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I'm currently an undergrad student on the pre-law track. Really interested in corporate law, particularly M&A. As of now, I don't want to pursue the traditional KJD route due to financial reasons, so I was thinking about working in finance for ~2 years to gain a better sense of the transactions I'll be working with in big law before applying.

Currently considering either consulting or IB. I enjoy the collaborative and creative work that consultants do, but I understand that I won't actually participate in the transactions so the role is more passive. I currently have some internship experience in IB, but I will be honest I'm not a huge fan of the extensive modeling as I prefer more qualitative work. However, I definitely gain a better sense of the M&A process and have heard it's extremely common for bankers to transition to lawyers.
Something else to consider is that I come from a non-target school for IB but have a decent amount of alums working at MBB, so realistically, my chance of breaking into consulting might be slightly higher than IB.

Would appreciate any advice/ suggestions on what to pursue!

I think you would get a much better understanding of what corporate lawyers do working in IB (either m&a, cap markets, etc.). But consulting might be better lifestyle wise.

I know a few former bankers who are now attorneys. I think it's just uncommon because many people do big law for the money, but if you start off in banking you're already doing well financially and don't have to spend three years without working to reach a similar salary.

Law schools/firms will probably view each career path the same way. There isn't really an advantage to doing one or the other in terms of future legal opportunities.