Funds Lawyer -- Biglaw to In-house 2015 grad AMA Forum

[Anonymous User]

This forum was extremely helpful to me during law schools apps and OCI, so I thought it would be appropriate to give back by answering questions on the life of a fairly junior in-house funds lawyer.

tl/dr:

2015 grad
major market
Biglaw for 3 years, in house one year at PE firm

Yes, hours are much better.

[miskellyjohnson]

How much more are you getting paid now that you are in house?

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for doing this AMA. Is your major market NYC or nah?

[JHP]

How did you make the transition? (Were you recruited, headhunter, you were actively looking, etc.)
Do you see upward trajectory in your current position/do you see yourself staying at your firm for the foreseeable future?
What prompted you to consider and subsequently decide to move in-house to a PE firm?

[Anonymous User]

How much more are you getting paid now that you are in house?

I assume this question was meant to ask how much less I am getting paid. I took a significant haircut but had repaid all debt at that point. I negotiated higher base for slightly lower overall comp. Sitting around $180k all in. No carry but will be eligible if i stay long enough.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for doing this AMA. Is your major market NYC or nah?

nah

[Anonymous User]

How did you make the transition? (Were you recruited, headhunter, you were actively looking, etc.)
Do you see upward trajectory in your current position/do you see yourself staying at your firm for the foreseeable future?
What prompted you to consider and subsequently decide to move in-house to a PE firm?

I was not actively looking. I was made aware of the position opening by a headhunter and decided to give it a whirl.

Upward trajectory definitely a thing. Doubtful I'd ever make GC, but wouldn't want it anyway. Titles are a bit odd at this shop but you are eligible for performance based raises every year that are not insubstantial (think 7-10% ish). The only thing that would make me move on at this point is if I need to change geographic location (wife also works). Wife mentions I seem noticeably happier. Still answer emails after going home for the day but its mostly to tell other people what to do (very little document drafting/review). So I can always handle from my phone.

As stated above, was not actively looking. Just happened upon the position and it made sense given my goals. If I were more concerned about being GC/really pushing my career forward, I probably would not have made the jump when I did.

[Anonymous User]

Any tips for what kind of experiences you think are helpful for a Funds lawyer to have before making the jump to in-house? And did you do mostly formation or the investment management/regulatory aspect as well?

[Anonymous User]

Do you just oversee outside counsel w/r/t fund formations or do you do a little bit of everything (i.e., cover the firm's transactions, etc.)? How big is the fund? How many in legal?

[almondjoy]

How much more are you getting paid now that you are in house?

I assume this question was meant to ask how much less I am getting paid. I took a significant haircut but had repaid all debt at that point. I negotiated higher base for slightly lower overall comp. Sitting around $180k all in. No carry but will be eligible if i stay long enough.

Probably a reference to this thread where people claimed it was common to get a pay raise by going in house
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=301112

[Anonymous User]

Any tips for what kind of experiences you think are helpful for a Funds lawyer to have before making the jump to in-house? And did you do mostly formation or the investment management/regulatory aspect as well?

I mostly do formation, but am involved with credit facility and regulatory work as well. The regulatory work consists mainly of international marketing laws and the AIFMD scheme. We occasionally raise ERISA funds, so I dabble in the basics of that as well. What I am not involved in is the deal work (we have a separate team for fund investments).

I think running point on larger funds while in biglaw is a necessary experience before going in-house. This allows you to get the full picture of all the moving pieces. It would be a fairly steep learning curve to be trying to manage outside counsel if you don't have an idea what it is they require to get stuff done on their end. Another thing is the fee structure--its something that I didn't focus on a whole lot in biglaw because its often simply handed to you by the PE fund. I simply plugged it in to the LPA/PPM, checked for any obvious inconsistency and moved on. It is obviously imperative for in-house lawyers to understand exactly how waterfalls work because its all the business people care about.

[Anonymous User]

Do you just oversee outside counsel w/r/t fund formations or do you do a little bit of everything (i.e., cover the firm's transactions, etc.)? How big is the fund? How many in legal?

See above. Outside counsel handles the drafting, I review. My primary purpose is to liaise with the business people on key issues in the documentation like indebtedness limitations. That said, I do get into the weeds on some ancillary things like LP transfers/re-registrations within our funds. One thing I should mention is that I often have to chase people both internally and externally for things that you don't worry about at a firm. For example, the establishment of bank accounts for funds in certain jurisdictions can be a massive pain and requires constant babysitting. Although we have a separate finance team who is supposed to handle that stuff, I often have to push it along and field questions.

Fund is in the top 100 worldwide in assets under management, but not a megafund. Our typical fundraises are between 500 million and 1.5 billion depending on strategy.

10 ish lawyers at the firm, though the fund formation team consists of only 3 (the others are specialized in tax, fund investments, ERISA, vendor contract stuff, etc).

