“Corporate” is one of the most used and least precise words in law firm vocabulary. It refers at once to the approval of a family SME’s annual accounts, the sale of a mid-sized company to an investment fund and the reorganisation of a listed group. Behind the same job title, an associate’s daily work can therefore be very different from one firm to another.
This article describes what corporate work covers in a law firm, the difference between small firms and large ones, an associate’s first year, the skills that count, possible career paths and the CV expected from a candidate.
What corporate work covers in a law firm
Corporate work, or company law in the broad sense, groups several families of matters.
Corporate housekeeping. The day-to-day life of companies: approval of accounts, general meetings and board meetings, amendments to articles of association, appointment and removal of officers, filings with the one-stop business formalities portal and the trade and companies register, beneficial ownership declarations. It is the foundation of the job, often entrusted to juniors.
Capital transactions. Capital increases and reductions, issues of securities, start-up fundraisings, free share awards, BSPCE (start-up stock option) plans.
Mergers and acquisitions. Buying and selling businesses: letters of intent, legal due diligence, share purchase agreements, warranty and indemnity packages, conditions precedent, closing.
Shareholders’ agreements and governance. Shareholders’ agreements, agreements between investors, approval and pre-emption clauses, allocation of powers.
Restructurings. Mergers, partial asset contributions, universal transfers of assets, group reorganisations, often working with tax teams.
Private equity and capital markets, in firms that practise them: leveraged buyouts, management packages, listed companies and disclosure obligations.
Corporate is an advisory practice: you draft, negotiate and structure, and rarely go to court. The article advisory or litigation describes what this changes day to day.
Small firms and large firms: two different jobs
In a small or medium-sized firm
A corporate associate there serves SMEs and mid-sized companies, often family-owned or regional. They do everything: corporate housekeeping for dozens of companies, sales of businesses and shares, shareholders’ agreements, small external growth deals, sometimes commercial law and shareholder disputes. They quickly have direct contact with their clients’ managers and accountants. It is an excellent school of autonomy.
In a large business law firm
Work is organised by team and by deal. The junior works on large matters, often cross-border, within a team with several levels. They do a lot of due diligence, tracking schedules, first drafts and closing management. Their relationship with the client goes first through the partner and senior associates. It is a school of rigour and technical skill, with very marked peaks of activity.
| | Small or medium-sized firm | Large business law firm | |---|---|---| | Clients | SMEs, mid-sized companies, owner-managers, families | groups, funds, mid-sized companies, foreign investors | | Matters | many, of modest size | fewer, of significant size | | Junior’s role | versatile, autonomous early | focused, supervised, very technical | | Language | mainly French | often English |
A corporate associate’s first year
Whatever the firm, the first year often follows the same path.
The first months. Corporate housekeeping: minutes of general meetings, management reports, filings. It is repetitive, but it is where you learn company law in practice, and where a partner judges an associate’s reliability. A quorum error or a forgotten filing is not forgiven.
Due diligence. Reviewing documents in a data room: articles of association, major contracts, leases, disputes, intellectual property. The junior learns to spot a risk and describe it in a clear report.
First drafts. Draft letters of intent, simple purchase agreements, shareholders’ agreements, based on the firm’s templates. They will be heavily corrected, which is normal.
Closing. Keeping the list of signing documents, coordinating signatories, checking conditions precedent, preparing registers. A well-organised closing is often a junior’s first chance to get noticed.
What the partner expects from them in this first year comes down to a few words: reliability, responsiveness, rigorous proofreading, and the ability to ask the right questions at the right time.
The skills that make the difference
Documentary rigour. Corporate is a job about documents. Inconsistent dates between minutes and a transfer deed, a wrong company name, a missing schedule: these are details that can block a deal.
Understanding numbers. Reading a balance sheet, understanding an enterprise value, a price mechanism, an adjustment clause: a corporate lawyer constantly deals with investment bankers, funds and accountants. To understand how these counterparts see deals, it helps to know the differences between M&A and private equity seen from the bank and fund side 🔗.
Project management. A deal involves many parties and a tight timetable. Being able to keep a schedule, chase and anticipate is as important as technical skill.
English, in firms that work on international deals.
Negotiation skills, which develop with experience, first on technical points, then on commercial ones.
The article which skills to highlight on a lawyer’s CV shows how to prove this know-how through matters.
Career paths: partner, counsel, in-house
Corporate offers several trajectories.
- Partnership, after eight to twelve years of practice depending on the firm, for those who develop a client base. The article becoming a partner in a law firm describes what firms examine.
- The counsel title, for a very experienced associate who is not, or not yet, a partner. The article counsel in a law firm explains this position.
- In-house legal departments, a common path after a few years: companies readily recruit corporate lawyers to run their external growth deals and group governance.
- Neighbouring jobs: investment banking, investment funds, corporate development in companies, which some lawyers join after a few years.
- A more focused practice: private equity, capital markets, restructurings.
The CV of a corporate candidate
A corporate candidate’s CV must reassure on rigour and show the type of deals already handled.
The profile line states the practice and type of clients: “Lawyer at the Lyon bar, two years of corporate practice (corporate housekeeping, SME disposals, shareholders’ agreements)”.
Experience describes deals by their nature and your role, never by the client’s name:
- Before: “Involvement in M&A deals.”
- After: “Sale of an industrial SME to a family group: legal due diligence, first draft of the purchase agreement and schedules, organisation of the closing.”
Skills separate techniques (corporate housekeeping, disposals, shareholders’ agreements, capital transactions) from tools (data rooms, document management, version comparison, spreadsheets).
The pre-filled business lawyer CV shows a trainee lawyer’s profile aiming for corporate work, and the pre-filled private equity lawyer CV an experienced profile. The article CV for a first associate position helps bridge the two. To format yours, the AvocatCV builder handles the presentation and produces a clean PDF, readable by the screening software that business law firms often use in their recruitment campaigns.
Frequently asked questions
Does corporate suit someone who likes pleading?
Not much. Corporate is an advisory practice, with very few hearings. Lawyers who like pleading tend to go into commercial litigation, including shareholder or post-acquisition disputes.
Do you need a master’s in business law to do corporate work?
It is the most common route, often complemented by a DJCE, a dual degree with a business school or a master’s in financial law. Internships count as much as the degree.
Is corporate housekeeping an undervalued task?
No. It is the foundation of the job, and many SME clients mainly entrust this to their lawyer. Mastering it is an asset, especially for developing your own client base.
Can you do corporate work outside Paris?
Yes. Large regional cities have many firms practising corporate law for SMEs and mid-sized companies, often with more versatility than in Paris.