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I wouldn’t say it’s terrible but it’s not as strong an entry point as people may claim.
Coach
tell that to the associate who keeps spamming the in house bowl about his allegedly cool m/a in house role
Coach
yeah. something tells me he is unemployed, at most got laid off from biglaw and mad that he cant get hired in house.
I agree it’s been difficult… although I thought the conventional wisdom is that you could sort of do anything you wanted to. I think a lot of people I know exited to M&A related in house roles after leaving so it really does seem to be fairly limited to M&A (or that is the easier path).
In my experience, non-M&A in house folks turn to outside counsel for M&A and generally leave a lot on the table. Their OC doesn't really advise on strategy they just execute what they're told. On a $50 mil, usually you can get an extra 5 or 10 mil on buy side. But an M&A guy leaves some stuff on the table in ip, employment etc also, it's just lower magnitude.
None of this really matters bc most companies don't do much m&a but in the ones that do it can be significant. But also not a big deal because, basically, they're profitable, just not as profitable as possible.
M&A in house also just sucks. Why go in house to work terrible hours for less pay and less prestige? You’re better off going into tech trans, product, privacy, etc. - the work is more interesting, you’re usually paid the same as the M&A counsel would be (at least in my industry), and your WLB will be way better.
Coach
m/a typically does not involve the same type of cutting edge legal work that involves disruptive technology like AI, not only AI being used for enterprise software, but also for AI being used in robotics or biometrics. these type of legal issues do not necessarily hit the m:a deal desk. plus m/a work is alot more sophisticated at a large firm but such is not necessarily the case for privacy, ai or tech trans
An in house exit from biglaw M&A doesn’t need to be limited to being M&A in house counsel. Lots of skills are transferable and you can be AGC/GC at a PE shop, family office, investment management company, etc. Or a legal dept at a larger company