"For better or worse, the world will always need more lawyers"

What are your job responsibilities?

My law firm is a "full service" law firm and one of New York's largest. The firm's clients are generally fortune 500 companies, and represents them in the context of litigation and corporate, or transactional, matters. I began in our head office in New York, but then moved to our branch office in Singapore and then to Hong Kong, where I now work. I practice exclusively corporate law, with a strong focus on international securities (or capital markets) transactions. I spend much of my time drafting and reviewing legal documents and negotiating with bankers and other lawyers.

How did you discover and obtain your current job?

During my second year of law school, many law firms came on campus to do interviews. I was offered a job as a "summer associate" at my firm, where I worked during the summer between my second and third year of law school. At the end of the summer, the firm offered me a full-time job following graduation. While interviewing skills are helpful, the firms tend to focus on your first-year grades, as they do not have much else to go on. The whole process was made fairly easy since the law firms do on-campus interviews at my school.

To get a job at one of the big New York firms, it helps to finish near the top of your law school class. The jobs are pretty competitive. If you are interested in working overseas, the big firms offer the most (and often the only) opportunities. There is no entry level experience required, per se, aside from passing the bar exam.

What advice would you give students interested in working in your field?

It is not always easy to determine whether the law is the best career for you. If you are considering it, you could always paralegal for a year or two to get a sense of the lifestyle. Alternatively, just speaking with lawyers would be helpful.

For better or worse, the world will always need more lawyers. The market for corporate lawyers is tied quite closely to the financial markets. When they're rising, the firms are hiring.

What are important characteristics of people who succeed in your career?

The hours can be very long (up to 100 hours a week, at times), so you have to be willing to sacrifice other pursuits and to spend less time with friends and family. The transactions on which you work have a life of their own, which means that it can be difficult to schedule dinners, weekends or holidays. The most useful skills include the ability to write clearly and the willingness to pay great (and often mindnumbing) attention to detail.

How can students best prepared themselves while still in college?

The real issue is getting into the best possible law school, since that greatly facilitates a move into the top firms. I do not think the choice of majors really matters--law schools (and firms) are after generally well-rounded people. If you want to practice something like patent law, though, then a grounding in the sciences would be helpful.

What are your future plans?

I have no definite plans to change jobs, and law firms tend to offer a fair degree of job security, but one never knows.