“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

-William Shakespeare, Henry VI Part 2, Act IV

Decided to kill your career in law and switch into banking? Want to be paid by the results instead of by the hour (and hopefully make one of those astronomical investment banking bonuses)?

The good news is that it’s fairly common for lawyers to switch into finance and investment banking specifically. There are a few paths you can take from law into finance:

1. Get an investment banking job immediately out of law school.
2. Work as an Associate at a law firm for several years and then lateral to an Associate position at a bank.
3. Go to business school after practicing for a few years and interview for banking jobs as you finish your MBA.

Method #1 sounds appealing but is difficult to pull off. Most banks do not recruit someone immediately out of law school because the candidate would be stuck somewhere between Analyst and Associate - more experience than someone fresh out of undergrad, but not as much as MBAs with 3-5 years of work experience.

If you had finance experience before law school, your chances of breaking in increase substantially. You just need to tell a good story about why you did law and are now switching back.

If you haven’t had relevant experience, it’s better to work for a few years and transition over from a related law field such as Securities or M&A. I would recommend option #3 above - going to business school after law school - only if you have worked in a completely unrelated law field for several years and decide you want to stop defending employees and start producing lots of PowerPoint.

Ok, I’ll Go Work - What Should I Do?

You need to do Corporate Law. People have asked me if it’s possible to Intellectual Property, Employment, Litigation, and a whole host of other law specialties and switch into investment banking.

It’s not. You need to do Corporate Law.

Repeat after me: You need to do Corporate Law. Here’s a direct quote from our bank’s recruiter when I asked her this very question:

“We look at lawyers for Associate positions… a few years working in Corporate Law and getting transaction experience is a good background. It’s tough if you have done something unrelated… there are too many other qualified candidates.”

It’s not impossible to get in from other fields of law. But recruiting is ultimately a numbers game, and coming from a Corporate/Securities/M&A Law background increases your odds greatly.

Banks view their profession - doing major deals with corporate clients - as the center of the universe, like how people in the Middle Ages thought Earth was the center of the universe. One step removed from the center are other professions that deal with transactions, like Corporate Law, Tax and Accounting. If you go beyond the Outer Rim you get to people who have “real jobs” at “real companies” - companies that sell products rather than professional services.

Your goal should be to get as close as possible to the center. Even if, just like the Earth in the Middle Ages, bankers are not in fact the center of the universe.

Once you have enough experience working on transactions (usually after 2-3 years), you can think about switching into finance. Contact all your friends in the industry and ask for referrals to headhunters. Also contact any clients you worked with on transactions and ask about setting up informational meetings or discussing opportunities at their firms.

It’s best to target the industries and types of clients you worked with. So if you did Securities Law for financial institutions, focus on the Financial Institutions Groups (FIG) at banks. If you drafted purchase agreements in M&A deals for the energy industry, focus your attention on Energy groups and M&A teams at banks. And if you ever worked with UBS LA, stay far, far away.

A final tip: if you’re making a career change, it will likely be easier to get into a boutique investment bank rather than a bulge bracket, especially if you haven’t worked on high-profile transactions before.

I Have Some Leads, Now How Do I Sell?

Coming from a Corporate Law background, no one will doubt that you have the stamina to do banking. And you’ll be well on your way to truly understanding investment banking. You’ll have to prove 2 points: 1) you have the quantitative and finance skills to do the job and 2) you’re actually willing to make a big career change after 5-6 years of commitment to law.

In my guide to getting investment banking jobs, I wrote “don’t worry about the finance questions.” If you’re a lawyer getting into finance, you should do the opposite and pretend those finance questions are nuclear-tipped missiles headed directly toward you.

You should know the 3 financial statements cold. Be able to explain models and valuation methods because they will GRILL you on this. This is especially the case if you were an English major before law school and have no quantitative/finance experience (unlike the engineer breaking into finance). You should know Money Chimp like the back of your hand. Studying for a CFA course might not be a bad idea, and consider one of the finance training courses on WallStreetOasis. Make this an all-out effort to know everything about finance an incoming MBA Associate would be expected to know and you will succeed.

In some ways making the case for a career change is easier. Here’s how to frame your story:

“In law school I was always interested in the world of corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions. I took a lot of classes in the field and went to work in M&A at BIGLAW firm after graduation. I enjoyed the work at first but after a few years I was envious of the bankers on these deals. I understand both lifestyles are tough, but they actually got to see everything from beginning to end and could directly influence whether or not a company was sold. All I could do was sit on the sidelines and comment on specific issues in contracts and agreements. I want to be the dealmaker, or at least be close to the dealmaker, rather than just be the person drafting up legalese.”

And If All Else Fails

And if things don’t go as planned, you could always just go to Brazil and open your own surf shop, like this guy. (Kidding). In all seriousness, if you have any questions or comments email me or leave a comment below.

Coming up later this week: how to stay healthy with an investment banking job, and how to pick your investment banking team.

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Posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 7:00 am.