'll definitely take a look at you, just have a good explanation for why you're okay with all of the aforementioned. If you don't mind making a throwaway account, happy to DM and chat more.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but would an M&A or CM associate junior at a NY V10 also need to take a haircut to do EC/VC work at one of the SV firms?

Different anon but also midlevel at top SV shop. If you were willing to mix in some M&A or CM, I doubt you'd take any cut. If you were trying to transition to do only EC/VC here, I would guess a -1 year cut depending on your year (but you may want the extra runway anyway to get up to speed in new area).

[ithrowds]

I'm a 6th year doing mostly lender-side secured lending work. I'm looking to broaden out my practice to more general corporate work, and think EC/VC might be a good fit. Would this be an easy switch (from the perspective of a lateral firm, I guess)?

Current EC/VC midlevel at a top SV shop. It's definitely an adjustment and your prior experience will for the most part not be applicable. Very likely that wherever you're looking to lateral to asks you to take a haircut to being a 2nd/3rd year and you'll have to be mindful that that's around the time that firms basically ask associates of that level to be leading deals with only occasional partner supervision.

Every EC/VC practice right now is drowning in deals and they need bodies, so they'll definitely take a look at you, just have a good explanation for why you're okay with all of the aforementioned. If you don't mind making a throwaway account, happy to DM and chat more.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but would an M&A or CM associate junior at a NY V10 also need to take a haircut to do EC/VC work at one of the SV firms?

Not necessarily, depends on seniority but I’ve seen a good number of people come in (w/ similar circumstances) without needing to take a class year. Feel free to DM if you want to chat.

[attorney589753]

I'm a 6th year doing mostly lender-side secured lending work. I'm looking to broaden out my practice to more general corporate work, and think EC/VC might be a good fit. Would this be an easy switch (from the perspective of a lateral firm, I guess)?

Current EC/VC midlevel at a top SV shop. It's definitely an adjustment and your prior experience will for the most part not be applicable. Very likely that wherever you're looking to lateral to asks you to take a haircut to being a 2nd/3rd year and you'll have to be mindful that that's around the time that firms basically ask associates of that level to be leading deals with only occasional partner supervision.

Every EC/VC practice right now is drowning in deals and they need bodies, so they'll definitely take a look at you, just have a good explanation for why you're okay with all of the aforementioned. If you don't mind making a throwaway account, happy to DM and chat more.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but would an M&A or CM associate junior at a NY V10 also need to take a haircut to do EC/VC work at one of the SV firms?

Not necessarily, depends on seniority but I’ve seen a good number of people come in (w/ similar circumstances) without needing to take a class year. Feel free to DM if you want to chat.

I agree with this. Depends also some on your long term goals. In this market, you can probably come over as an M&A junior without a year cut. Especially if first or second year, should be no problem; midlevel a bit more of a conversation. Also depends on whether you want to do "EC side M&A work" (such as focusing on sell side deals) — absolutely no class year cut needed then. The part where it gets more tricky is the amount of client contact and counseling skills a good EC/VC lawyer would have by ~4th-5th year, and if your goal was to be in a law firm longterm (like aiming for partner), taking the year cut to build up those skills at a reasonable billing rate might be logical.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 6th year doing mostly lender-side secured lending work. I'm looking to broaden out my practice to more general corporate work, and think EC/VC might be a good fit. Would this be an easy switch (from the perspective of a lateral firm, I guess)?

Current EC/VC midlevel at a top SV shop. It's definitely an adjustment and your prior experience will for the most part not be applicable. Very likely that wherever you're looking to lateral to asks you to take a haircut to being a 2nd/3rd year and you'll have to be mindful that that's around the time that firms basically ask associates of that level to be leading deals with only occasional partner supervision.

Every EC/VC practice right now is drowning in deals and they need bodies, so they'll definitely take a look at you, just have a good explanation for why you're okay with all of the aforementioned. If you don't mind making a throwaway account, happy to DM and chat more.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but would an M&A or CM associate junior at a NY V10 also need to take a haircut to do EC/VC work at one of the SV firms?

Different anon but also midlevel at top SV shop. If you were willing to mix in some M&A or CM, I doubt you'd take any cut. If you were trying to transition to do only EC/VC here, I would guess a -1 year cut depending on your year (but you may want the extra runway anyway to get up to speed in new area).

First EC/VC mid anon chiming in -- agree with the above. The earlier you lateral over, the better with respect to taking a class year cut, moreover. Unlikely a Y2/3 person gets asked to take a cut, especially coming from a V10, with the possibility increasing significantly as you get more senior since you simply won't have the general corporate reps on the EC/VC side.

The flip side is that most EC/VC shops will want you to be competent in at least one of M&A and/or cap markets such that when your clients get acquired (much more common) or start buying other companies/go public (less common but you'll definitely have clients that either get this far or you'll inherit them from somewhat who's departing), you can contribute on those deal teams even if you're not on the same level as a 100% M&A/CM person of equal seniority. So if you're that Y2/3 person lateralling over and you're not quite ready to lead a VC deal on your lonesome, you can be useful doing M&A/CM work until you take the reins as appropriate on EC/VC stuff.

