On a business card, nothing distinguishes an advisory lawyer from a litigator. In reality, their days have almost nothing in common. One drafts and negotiates so that the dispute never arises; the other builds an argument to win it once it has. Both practices draw on the same legal knowledge, but not the same reflexes, nor the same relationship with time and with the client.
The choice is often made by chance, through an internship or a first associate position. This article suggests making it with full knowledge of the facts: it describes the daily life of an associate in each practice, the profiles that thrive in them, the possible bridges and how to steer your internships and your CV.
Two jobs under the same title
Advisory work covers everything that precedes or avoids the judge: drafting contracts, corporate transactions, legal due diligence, legal opinions, structuring a deal, negotiating with the other side. Corporate, mergers and acquisitions, finance, tax, contractual intellectual property and “advisory-side” employment law largely fall within it.
Litigation starts once a dispute has arisen: writs, written submissions, oral pleadings, expert proceedings, summary proceedings, enforcement of judgments, arbitration. Commercial litigation, criminal law, family law, contentious public law and employment tribunal work fall within it.
The boundary is not watertight. An employment lawyer advises an employer on a restructuring, then defends the same company before the employment tribunal. A family lawyer negotiates a divorce by mutual consent before arguing a contested liquidation of the matrimonial regime. Small firms and general practices often do both. But in medium-sized and large business law firms, teams are generally separate, and an associate belongs to one or the other.
The Conseil national des barreaux guide on choosing a law school for lawyers 🔗 also notes that the firms that recruit the most trainee lawyers are structures with at least a few lawyers, an advisory practice and business clients: worth bearing in mind, without letting it decide for you.
The daily life of an advisory associate
A typical week for a junior advisory associate looks like this:
- drafting, a lot of drafting: draft contracts, purchase agreements, shareholders’ agreements, minutes, legal memos;
- back-and-forth on versions with the other party’s lawyers, handling comments, keeping tracking schedules;
- due diligence: reviewing contracts, articles of association, leases in a data room, and summarising the risks in a report;
- meetings and calls with the client and the other side, first as an observer, then speaking on technical points;
- peaks of activity tied to deal timetables: signing, closing, general meeting.
The rhythm is that of the project. A transaction can last a few weeks or several months, with very intense phases before signing. Success is measured by the quality of the final document and the absence of disputes afterwards, which makes the satisfaction more diffuse than a case won.
The pre-filled business lawyer CV shows what is expected of an advisory profile in corporate law.
The daily life of a litigation associate
In litigation, the week is organised around the procedural timetable:
- analysing a file: reading the documents, building a chronology, identifying the legal grounds;
- research: case law, legal writing, decisions of the lower courts;
- drafting pleadings: writs, written submissions, post-hearing notes, arbitration briefs, observations to the expert;
- hearings: first for adjournments and procedural hearings, then oral pleadings;
- managing deadlines, which is an obligation of result: a missed deadline can lose a case.
The rhythm is set by the deadlines fixed by the courts and by the opponent. There are fewer sleepless nights linked to a signing, but constant pressure on the quality of the argument and compliance with deadlines. The result is binary and visible: a decision, favourable or not.
The guide commercial litigation lawyer CV and the pre-filled litigation lawyer CV describe what a litigation partner looks for in an associate.
Qualities and profiles: where do you fit?
No test will tell you which practice suits you. A few honest questions help you find your place.
Do you prefer building or defending? Advisory work means building a contractual balance that lasts over time. Litigation means defending a position, sometimes a difficult one, against an opponent.
How do you handle confrontation? Negotiating a clause with a courteous colleague and arguing against a combative one before a judge do not call for the same temperament. Both require firmness, but litigation is more exposed.
Do you prefer detail or narrative? Advisory work demands extreme attention to the words of a contract and their consequences. Litigation also demands precision, but it also requires you to tell a convincing story from scattered facts.
What is your relationship with time? Advisory deals follow the timetable of the client and the markets. Litigation follows that of the procedure, more predictable but longer: a case can last several years.
What kind of relationship with the client? In advisory work, the client is often a general counsel or an executive who expects an operational solution. In litigation, the client expects a strategy and a result, and often experiences the dispute as an ordeal.
Switching practice along the way
The choice is not final, but it becomes more costly over the years.
- In the first two or three years, moving from advisory to litigation or the reverse is still common. Partners know that a junior learns fast, and a first experience in the other practice is often seen as an asset.
- Beyond that, the change usually happens within the same area of law: an employment lawyer moves from advisory work to employment tribunal litigation, a corporate lawyer joins a team handling shareholder disputes or post-acquisition claims.
- Some practices bridge the two: business litigation linked to transactions (warranty claims, earn-outs), arbitration, insolvency proceedings, compliance and internal investigations.
To succeed in such a move, you need to prepare it: get a few matters from the other practice in your current firm, take a training course, and state it clearly in your application. The article moving to another firm as a lawyer covers how to present such a turn.
Steering your internships and your CV
Internships are the best way to try both practices before choosing. A simple strategy for a student:
- During the master’s, one internship in each practice, ideally in firms of different sizes.
- At law school, a PPI that complements the final placement: a PPI in a legal department for those aiming at advisory work, in a court for those aiming at litigation, for example.
- For the final placement, the practice you want to work in as an associate, since that is often where the first offer is made.
The article internship interviews at law firms explains how to present these plans in an interview, and the guide on choosing your master 2 helps you build the path upstream.
On your CV, the practice you are aiming for must be clear from the profile line. Compare:
- Before: “Motivated trainee lawyer, interested in business law.”
- After: “Trainee lawyer, final placement in commercial litigation (drafting submissions, procedural hearings), seeking an associate position in business litigation.”
Your experience must then speak the language of the practice: pleadings and hearings in litigation, documents and transactions in advisory work. To put this vocabulary into shape quickly, the AvocatCV builder offers a structure suited to law firm applications and a PDF that screening software reads correctly, so that a fragile layout does not get your application discarded before anyone reads it.
Frequently asked questions
Can you do advisory work and litigation at the same time?
Yes, in general practices, small firms and certain areas (employment law, family law, real estate law). In medium-sized and large business law firms, teams are most often separate.
Is litigation harder to get into as a beginner?
Not necessarily. Litigation firms recruit juniors for research and drafting pleadings. They mainly look at the quality of writing and rigour on procedure.
Is oral advocacy essential in litigation?
It remains important, but written work dominates in many proceedings. A junior associate drafts much more than they plead, especially in the first years.
Does advisory work pay better than litigation?
Associate remuneration depends mainly on the firm, the bar and seniority, rather than on the practice. Differences have more to do with the firm’s size and clients than with the choice between advisory work and litigation.