Where?

All major operational and head office centres.

Employers?

All major financial services companies.

So you have a law degree or have completed professional legal training . . . What next?

Financial services companies employ large numbers of lawyers, either directly in-house or through large City and international law groups.

Lawyers and ex-lawyers can be found in a number of roles in the banking and insurance sector. Three major categories are outlined below.

As a trained lawyer taking an in-house position

Banks and insurers generate a huge amount of work for lawyers. Activities include:

• advising on the regulatory and compliance position of a new product
• developing terms and conditions for new products
• responding to and interpreting new legislation
• preparing briefs for legal cases or for regulatory hearings
• planning responses to client complaints
• advising on the legal challenges facing corporate actions, such as mergers or acquisitions
• in investment banking, advising clients of the legal issues involved in a merger or acquisition, or in the preparation of an initial public offering (ie listing shares on the Stock Market)

Banks employ their own counsel to work on all of these matters, as well as being the biggest clients of the major international law groups.

Positions range from junior assistant to legal counsel, right up to experienced international lawyers acting as in-house counsel on issues such as mergers and acquisitions. Senior positions such as these command very high salaries, running into the hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Joining the graduate training programme after you have completed your undergraduate law degree

If you eventually decide that law is not the profession for you, then banks are very pleased to recruit graduates with good law degrees. Legal training can be extremely useful for a career in areas such as compliance (see Compliance officer). For details on 2 graduate entry schemes see Retail banking and Business banking

Using your professional training outside the legal department

Most of the in-house legal jobs tend to go to solicitors, especially those from the 'magic circle' of international companies (see below). However, banks – especially investment banks – are keen to offer roles to both solicitors and barristers who are looking to change their careers. For example, many trained barristers can be found working in corporate finance departments in the City.

There are two key reasons for this. When a bank is advising a major company on a takeover or a merger, legal training is a great asset in planning the strategy used. Equally important is the case development training that barristers undergo. This makes them ideally suited to presenting strategies to potential clients, and ensuring that such strategies are meticulously executed.

Banks and insurers as customers

If you do in fact decide to train as a solicitor and aspire to be a partner in a major legal firm, financial services companies are likely to be among your largest and most valuable clients.

There is a 'magic circle' of big UK-based law firms that advise most companies in the City. They are:

• Allen & Overy
• Clifford Chance
• Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
• Linklaters
• Slaughter and May

In addition to these UK firms, a number of US legal companies now operate in the City. These include:

• Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
• Baker & McKenzie
• White & Case

Many members of in-house legal teams have previously worked for these companies. International banks are especially keen to recruit lawyers with an international perspective. However, it is quite hard to find such people, since a lawyer trained in the English legal system, for example, may know nothing about the very different legal systems of other countries. These international law firms are therefore one of the few sources of staff with the specific skills that international banks require.