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Has anyone here, or anyone here know someone who successfully made the jump over? What background did they have, what qualifications did they possess, and how did they present their reasoning for leaving biglaw for PE?

Thanks.

BigLaw to in-house counsel at a PE firm? Or BigLaw to a business role at a PE firm? I'm just a law student, but if you mean the latter, considering how hard it is to move from BigLaw to a business role in iBanking, I imagine it's even harder (read: nearly impossible) to move from BigLaw to a business role in PE. If you just mean in-house counsel, I doubt PE is unique in that regard.

It can be done, but if you're thinking "I'm going to law school with the ultimate intention of working in private equity" then almost everyone here is going to shoot you down. The odds are heavily stacked against you.

There's a post from someone who made the switch in this page: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/g ... quity-fund

Wait, are you just talking about going into private equity as a non-lawyer? Why the mother fuck would you go to law school if this is what you wanted to do all along?

You'll probably have to be a superstar at your firm first so good luck

TheoO wrote:It can be done, but if you're thinking "I'm going to law school with the ultimate intention of working in private equity" then almost everyone here is going to shoot you down. The odds are heavily stacked against you.

There's a post from someone who made the switch in this page: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/g ... quity-fund

First off, thanks for replying.

And Nope, not my ultimate goal, was just trying to see if it could be done provided someone wanted to do it.

In some ways, is it easier to transition into IB (or HF) if you have several year's experience at a a biglaw firm?

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Only a first year, but I work with a lot of PE clients on financing transactions.

If you mean transition into a business role, in my opinion, it wouldn't be a natural transition. Attorneys are not at all involved in the business side of the transaction on the financing deals. It's all on a need-to-know basis, and the attorneys need to know very little about the bigger picture. Numbers and ratios are given to us, and we plug them into the right spot in the documents. We do some legal due diligence, but it's usually very limited in scope. So, even as an attorney who works with PE clients frequently, you really don't know anything more than anyone else who doesn't work in PE.

If you mean transition in house, then it's obviously totally different. There, you have a lot of transferable skills and experience. Even more so if you are going in house with a firm client.