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r/LawSchool•
divesting

Does anyone have experience switching from litigation to transactions?

1st year Commercial/IP litigation associate at a small firm in a major market. I'd like to switch to transactions sooner than later (corporate/entertainment/IP transactions are all okay, not too picky). I've reviewed some agreements at my firm but nothing substantial.

I have an interview coming up with an entertainment litigation firm which might be translatable since there's a lot of breach of contract litigation. I've applied to some transaction firms last week but haven't heard anything.

Would love to hear the experiences of anyone who successfully made a similar switch and how they managed it. Would also love any insight as to whether it's okay to continue working in litigation for a year or two or whether I should stay put for a transaction position.

I'm networking pretty heavily with transactional attorneys and I do plan to start studying materials in my free time but I'm not sure how much of a substitute these things are for actual work experience.

Posted Aug 20, 2019, 8:30 PM UTC

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mameshibe•

I work in the IP/Tech Transactions group at a big law firm. Several of my colleagues had an IP litigation background before lateraling over, so definitely possible!

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divestingOPEsq.•

They all had big law backgrounds though right? It seems substantially easier to make the switch as a big law assoc.

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mameshibe•

Ah, yea I think most came from big law actually

I still don’t think it’s impossible (though many might disagree) if you have a connection at one of the firms you’re interested in and at least getting an interview.

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MyfunnynamewastakenJD+PhD•

Do they get to lateral at their class year?

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mozacareEsq.•

It's not easy to switch but I was actually in the exact same boat as you and I switched to corporate transactional from commerical/IP litigation. The one thing was that I knew I wanted to do transactional out of law school but coming out of a strong regional school and nowhere near the top 10% of my class I knew I was going to have to hustle to get my job.

Basically for a year I worked 3 jobs. I had gotten an externship my 3L spring semester at a solo entertainment/corporate transactional firm, he liked my work enough to keep me on as a junior attorney - 1099 status. Basically I would get about 10-15 hours (at most 30), of work a MONTH of transactional work. This was also bottom of the barrel bullshit work that he didn't want to do himself or contract out to his of-counsel or anything. This work was paid, but it paid nothing ($30/hr). I also, through networking, got the opportunity to work at a small studio which was in the process of trying to produce a series of netflix-like shows for asian markets. This was not paid, they had no money to actually do anything but I did the basic writers' agreements, IP issues, etc. This was all on top of my litigation job I was working at ~50 hours a week or so. Doing a combination of these three for a little over a year and I finally saw an opportunity for a corporate transactional firm doing securities work. I had to really sell myself as a hard worker, as I had no experience doing any securities work whatsoever. Luckily I landed the position.

From what you've said, I would look to make the switch ASAP. Once you get past your first couple years any transactional firm will be hesitant to give you a job offer because 1) you will be more expensive 2) you will need to be trained just as a fresh attorney would as you don't really have transactional experience. You may hear stories of litigators making the switch after 10 years experience, usually in-house as employment counsel. That is a path, but that means you have to do litigation for far too long than I would ever want to. As a first year you are more malleable, for lack of a better term, use this to your advantage and even if its a shit transactional position or whatever you need to take it. I view transactional opportunities as a very exclusive club, but once you're in you're there for life.

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sorasonlineClerk•

You may hear stories of litigators making the switch after 10 years experience, usually in-house as employment counsel. That is a path, but that means you have to do litigation for far too long than I would ever want to. As a first year you are more malleable, for lack of a better term, use this to your advantage and even if its a shit transactional position or whatever you need to take it. I view transactional opportunities as a very exclusive club, but once you're in you're there for life.

Worth noting for OP's sake that it's also easier for employment lit to jump to in-house employment counsel / transactional. Almost everything the litigation side deals with can be solved by better work on the in-house / transactional side, so they transfer in knowing what they should be doing. It's going to be harder in fields with less cross-over between their transactional/litigation sides.

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mozacareEsq.•

True but in my experience commercial lit comes with employment defense cases (in small portion) because you’ll be representing the company in a multitude of cases and then when management inevitably gets hit with some employment issue they’ll come to you, their normal counsel, as their attorneys.

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divestingOPEsq.•

Thanks a lot for the advice. I want to reach out to small transavctional firms too and will start doing so. Would you recommend pivoting to real estate transactions (the most common position I see) if the opportunity is available? A bit worried it might not necessarily be transferable as corporate -> securities is.

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mozacareEsq.•

If you can’t get any other transactional yes go to real estate transactional. But the problem is that area is a very specific and niche practice, and while transactional, it isn’t as translatable as other areas. Entertainment and corporate are very similar and intertwine much of the time.

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