[Anonymous User]

Made the switch in my fourth year. Came in as a third year. Transition was tough because I knew literally nothing useful (besides drafting skills). I think coming in as a third year is reasonable. I wouldn't come in any more senior.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know if any ECVC firms are offering signing bonuses? I’m a 4th year with very solid experience and looking to move firms for a variety of reasons.

[DiligentSage]

Anyone know if any ECVC firms are offering signing bonuses? I’m a 4th year with very solid experience and looking to move firms for a variety of reasons.

Mine definitely is. Feel free to DM me.

[Anonymous User]

M&A associate who lateraled to one of the tech firms (Cooley/WSGR/Fenwick/Gunderson) to do EC/VC as a 4th year. Also have some experience in leveraged finance from my junior associate day.

Lev fin is pretty niche and I don't think the substance of those deals is transferable at all. I think you'll get credit for knowing legalese in contract drafting and how to run process, but that's about it. M&A is closer since I've always though of VC financings like mini M&A deals, in that is a purchase of equity pursuant to an SPA with reps and warranties, disclosure schedules, etc. But there's a lot more in VC deals that just doesn't come up often in M&A like preferred stock and companies with complicated capital structures, shareholders agreements and understanding the relationships and competing interest of a lot of shareholders, registration rights, convertible notes , SAFEs etc. We also don't leverage specialists as much in ECVC; I've learned so much about options and equity incentive plans (I even "draft" them based on the firm's standard form), which I never touched when I was doing M&A.

I did not take a class cut. Caveat is that I did a three VC financings while I was an M&A associate so I wasn't starting from nothing, and haven't found it too difficult to pick up ECVC.

Also, not sure what its like at other firms, but "life cycle representation" means a lot of corporate associates at my current firm don't do just ECVC (and probably for the better because that would be so boring and repetitive). I'm currently about 50/50 private company and cap markets. Starting to do cap markets as a midlevel has been wild...

[Anonymous User]

I’m thinking about moving from litigation to ECVC work, but don’t know much about it. How much of ECVC work is advising/counseling start-ups on the legal issues they face v. papering VC funding deals?

[attorney589753]

I’m thinking about moving from litigation to ECVC work, but don’t know much about it. How much of ECVC work is advising/counseling start-ups on the legal issues they face v. papering VC funding deals?

It's not as sexy as it probably appears/sounds. If you're a junior, you are doing a lot of papering deals, lots of drafting board resolutions (usually pretty standard), running through diligence questions and inquiries, working on disclosure schedules, etc. Your standard corporate transactional practice.

However a few things made it appealing in my experience. First, by the time you are a midlevel, you may start to take on that advising / client point person role simply by virtue of working with tiny companies with 5 employees. Obviously you aren't getting the call from Robinhood's CEO, but some crappy startup? Partner doesn't want to take that call. That's for better and for worse (maybe you don't want to take that call either). Second, you might get lucky and build up a great relationship with a startup that does turn into something. Third, the CEOs/CFOs at startups, unless they are repeat founders, often need lots of guidance on business terms — "Should I be giving up a board seat in this financing round? Is that normal? Do I have to?". So this was in contrast to my experience doing some PE work where your client contact brought you the deal 99% completed and told you to just paper it; by the time I was mid-level I was actually giving substantive advice to folks at the initial stage of a transaction. Finally, note that there is a pretty big difference whether you are primarily on the EC or VC side (different associates have different preferences), early v late stage as well. Even as you become senior (or a partner) you are still going to be working on papering the VC deals, but it might be more of a "review these redlines, lob in some comments" rather than go put together the disclosure schedules, checklist, and initial drafts.

[Anonymous User]

I’m thinking about moving from litigation to ECVC work, but don’t know much about it. How much of ECVC work is advising/counseling start-ups on the legal issues they face v. papering VC funding deals?

It's not as sexy as it probably appears/sounds. If you're a junior, you are doing a lot of papering deals, lots of drafting board resolutions (usually pretty standard), running through diligence questions and inquiries, working on disclosure schedules, etc. Your standard corporate transactional practice.

However a few things made it appealing in my experience. First, by the time you are a midlevel, you may start to take on that advising / client point person role simply by virtue of working with tiny companies with 5 employees. Obviously you aren't getting the call from Robinhood's CEO, but some crappy startup? Partner doesn't want to take that call. That's for better and for worse (maybe you don't want to take that call either). Second, you might get lucky and build up a great relationship with a startup that does turn into something. Third, the CEOs/CFOs at startups, unless they are repeat founders, often need lots of guidance on business terms — "Should I be giving up a board seat in this financing round? Is that normal? Do I have to?". So this was in contrast to my experience doing some PE work where your client contact brought you the deal 99% completed and told you to just paper it; by the time I was mid-level I was actually giving substantive advice to folks at the initial stage of a transaction. Finally, note that there is a pretty big difference whether you are primarily on the EC or VC side (different associates have different preferences), early v late stage as well. Even as you become senior (or a partner) you are still going to be working on papering the VC deals, but it might be more of a "review these redlines, lob in some comments" rather than go put together the disclosure schedules, checklist, and initial drafts.

Very helpful, thank you!