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I have around one year of experience in litigation, with my work primarily involving disputes and tax litigation. My internships during law school were also largely litigation-focused and were with Tier 2 firms rather than Tier 1 firms.
I am exploring the possibility of transitioning to a corporate team at a Tier 1 firm. However, my profile has a few obvious gaps:
- No Tier 1 internships.
- No direct transactional experience.
- Only limited academic exposure to corporate law during law school.
- No specialised corporate law certifications.
My main question is this:
Have you personally come across anyone who started their career in litigation and later successfully moved into a Tier 1 corporate team?
If yes, I would be grateful to know:
- At what stage of their career they made the switch.
- What helped them overcome the lack of corporate experience.
- Whether firms were willing to train them from scratch.
- Whether they first moved to a smaller corporate practice before joining a Tier 1 firm.
I would appreciate candid views on how realistic such a transition is in today's market and whether there are practical steps that can improve the chances of making it happen.
Thank you in advance for any insights.