Contemplating greener pastures.
It generally happens after I walk out of yet another “all department” meeting that could have easily been an e-mail, but somehow merited two hours of my time. I get back to my office, gaze out the window, and wonder, what must life be like in Biglaw?
Surely since they bill their time in six-minute blocks they would never waste time having a meeting for the sake of having a meeting.
Filevine’s New Legal AI Platform LOIS Turns AI Into A True Legal Coworker
Legal work isn’t slowing down, and the firms that win won’t be the ones working harder — they’ll be the ones working smarter.
I imagine what it’s like to be surrounded by nothing but fellow attorneys. I envision the freedom of being able to step into any conversation with ease and not having to bumble through the nuances of the mundane business small-talk like I am used to.
But almost as often as I let my brain wander to the other side, I will receive a nice e-mail from a current Biglaw colleague asking what life is like on my side of the hill. These notes help remind me it’s not all roses on the other side… but I still imagine those elusive bonuses I read about must be nice.
Sorry to say for those inquiring: the life on my side isn’t all that much greener. But for the sake of collegiality, I will address the most common questions I receive. (Please note that my responses reflect my own experience as in-house counsel to a hospital network; there’s a great deal of variability among corporate legal departments, so your mileage may vary.)
How does one make the leap to in-house?
AI Is Reshaping Legal Practice—But Tools Aren’t The Real Differentiator.
Explore the mindset, cultural shifts, and training strategies that define the AI‑savvy lawyer, revealing why human judgment, standardized competence, and integrated learning—not technology alone—will shape the future of the profession.
Bluntly, it takes a little bit of luck, patience to wait for an opening, and knowing someone doesn’t hurt either. In the last two years, out of the twenty-ish vacancies on my team I have filled, only one was for an attorney. And that attorney was recommended to me by another colleague of mine.
Well, that’s disheartening, any advice if I don’t know anyone and am impatient?
Sure, but you are not going to like it. In my hospital network, we have several licensed attorneys working outside the in-house team. They took their jobs with full knowledge they were not going to be in-house counsel, but they also knew that if they could bide their time until we had an opening, naturally, they would be at the top of the list when we did.
Sure enough, our two most recent in-house hires have been from within. One took a job right out of law school as our paralegal, and the other joined as a contract negotiator before being folded into the in-house team.
Are the hours everything I dreamed of and more?
Actually, yes, but this does not mean you won’t catch the occasional 70-hour workweek. There is an unspoken rule amongst my in-house colleagues, I will not begrudge them for clocking out right when they hit their 40 hours, so long as they are willing to stay late on the nights they are truly needed.
What about vacations, do you really never have to check your phone?
For the most part, yes. Unless you are in the midst of an active case or settlement or deal, in which case it might still be wise to postpone your vacation plans, you really can check out. In the business world, things tend to be a touch slower paced. If I take a week or two and am unreachable out of the country, I will generally be able to return and dive in where I left off. And often the C-suite doesn’t bat an eye. After all, they would prefer you not ask any questions when they take off for a month to tend to their property in Bermuda.
Still sounds good to me, how can I be more attractive to a hospital as an in-house candidate?
While hospitals may differ from coast to coast, the one thing I can assure you of is we are all equally scared of CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). They have the power to audit us, deny us payment, or worse. If you can show us you understand the mythological beast that is CMS and keep us in their good graces, you’re hired.
At the end of the day, I would not trade my in-house role for the world, but I recognize it is not for everyone. If you truly are looking for a change of pace, and can live without the bonus, my side of the hill is just what you are looking for.
If not, stop scrolling the latest job offerings in LinkedIn and recognize it may just be that demanding client pushing you to the brink, not a genuine desire to switch altogether.
Stephen R. Williams is in-house counsel with a multi-facility hospital network in the Midwest. His column focuses on a little talked about area of the in-house life, management. You can reach Stephen at [email protected].