Question to VC/PE lawyers Forum

[Inhousefuture]

Hello, to any lawyers that do PE/VC work, especially those who work in-house at Funds/VC Companies:

A. What do you like and dislike about the work?

b. How does the experience of PE/VC law at a firm differ from doing such law in-house?

c. Since, some of you may have seen the work that the Private Equity Investors/Venture Capitalists do, how do you feel about the legal work you do compared to the work they do? Which would you prefer?

Thanks

[Anonymous User]

Hello, to any lawyers that do PE/VC work, especially those who work in-house at Funds/VC Companies:

A. What do you like and dislike about the work?

b. How does the experience of PE/VC law at a firm differ from doing such law in-house?

c. Since, some of you may have seen the work that the Private Equity Investors/Venture Capitalists do, how do you feel about the legal work you do compared to the work they do? Which would you prefer?

Thanks

In-house VC mostly, but we also do some more traditional PE. I like that the deals themselves are interesting and working with companies on the ground level. Dislike that so many founders are idiots and have no corporate governance. Getting that in place (see FTX) is difficult, especially if you have no leverage. Would probably hate the work if I were an associate at a firm cause the docs are pretty much the same. The fun part is the negotiations and discussions.

I'd prefer being on the business side because they make 10x what I make haha and the partners make even more than that. But in-house legal is still pretty chill and pay is really good for in-house. Maybe in a few years I will switch to biz side if I can.

[Anonymous User]

PE and VC are very different animals…

[Inhousefuture]

Hello, to any lawyers that do PE/VC work, especially those who work in-house at Funds/VC Companies:

A. What do you like and dislike about the work?

b. How does the experience of PE/VC law at a firm differ from doing such law in-house?

c. Since, some of you may have seen the work that the Private Equity Investors/Venture Capitalists do, how do you feel about the legal work you do compared to the work they do? Which would you prefer?

Thanks

In-house VC mostly, but we also do some more traditional PE. I like that the deals themselves are interesting and working with companies on the ground level. Dislike that so many founders are idiots and have no corporate governance. Getting that in place (see FTX) is difficult, especially if you have no leverage. Would probably hate the work if I were an associate at a firm cause the docs are pretty much the same. The fun part is the negotiations and discussions.

I'd prefer being on the business side because they make 10x what I make haha and the partners make even more than that. But in-house legal is still pretty chill and pay is really good for in-house. Maybe in a few years I will switch to biz side if I can.

How hard was it is to get in-house? What is diversity like within your VC/PE organization? How do you like the actual intellectual work of legal advisory vs. investment decision making?

Thanks