Quality of life as a trade lawyer? Potential lateral Forum

[Anonymous User]

I have an opportunity to lateral to join a trade group that seems to mainly do export control, CFIUS, and deal support, on top of general regulatory counseling.

How grinding are trade groups? Is the work life balance usually pretty good since it’s a specialty area? It seems like some people say that the quality of life is generally good outside of some CFIUS fire drills, but other people say that it’s a brutal area in big law with lots of late nights/early mornings.

Any insight would be much appreciated

[Anonymous User]

This is going to vary firm-to-firm. Here are some things to consider:

How deal heavy is the practice group? The more your work revolves around deals, the more you are on the schedule of a corporate attorney. Sometimes this means you have a very short timeline at inconvenient hours. You will get pulled into the middle of matters with little to no background and will be expected to get up to speed quickly. There is also a high likelihood that you will work many of these deals at once.

Where are your clients based? The more internationally-based clients you have, the worse your hours are going to be. The reality of dealing with international clients is that their office hours are different than yours and you are in a service business. I have found that it's easier on my schedule to work with European clients than with Asian clients, but I'm also based on the East Coast.

What are the expectations of the partners you work with? This will be very difficult to suss out without inside knowledge. Some are better at case and client management than others. Both of these will matter for your quality of life.

All-in-all, I think trade regulatory work with the right people and mix of work can offer a pretty good quality of life for a biglaw lawyer. With the wrong people and mix of work, it can be pretty crushing.

[Anonymous User]

I’ve only ever done this work at one firm, so take this with a grain of salt. But my experience is that CFIUS definitely can be a grind. It’s interesting and the nature of the work can be fun if you like the blend between national security and business considerations, but the fire drills are definitely a downside. No matter how hard your team tries to get responses filed before close of business on the day they’re due, there are so many other factors that can keep you up super late into the night or require your urgent attention with little notice. And you have no control over when a deadline will hit you. It’s a time-limited rush that can drop any time and with varying intensity, all at the whim of the review panel.

That said, in my experience it’s workable even if it’s fairly intrusive. And of course, some teams handle it differently than others. If the firm only staffs one associate on a CFIUS matter, there will be a lot more risk of being tied down for the deadline, even if that fire drill mostly entails waiting for client/counter-party approval. If the partner you work with is understanding and willing to step in if you’re unavailable, that’s also huge.

[Anonymous User]

shouldn't be bad. just try it.

[Anonymous User]

shouldn't be bad. just try it.