Corporate Law--"Collectively, the statutes,
rules, regulations, and legal doctrines relating to the ways in which
corporations operate.”
-Black’s
Law Dictionary
The second of the practice area
round tables I attended was about corporate law. Just to let you know, the practice areas I’ll
be focusing are all on areas of law that I’m interested in but if you have
interest in any other areas, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
Corporate law seems to be one of the
more villainized areas of law, one which focuses on securing money for big
corporations. But there are a lot of
different areas related to corporate law, such as securities regulation, intellectual
property, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), bond regulation, commercial contracts,
financing, and many others. There’s a
lot to corporate law and it’s not all related to just big corporations.
There are two traditional avenues
for corporate law work: in-house counsel
and law firm work. The in-house counsel
positions work inside of a company and focuses solely on matters related to
that corporation. In a small company,
there is more flexibility with the work that an in-house counsel does every
day. Comparatively, in a large company,
there is a more regulated and structured role for a counsel to play as likely
there are multiple counsels hired in-house.
Most of this work in house focuses on compliance with various regulatory
agencies and even real estate. When it
comes to working on highly significant matters for the corporation, in-house
counsel consults with outside counsel to help them solve problems. However, if you take the bar in another state
and want to practice in-house in a different state, you have to apply for your
in-house license but there’s no other exam required for that.
In that regard, another method of working
in corporate law settings is to work in a law firm as outside counsel. These type of attorneys typically work with
multiple different clients during the course of a day on many different matters
throughout their days. One thing that
stands out as the major difference between these two lines of work is outside
counsel, and any lawyer in a law firm setting, has to log their time in six
minute increments in order to bill their clients. This requires being diligent in recording
what you do every day for each client that you are in charge of. Another difference with outside counsel is
that obtaining clients is a large part of your job, where in working in-house
counsel, you always have a client as they are the one employing you, not a law
firm.
To do well in this type of law and
many others, it is helpful to take practical writing classes, such as contract
drafting. This gives you the opportunity
to learn how to be a practicing attorney without actually learning on the
job. Knowing these types of skills can
give you a leg up on other people vying for the same job. Additionally, seeking out different
organizations to see how their board meetings are run or what goes on in one is
a great experience for a future attorney to see if this type of law is for you.
So, that’s about it for my
discussion of corporate law. I have my Torts midterm this week so wish me luck
and good luck to any of you studying for midterms or even just starting to work
on outlining!
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