Corporate M&A PE Associate Attorney

You're a corporate associate in a regulatory town. D.C. runs on government affairs, investigations, and policy work — and somewhere along the way, M&A became the thing the firm does on the side. The marquee deals get run out of New York. The energy and infrastructure transactions that actually originate in Washington get scoped by someone on another floor, and you get handed the diligence. So you're billing real hours on real deals — you're just not the one structuring them. Here’s the thing: D.C. is sitting on one of the most active deal ecosystems in the country right now. Energy transition. Infrastructure. Industrials consolidation. Defense and manufacturing M&A. The capital is moving through this market — and it needs corporate associates who can actually run the transactions, not just support the regulatory workstream. A top-tier AmLaw firm with a serious D.C. corporate platform is adding a mid-level M&A associate. This is a dedicated transactional seat — complex M&A, PE investments, and joint ventures across industrials, energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, and technology. Not a regulatory practice that occasionally touches deals. The work includes: Negotiating and drafting acquisition agreements, JV documents, and investment agreements across sectors Private equity investments and sponsor-side transactions Cross-sector deal flow — energy, infrastructure, industrials, manufacturing, tech Direct client management at your level, not five years out What you bring: 3-5 years of M&A transactional experience at a major law firm Drafting skills — you can turn an acquisition agreement, not just review one D.C. bar or eligibility to waive in What you get: A D.C. office that does real corporate work — not a regulatory shop that treats M&A as overflow Cross-sector exposure instead of one narrow deal type on repeat Cravath scale ($260K-$365K depending on class year) #J-18808-Ljbffr Lateral Link