How is the real estate as practice area in t1 law firms ? Is it good for long term in regards to pay and a bit of work life balance? It would be great of you can elucidate on its pros and cons. And how is it compared to M & A ? Thanks in advance. 🙏

Real estate is booming, and will always be booming. M&A has very few deals happening every year and your experience is dependent on whether your Partner can pull in the clients and get his team on the deals. Expect better work life balance in real estate, long term and short term. The pay for both would be the same in a T-1 firm. I have seen real estate partners/senior partners and M&A partners/senior partners.

Is knowledge of local knowledge important in real estate practice?

Language*

Not at T-1 firms, or even real estate boutique firms. If there are any documents in local language, the firm/clients gets those translated so the lawyers never have to deal with the regional language version. No one would expect you to learn the language.

That was helpful, thanks!