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Corporate Lawyer

A Day in the life of a Corporate Lawyer

Corporate lawyers ensure the legality of commercial transactions. They must have a knowledge of statutory law and regulations passed by government agencies to help their clients achieve their goals within the bounds of the law. To structure a business transaction legally, a corporate lawyer may need to research aspects of contract law, tax law, accounting, securities law, bankruptcy, intellectual property rights, licensing, zoning laws, and other regulations relating to a specific area of business.

The lawyer must ensure that a transaction does not conflict with local, state, or federal laws. In contrast to the adversarial nature of trial law, corporate law is team-oriented. The corporate counsel for both sides of a transaction are not strict competitors; together they seek a common ground for their clients. They are, in the words of one lawyer, “the handmaidens of the deal.” Facilitating the business process requires insight into the clients needs, selective expertise, flexibility and most of all, a service mentality.

Corporate law requires an incisive mind and excellent communication skills, both written and oral. Through the negotiation process, lawyers constantly write and revise the legal documents which will bind the parties to certain terms for the transaction. This process is lengthy and typically corporate lawyers work extremely long hours.

As a deal moves towards its closing, it becomes an exercise in stamina as much as skillful negotiation. As one person observed, “The most important trait a lawyer can have is a leather-ass. You’ve got to be able to put your butt in a chair and do the work.” The upside to this profession is the compensation is good and you usually work with smart people. One corporate lawyer remarked that she liked this side of the law precisely because the transactions take place among peers: There is no wronged party, no underdog, and usually no inequity in the financial means of the participants.

Paying Your Dues
In law, the pressure starts early. Law school admission is extremely competitive-the top twenty-five schools have an admission rate of about 10%. You can get tracked early: The kind of school you attend affects what kind of summer job opportunities you may have, which in turn affects the kind of permanent job you secure. The starting salary and kind of experience you have as a corporate lawyer can vary greatly depending on the size of the firm and geographic location. In a smaller firm, you will have more responsibility and more client contact early on, but the salaries can be tens of thousands of dollars lower than in a large firm. The content of your practice will be different too: A small town lawyer may take care of a house closing, drafting a will and a divorce settlement in a day; big city lawyers can spend months negotiating one commercial transaction.

Associated Careers

If they decide not to pursue partnership in their firms, corporate lawyers often make use of their expertise as an in-house counsel for a corporation. Others go into a related business such as investment banking, and a few teach.


 

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