Investment banking Lawyers

Hey everyone!

I have recently discovered that some investment banks have their own in-house legal team/department and wanted to know what that would entail for the lawyers, average salary etc.

I'd probably aim for a TC at an actual law firm tbh. The training you'll get working as in-house counsel is nowhere near as substantial nor diverse as one you would get at a leading law firm. At a law firm, you'll have the chance to sample different practice areas, different cases and maybe even completely different surroundings (via an international secondment or a secondment to a different company) as compared to the singular experience you'll have in house. If you did want to move in-house, I'd recommend doing it once you become qualified.

As for work, it'll be the typical compliance stuff, making sure the contracts traders/salespeople enter into are lawful etc. There's also looking after the contracts for structured finance offerings, i.e. ensuring all the terms are correct, that the bank isn't facing any immediate litigation risk, that sort of thing. When outside counsel is called in, you'll be the one negotiating fees and terms with them too.

I can't quote numbers for the in-house guys, but they are effectively back office so expect bonuses/salaries to be significantly less than what the IBD/S&T guys are pulling in.

Out of interest, why don't you want to pursue actual banking/trading/structuring roles?

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Sorry for not being clear, its regarding work experience in an investment bank but as an in-house lawyer. I've had experience at law firms as well but I want to widen experience so i have an understanding of my options once law school is finished.

Ok, I don't think a lot of banks have work experience schemes specifically for in-house counsel. Barclay's have a spring week in the legal department, but I haven't heard of other banks that do it.

As for internships, it's most likely the same story.

What 'work experience' are actually looking for? And, why aren't you considering actual investment banking/trading etc?

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In house legal tend to be more experienced. I.e. Worked in a top law firm for 5-6 years and decided they wanted an easier life (9-5 in a bank as a lawyer). Compliance are hired from grad sometimes but tend to be worse paid and the job looks incredibly dull. Go join a top law firm and you can be seconded to a IB for 6-12 months quite easily after you've done your 2 years training.

It probably depends which part of the bank your legal supports.
From what I've seen our in-house legal team I deal with tend to **** off home between 5 and 6.
My main interaction with them is mainly getting NDA or any other contract reviewed and making sure we don't accept any stupid clauses and everything is in line with what the company allows us.
I'm sure they also do other things though.
One thing that surprised me was that not all of them studied law...
My bank also does legal placements, but only for sandwich courses (ie 1 year placements). At least in my division

They're summer internships with SEO London's partner firms (which include quite a few banks). They're in the compliance department as well, I'm guessing its very similar to the legal? also, would you go to law school after your degree? and there are many reasons as to why I am not considering trading but thats another essay haha

You answered some of my queries before I even asked haha. That makes a lot of sense and thank you! Do you know if the work in compliance is more or less the same as the legal department? because i was wondering why they'd want the lawyers to have more experience over the compliance team? I'm also guessing that for both law school is required?

Ah, yeah, SEO is good. Compliance isn't really that much to do with what the legal team do (although there is some overlap), it's a separate division entirely.

Nah, in the UK you either: a) do a law degree, then a one year legal practice course (to teach you the practicial skulls required to go into the field), then you embark on a 2 year training contract at either a law firm or an in-house legal team. b) do a non-law degree, then undergo a one year graduate diploma in law (GDL), and another year for the legal practice course (LPC).

Honestly, after doing a placement at Clifford Chance, I'm definitely considering at least a training contract there (or a firm of a similar stature) but ideally, I'd prefer banking/consulting.

Go for it! I want to hear said these reasons. You can PM me them if you want.

Compliance is not law.

You don't need a law degree to do compliance, a grad from any discipline can get a job in Compliance. As Jim said, it's not the most interesting of divisions.

That explains a lot as quite a few banks don't have in house legal teams but compliance teams instead so I was quite confused. I guess they just have external law firms who deal with the legal aspect.

You hit the nail on the head!!! A lot of big banks use the MC/US law firms to do most of the legal work.

That makes sense, im still keeping my options open as law is uber competitive and im one of the weakest links lol

not the best of attitudes to have. only you decide your relative worth

Only if the world was like that... unfortunately its not though.

lol keep that attitide up