I recently started my first in house job as M&A counsel at a private company. 4YOE, previously in big law. I’m quickly realizing that I need a crash course on finance (IRR and various metrics, decay, amortization, etc. etc.). I’m expected to participate in corp dev and strategy meetings but don’t have the vocab. Any suggestions for quick ways to get up to speed?

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Honestly, just have a long chat with an LLM and ask them to explain stuff to you like your in elementary school. You can pick up most of this on the job for sure (I have no finance background and basically just learned it all on the job — similar role supporting corp dev + unique fintech business — so lots to learn)

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My mind quickly glazed from reading that lol

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Imagine how it feels having to sit through those meetings…

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Treat it like your early days in Biglaw. Write down everything you don’t understand and research it afterwards (investopedia is a good first-stop resource for terminology). Also ask if they have diligence memos, CIMs and advisor reports from old deals for you to dig into

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I became a lawyer to avoid learning that crap. I just understand non gaap rules and thats all I really need as securities counsel

If you have access to PLI, their pocket MBA course is really useful. I think it’s like a days worth of content but they hit all the big ticket items in a way that is easy to understand.

Fire up Opus 4.6 and get to mfing work

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