Consulting is more about long-term multi-year projects to shape things like policy (for regulators) or strategy (for companies). IPOs are very transactional by

Consulting is more about long-term multi-year projects to shape things like policy (for regulators) or strategy (for companies). IPOs are very transactional by nature. The walls you speak of are usually between the trading side and the capital markets side of the firm, where there is very little overlap. In this case though, I would wager people who worked on the regulatory side were constantly being restaffed onto the pharmaceutical side and vice versa.