# a child grow up By [cola](https://paragraph.com/@cola-4) ยท 2022-11-18 --- ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/29f62e54f16fc2850ac6627975daa9446b0f33636f4583d3a79332148a6745bd.png) Leaving the red circle firm and joining a first-tier Internet company is like a child growing up. After he has a more mature and realistic understanding of the world, he will start to look at himself and consider where to go next. By the time I closed on my 129th project, my seventh year at the firm, I already knew where I would be and where I would be in five, 10 or 20 years of this job. So I began to wonder if I was going to go straight down this path, if I was going to grow up every day for the next 10 or 20 years, or if I was going to stay where I was. That's when I knew I had to jump out and have a look. Maybe it really is the words: "The world is big, I want to see." So I chose to go into a new field and pursue my career as a transaction lawyer in a different way. In 2019, I moved to a front-line Internet company and started a new career path as a legal consultant for the group's internal investment and merger projects, responsible for the legal work of the group's overseas investment and merger projects. No longer serving clients as Party B, but as the internal legal consultant of Party A, my new job has much less content of execution level and much more content that requires more subjective initiative to make decisions. In addition to the control of legal matters, I had the opportunity to have a deeper understanding of other key factors affecting the success or failure of a transaction, including business essence, tax compliance, financial factors, and even international relations and the influence of public opinion. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/df7fda788c783b6b6037394e2bc9a9796f8f6d3cdd2ba6d2ab537d8ce50573e0.png) In the past, deal lawyers in law firms sought to be specialized, but now as in-house counsel for investors, they need to be inclusive and integrated, and look at issues from multiple perspectives. Because of the change of roles and perspectives, I opened up a new area of expertise. Because my company is a truly global company, our investment and acquisition projects are carried out in multiple jurisdictions around the world. I systematically studied and summarized foreign investment laws of various countries, which was a rare opportunity for Chinese lawyers to learn when working in a law firm. What's more, as an Internet company hoping to do more business in high-tech and other fields, our company has frequent investment activities in frontier science and technology, which gives me the opportunity to deeply participate in many projects in these fields and contact and learn a lot of new knowledge. Once, about an anticancer gene biologic drug project, my colleague spent one and a half hours telling me the principle of this biologic drug, which is absolutely the "exclusive benefit" of being an internal consultant. If you're reading this article and you're interested in becoming a deal lawyer, before you make up your mind and get started, here are some of my premature suggestions for you. (1) Ask yourself if you are prepared to work hard. As mentioned above, a deal lawyer is by no means an easy job. From the first year of translating English documents to the nearly 40 years when you retire, your phone needs to be plugged in at all times, you may be stationed on a project site and not be able to go home for months, you may be on conference calls with clients to discuss the deal structure before you go into the delivery room, You've probably never gone on a vacation without your computer, and you've probably doctored a due diligence report while getting fluids in the emergency room. This is by no means fiction, but is a fact that has happened many times. If you're just drawn to the glamorous side of being a deal lawyer on TV, I suggest you think twice. (2) You need a good body. Year-round, 24/7 on duty. To be a deal lawyer, you have to be in good shape. First, you have to climb up the mountain of the project company wind power station; Next, you need to be able to stay up late and change trading documents overnight. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/757582350512bbe25d31df9514fb673cd05bb03285d3159c481b90c53ea3e8c9.png) A project will never be put on hold because your body can't handle it, and your boss or client will never stop a project because of your particular condition. I once had a high fever and vomiting while negotiating, during which I ran to the bathroom five or six times, the lawyer on the other side was distressed. (3) To be a deal lawyer, you must be both rough and thin. Encounter "strange" customers angry, strange to say unkind words to the family, at this time you must be "rough", get a big heart, can laugh it off, not to the heart. But for every document, every email and even every wechat message, you have to be meticulous, from punctuation to formatting to grammar. It's a small mistake, but it's unprofessional. (4) To be a deal lawyer, you have to be flexible. As Party B's lawyer, he must be able to "bend". When a client asks for something, whether it's at 8.30am on a Saturday or you're on the beach on your annual holiday, you have to whip out your computer every minute. As a consultant to Party A, must be able to "reach out". At the negotiating table, no matter how difficult it is for the family, you have to fight for the interests of the client, not an inch. (5) As a deal lawyer, you must never stop learning new things. The rapidly changing business world, constantly updated laws and regulations, and the ever-changing international political and economic situation are all closely related to the work of transaction lawyers. Don't think you're done after law school. Deal lawyers need to keep learning new things every day until they retire, so that they can provide their clients with legitimate legal advice. ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/dc2691d6af10d7db82bd83eb58b0bd17bdf70cabb35c2bc9ee55fcd3843721bd.png) --- *Originally published on [cola](https://paragraph.com/@cola-4/a-child-grow-up)*