Venture Capital Lawyers
Overview
Introduction
Venture capital (VC) lawyers are specialized attorneys who provide legal services and advice to VC firms about fund formation and liquidation, fundraising, due diligence, regulatory compliance, investment strategies, portfolio company management, intellectual property, tax issues, litigation and dispute resolution, and other issues. The top lawyers at venture capital firms are known as chief legal officers or general counsels. There are 813,900 lawyers employed in the United States. Venture capital lawyers compris...
Quick Facts
Median Salary
Employment Prospects
Minimum Education Level
Experience
Skills
Personality Traits
Earnings
The staffing firm Robert Half Legal publishes an annual salary guide for workers in the legal profession. According to its 2021 guide, in-house corporate lawyers had the following salary ranges by years of experience in 2020: zero to three years of experience, $68,000 to $179,750; four to nine years, $81,000 to $202,000; ten or more years (in-house counsel), $120,750 to $268,500.
Salarie...
Work Environment
Busy. Intellectually challenging. Demanding. Sometimes contentious and stressful. Smart and interesting coworkers. Rewarding work. Regular office hours. Top of the line technology and office equipment. These are some of the typical ways in which VC lawyers describe their work environment, although environments vary by the size and investment strategies of the firm, the management philosophies o...
Outlook
Overall, lawyers are expected to have average employment growth (4 percent) through 2029, according to the Department of Labor. About 32,000 lawyers are expected to be added to the U.S. economy during this time span. It’s very difficult to land a job as a lawyer at a venture capital firm because the industry is extremely small and most managing partners are unwilling to hire attorneys who they ...