|
Seeking Sharp Minds, Clenched Jaws: Finance Careers Now Luring Lawyers
March 3, 2005
Elizabeth Johns, Managing Director, Communications,
Financial employers looking for talent may do well to consider the skill sets of lawyers, many of whom are looking for jobs in new fields.
Harvard Law School estimates that 20% to 30% of active attorneys are contemplating career moves, according to a report in Careerjournal.com. Evidently enough of them are interested in the finance profession to have triggered “The Harvard Law School Guide to Careers in Finance.”
What lawyers see in corporate finance careers is the potential for more responsibility than comparable law firm associates have, through daily activities that are exciting and varried. At the same time, compensation in investment banking is equal to if not higher than compensation at law firms, especially with bonus packages, according to Georgetown Law’s center.
What investment bankers see in lawyers is good reasoning, problem-solving and analytical skill.
When lawyers want to break into finance, career counselor Hillary Mantis, author of Alternative Careers for Lawyers, published by Impact Publications, knows of several points of entry. Writing in a recent article for FindLaw.com, Mantis says that lawyers she knows who have been hired by investment banks go right into the firm’s training program along with recent business school graduates; others she knows have taken business development posts. To secure these positions, Mantis advises lawyers to emphasize on their resumes the corporate work they have done or even the corporate law courses they have taken.
Making the Transition, Handling Risk
Once hired into a finance position, the transition isn’t always easy.
There’s a learning curve in corporate finance, where former lawyers must shed the tendency to speak in legalese as they acquire negotiating skills, often partnering with an experienced dealmaker. In a Washington Post article today entitled “Lapsed Lawyers Find a Good Fit With Finance,” columnist Steve Pearlstein says “it takes about a year of sitting in as ‘second chair’ on deals to get the lawyers trained on the finer points of finance and wring out the lawyerly instinct to list all the options without actually choosing one."
Pearlstein says that while a sharp legal mind is attractive in business, a risk-adverse temperament isn’t.
Today’s highly regulated and globalized business environment is fraught with risks that finance professionals must identify and manage, ranging from financial to operational and everything in between (see www.AFPonline.org/risk). Lawyers who go into finance can no longer be observers but must help manage risk. In fact, Peter Copestake, Chairman of AFP of Canada and SVP and Treasurer of Manulife Financial Corp., recently told AFP that indeed managing operational risk is becoming a core business responsibility of every manager --period.
At the higher levels of finance, there’s a correspondingly high degree of personal risk. Not only are directors and officers subject to scrutiny under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but they are exposed to much greater risk personally in their careers. That’s because people who make it to the Director and Managing Director levels are judged on their ability to generate revenue for the company. According to the Web site “Careers in Finance,” at this level, people are easily fired for non-performance. Lawyers who aren’t willing to put themselves on the line wouldn’t make it in this environment.
Despite the question of whether lawyers can clench their jaws and deal with risks in finance, the financial community has a true interest in lawyers whose training prepares them for crafting deals and schmoozing clients.
And any associate who has pulled an all-nighter will tell you there’s another important skill that lawyers bring to the table: the ability to plug away and get things done.
Elizabeth Johns is AFP's managing director of communications. For other financial career articles, join the distribution list for AFP's Futures in Finance newsletter at www.AFPonline.org/futuresinfinance.
Copyright © 2005 Association for Financial Professionals. All Rights Reserved.
|
Add to del.icio.us
Add to Facebook