In-House Counsel

When Your Career Is On The Chopping Block

It's time to freshen your résumé, begin scouting your network, and start applying -- everywhere.

By David Mowry on October 28, 2015 4:31 pm

There is a special fear that comes when you hear rumblings of trouble at your company, or firm. The pit in your stomach becomes filled with adrenaline that just won’t quit. The same feeling happens at your first less-than-stellar review (trust me, it’s not you it’s them, they’re going to fire you down the road due to throughput, and they’re starting a necessary paper trail). Or, when you’re told that partnership isn’t going to happen for you; big surprise. There’s nothing funny about these particular times in a career or feelings of panic, and the fear of unemployment in a tight market is fairly incomparable, especially if you have a mortgage, tuition, loans, a marriage, or kids.

The singular thing about the above examples that they all share is that there isn’t a damned thing you can do about any of them. Either the worst is going to come to fruition or it isn’t. It’s like when my father used to yell at the televised football games as though a specially timed hoot or holler would advance the ball across the goal line. Pointless, really. So, what to do? The obvious would be a good start. Freshen your résumé, begin scouting your network, and start applying — everywhere.

Times are not as tough as a few years ago, I know this because my own company has seen some attrition and we’ve hired some folks. When I started here years ago, everything soon went on lockdown, just as with seemingly every other place of legal employment. Heck, even the government wasn’t hiring. Now, there are job announcements on career sites that are coming straight from the companies themselves, and not just rehashed copies from the same legal recruiters. I know personally folks who have moved on from their positions in firms to in-house jobs, and if you’re in the in-house club already, then there are definitely some good opportunities about. What you do not want to do in this situation is burn the bridge you’re standing on, and may even need to cross again.

Now is not the time to laze in your office letting the leaves turn around you. You need to keep your work product at the high level it’s been, and you may even want to take on some more responsibilities if you’re able. Especially if signs portend the end of your company. I have watched two of our largest employers leave over the last decade. And I have watched colleagues take one of two paths — either try to get lucky and get out, or stay to the bitter end and try to survive. I have been fortunate not to have make the choice that friends have made, but I know that the ones who got lucky landed well, and I also know that ones who stayed received retention bonus after retention bonus, and are still employed in much smaller departments than before. There is a saying that if your company goes down, as legal counsel you want to be the last one on the ship.

The reasons are numerous; you will likely receive those bonuses, you can be viewed by incoming counsel (if there is one) as useful, and you can do both while working like hell to get yourself hired someplace else. Bank those bonuses while shopping yourself to other companies and ride out the storm. It is not a sure bet, but it sure beats watching the leaves turn.

David Mowry is Senior Counsel to a large technology company. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the company’s position or opinion on issues raised herein.

David is a former litigator, two time federal clerk, and former Chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s New to In House Committee, and is available for speaking engagements (specifically interested in schools that want a presenter to tell it like it was, is and could be with experience not only in Biglaw, but also the federal judiciary and is now in-house). If interested, you may reach him at [email protected].