General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Job Searches

From Doghouse To In-House

Being corporate counsel is a more coveted position than in dinosaur days -- and with good reason.

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businessman lawyer doghouse in house counselLast week, Stephen R. Williams, one of Above the Law’s in-house columnists, discussed making the switch from outside to inside counsel. Then yesterday, Practical Law Company’s monthly column on different practice areas listed 10 things to know about being an in-house generalist. The keen interest in the in-house world reflects how being corporate counsel is a more coveted position than in dinosaur days.

Back in those dinosaur days, the sense was that in-house jobs were for those who couldn’t hack it as outside counsel, in-house lawyers worked easy hours, and in-house lawyers weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. As noted by another ATL in-house writer, Biglaw partner turned in-house counsel Mark Herrmann, there’s a generational divide in perceptions of in-house counsel.

I was an in-house lawyer for many years, and the patronizing air of some outside counsel infuriated me. They thought that I didn’t have a “real job,” that those of us in-house were dullards compared to the Biglaw lawyers, just “traffic cops.” What outside law firms failed to understand, however, was that I was in the catbird seat. (If you’ve never read that story, nor worse, never heard of James Thurber, you need to educate yourself.)

If an outside lawyer patronized me, he (or she) and the firm would be toast as soon as possible. I can still hear outside counsel wailing about why I was moving the matter, or even worse, taking it inside. One outside counsel actually told my boss that he “didn’t need to worry his head” about a matter. Really?

Getting an in-house job is not like right-swiping on Tinder. It’s a matter of relationships, timing, and filling a need that perhaps the in-house department doesn’t even know it needs… yet.

For example, take new practice areas such as cybersecurity, data management, eDiscovery, and data security. These are all areas that didn’t even exist fifteen years ago, or if they did, they were in their infancies. Now, these areas are growing exponentially as the legal risks increase.

One way is to develop an expertise in one of these areas (there are many that I’m sure I haven’t thought of). Speak, write, and the like. Open the eyes of corporate law departments, especially if they’re small, to show how you would add value as staff. Check out the Association of Corporate Counsel website to get a sense of current issues in the in-house world and the positions that companies are seeking to fill.

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Budgetary considerations can be daunting. Employee salaries and related expenses are overhead directly charged to the legal department. Outside counsel fees, depending upon cost allocation, can be charged to the legal department, the business unit, or somewhere else. Sometimes there is a separate cost center for litigation expense. It depends.

Convincing general counsel to add an FTE (full-time employee) or even a part-time one is a challenge. Understanding that eventual cost reductions in outside counsel expenses will be worth it is something that some general counsel get right away, while others don’t. Legal departments manage legal risk and control legal expense. What’s the most efficient use of the company’s dollar?

While 70-hour weeks are not the norm, depending upon the legal department, in-house counsel may be expected to be available outside of normal business hours. Many of us were in our offices by 7 a.m. to handle inquiries and matters both from local clients, also in early, and those in other time zones. So, being in-house is not necessarily a walk in the park in terms of hours, especially in these smartphone times.

While some legal departments keep time sheets, my legal department did not for a number of reasons. First, it was a huge enticement to those of us who worked in private practice and would no longer have to keep time (yay!). Second, and far more importantly, clients would feel comfortable with coming to us with issues large and small, while not worrying about whether their particular unit was going to be charged for our time. The result? We were able to practice preventive law because the clients knew that we were there to assist them without charge when issues arose.

In many cases, the law department is a “first responder,” so to speak — notifying other departments when it sees looming risk (be it operational, reputational, regulatory, or otherwise). So in-house counsel has to be willing to sound the alarm. I’m not saying that you need to be Paul Revere, but the theory of “no surprises” is particularly apt here.

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Vacations? Yes, we could take them, but we always had others in the department who would cover for us, read the mail, and respond to urgent messages. However, never just take one week, because here’s what can happen.

If you’re gone for just a week, colleagues will ask, given their own busy workloads, “Can it wait until X gets back next week?” The answer usually is yes, but sometimes no, as I found to my dismay one time when my colleague was gone for a week and said, dismissively, that nothing will happen while he was gone. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

If you’re gone for two weeks, then it’s more likely that the issue won’t wait, and someone else will have to handle it. That’s where memos to file and emails to colleagues are essential. Otherwise, no one will hesitate to track you down wherever you are. Granted, there are unexpected emergencies, but in-house is about collaboration, working with your colleagues and not in a silo to serve clients. If you think that “knowledge is power,” and you don’t like to share, then in-house is not for you.

In-house departments are not identical. What I liked about in-house was the chance to be proactive, to solve problems before they became litigation, to see the whole picture of an issue and not just a “one-off” as so many outside counsel see, the ability for a client to walk into my office and talk something through and get it resolved there and then.

In dinosaur days, in-house jobs were regarded as a sinecure of a sort: don’t make waves, and you could coast until your defined-benefit pension kicked in. That kind of pension is a relic of a bygone era. Today, there’s no tenure for in-house jobs or for any other law jobs for that matter (except academia).

Heads can and do roll from time to time in in-house departments during and after acquisition, merger, and/or divestment, or as part of a never-ending series of reorganizations. But the opportunity to make a difference — to be a “first responder,” be it at a macro or micro level — is worth it.

Earlier: Is The Grass Any Greener On The Other Side? Reflections From An In-House Lawyer
10 Things To Know About Being An In-House Generalist
The Generational Divide In Perceptions Of In-House Counsel

old lady lawyer elderly woman grandmother grandma laptop computerJill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

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