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Lit at its worst (trial) is worse than M&A at its worst (closing). But you get the worst of M&A more often. They both suck because it’s biglaw. Lit people underestimate how many all-nighters M&A pulls (although it’s often just waiting for stuff). M&A people overestimate how much of a lit “schedule” is known in advance (although it does provide a BIT of extra structure on some matters). Don’t do BL if you want to maintain WLB.
Yep fair point A6, I should have said “sometimes,” not “often.”
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M&A
M&A is more consistently bad and unpredictable.
Coach
This is all going to be a matter of perspective, but personally I would say litigation due to the travel schedule. M&A is demanding but easier to do the work from anywhere and budget your time to allow for meaningful presence with your family.
Does your group skew towards exposure to lit teams who actually litigate? Most teams don't go to trial. The travel piece may be different (I know a couple guys who've had to travel pretty frequently), but they're in a very small minority. Biglaw is tough, but general consensus is lit is far more tolerable than most corporate groups let alone M&A, so your comment here is interesting.
It’s weird you have this choice. But assuming your a first year, and having been in big law while - M&A is generally more frequently a mess. Lit is a mess at trial time. But I don’t know a ton of big law litigators who do a ton of trials, but it happens. But lit can travel more.
So strange the amount of differing opinions here. As someone who has done both, and the majority of practice in Litigation, Litigation is way worse. I don’t know how anyone thinks Litigation is predictable at all. I can never predict when opposing counsel is going to file a motion on me or serve discovery or subpoenas. Most cases end up with 3-4 amended scheduling orders, so you can’t reliably plan on any of those dates. Hearings get randomly scheduled based on the Court’s availability - which you cannot predict. We almost never go to trial, but I’ve never had a trial stick to schedule. I’ve canceled vacations because of oral arguments or trial that gets scheduled- only to have those things rescheduled. Inevitably whenever I try to plan something, a case blows up or something happens that requires immediate attention/responses.
Last year, I finally took my first non-working (5-day vacation) in 5 years. My experience is that Litigation is unpredictable for life, requires long hours, and a lot of last minute work that makes plans difficult to impossible to keep. On top of that, constantly dealing with difficult, confrontational, and sometimes obnoxious opposing counsel on a regular basis adds an element of toxicity to every day. But because of the true lack of predictability in life (and lack of being able to take true vacations and rest) I’ve moved over to Corporate and it’s much better. You might have last minute things or deal closing deadlines that create urgency, but it’s way more tolerable than Litigation. And because everyone wants to get a deal done, opposing counsel is generally friendly and looking to work together to get it done. So that’s a plus. Just my opinion.
There’s nothing strange at all about differing opinions. M&a people will tend to say M&A. Lit people will tend to say lit.
Having done both, but admittedly not yet gone to trial, I’d say M&A given unpredictably. Lit is at least a bit more predictable.
Subject Expert
Litigation, if you go to trial often