Top 5 Signs You're Ready To Go In-House
When charting the course of your legal career, is going in-house right for you?
Erin Clarke
Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. Erin Clarke is the Managing Director of Cadence Counsel. She is a seasoned executive recruiter with experience hiring top talent for law firms and in-house corporate clients. Before joining Lateral Link, Erin served as the Regional Manager of Legal Recruitment and Development for K&L Gates LLP, where she managed the hiring of all entry-level and lateral attorneys, as well as associate development initiatives in the Southeast region.
When charting the course of your legal career, is going in-house right for you?
1. You can spot potential problems.
Each business is unique, and many executives see the true value of having dedicated in-house counsel to handle many aspects of their business, including employee onboarding, contracts, acquisitions, and even finances. In-house counsel are able to spot legal problems and liabilities before they occur, ensuring the business is proactive in avoiding potentially negative and costly situations – not reacting to problems after the fact.
2. You are growth-oriented.
In-house counsel are often involved in the development and growth of the organizations they represent. They are sought to provide innovative legal solutions that align with the business goals of the organizations, and become key advisers to leadership as they move through stages of growth and change. Even if an outside firm is retained, a great in-house attorney will serve as the organizational touchpoint who ensures business needs are being met in a regular and timely manner. Additionally, they can help avoid overbilling and other financial pitfalls.
3. You have excellent interpersonal skills.
One quality that we are most often asked about is engaging attorneys with high emotional intelligence and interpersonal acumen. While the substance of your legal practice is critical, actually landing a coveted in-house position takes soft skills that are developed over time and often innate. The smaller the company, the more likely a General Counsel role will be the second or third in command after the CEO, playing a crucial role as both leader and mentor.
4. You are financially flexible.
Going in-house doesn’t always mean taking a pay cut, but compensation tends to be more varied compared to law firms. Bloomberg recently published a list of the highest paid general counsel. That said, we find that most of the GC opportunities we fill are closer to $500,000 rather than $10MM. Successfully navigating the in-house market can mean being compensated on an equal or greater level than partners.
5. You are reading this article.
Typically, in-house counsel love to be involved in all facets of business, seeking to be experts not only in the industry they represent, but also in a variety of tangential interests related to business development. Another benefit to going in-house is being surrounded by different types of professionals all working toward a common goal. Working in-house is often a more diverse experience, bringing together different types of people with different backgrounds and interests both in and out of work.
What happens next? Research. Résumé. Requirements. Coming up with a targeted list of potential employers and your professional requirements is a great place to start. If you are looking to make a move not only professionally but also geographically, make sure to state that on your résumé. One of the benefits of working with a recruiter is their established corporate relationships, insider knowledge of who is hiring, and the current salary ranges for congruent in-house positions.
Remember that the first person who reviews your résumé will most likely be an HR professional and not an attorney. Our sister company, Cadence Counsel, is dedicated exclusively to in-house searches with the same reach and expertise as Lateral Link. Additionally, as a certified Women-Owned Business with a core value of diversity, they are a trusted adviser to many companies large and small who share the same commitment to inclusion, integrity, and talent development. Here are a just few of their recent placements: General Counsel, Direct Lending Investments; General Counsel, Sqor; two Associate Counsel, Vanguard; two Senior Counsel, MasterCard.
Lateral Link is one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices world-wide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click ::here:: to find out more about us.