[LAguy213323310]

Would it be too much to ask you a, fairly basic so forgive my ignorance, substantive question about fund work in general? I am a junior corporate lawyer at a boutique, but I am interested in this type of work and have not been able to find any secondary sources to answer my question.

Feel free to DM.

Thanks!

[Anonymous User]

Would it be too much to ask you a, fairly basic so forgive my ignorance, substantive question about fund work in general? I am a junior corporate lawyer at a boutique, but I am interested in this type of work and have not been able to find any secondary sources to answer my question.

Feel free to DM.

Thanks!

PM sent

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for doing this! As context for the below, I am a junior in a funds group who did not do a lot of fund work my first year, so feeling a little behind and also like I may not love this practice area.

How did you learn about the fund formation process? Any books/articles/etc?
Anything you would want your outside counsel to do to make your life easier?
What do you enjoy about funds?
I know you said you weren't looking, but do you think funds limits your in-house opportunities?

Thanks again!

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for doing this! As context for the below, I am a junior in a funds group who did not do a lot of fund work my first year, so feeling a little behind and also like I may not love this practice area.

How did you learn about the fund formation process? Any books/articles/etc?
Anything you would want your outside counsel to do to make your life easier?
What do you enjoy about funds?
I know you said you weren't looking, but do you think funds limits your in-house opportunities?

Thanks again!

Fund formation isn't all that intuitive. No exposure in law school, and given that "normal" people can't participate, its not a topic that gets a ton of coverage outside the industry (in terms of the mechanics--there are plenty of articles about PE in general). You learn by doing and reading the documents. Look at PPMs. They are written in a way that makes it clear in plain english what the funds strategy is, who gets what rights, what the GP can do, etc. There is one article I can think of offhand that discusses structuring for tax purposes, maybe a Debevoise publication, which can be useful to know.

Outside counsel being organized and confident is most important. I want them to run the fundraise--not ask me questions constantly. The draft documents I get shouldn't have a ton of footnotes saying [please confirm]. I am looking at the redline--if I don't wan't a change made I will let you know. Only specifically ask for input on things that you either cannot or should not be in a position to make judgment calls on.

I like funds because I'm interested in the way in which they affect the market and finance in general. I also like funds because it tends to be lower stress (in-house). You have a bit more predictability and can avoid fire drills. At firms funds work can suck because often you get hit with a ton of sub docs near closing and are rushing to crank paperwork back out. Keeping track of side letters and other things is boring. It's generally monotonous because the major decisions/interesting calls are being made in house or above your head at partner level and you are just the implementation monkey (not to say this isn't true in other practice areas--it is).

Funds can definitely limit in-house opportunities. Its a hard sell to go anywhere doing general corporate/contract work (even though I look at tons of service agreements as a funds lawyer). That said, if you are okay with going to a PE shop or a bank, or perhaps even a larger institutional investor, you will get a look. Its a niche practice area but there is demand for it.

Avoid funds if you don't want to be in the PE or hedge fund industry in some shape or form.

[Anonymous User]

What was your practice area at your previous biglaw firm? I am very interested in moving in house to a fund, and was wondering what practice areas might give you the most advantage when making the move (I'm a summer, but want to start planning). Thanks very much.

[bwh8813]

What was your practice area at your previous biglaw firm? I am very interested in moving in house to a fund, and was wondering what practice areas might give you the most advantage when making the move (I'm a summer, but want to start planning). Thanks very much.

Since OP identified him/herself as a Funds lawyer, I assumed s/he came from a Big Law firm with a separate Private Funds/Fund Formation practice. Some firms have a separate Funds practice and some have it under the corporate umbrella where attorneys do other things as well. Other practice areas to ultimately head in-house to a fund include tax and PE M&A in addition to some other corporate sub-practices.

[Anonymous User]

What was your practice area at your previous biglaw firm? I am very interested in moving in house to a fund, and was wondering what practice areas might give you the most advantage when making the move (I'm a summer, but want to start planning). Thanks very much.

Since OP identified him/herself as a Funds lawyer, I assumed s/he came from a Big Law firm with a separate Private Funds/Fund Formation practice. Some firms have a separate Funds practice and some have it under the corporate umbrella where attorneys do other things as well. Other practice areas to ultimately head in-house to a fund include tax and PE M&A in addition to some other corporate sub-practices.

OP here. Yes, I was in a funds group. Technically part of corporate, and I did a larger variety of things my first year before doubling down on funds.

[dalas]

thank you so much for doing this. could i pm you?

[Anonymous User]

thank you so much for doing this. could i pm you?

PM sent

[synergy]

OP, if you're still around I would much appreciate a PM.

[Anonymous User]

I see people say that they ignore recruiter emails. Are people worried that their firm will find out they're looking elsewhere? Or do you only get a limited number of chances with specific recruiters, so people want to "save" them?