In-House Counsel

5 Reasons Startups Are Amazing In-House Opportunities

Thinking of going in-house? Consider a startup.

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When deciding to take an in-house position, lawyers are faced with a plethora of choices: from large global companies in the public and private sector to positions with governmental entities, from legal departments of 50 to ones resembling large law firms with legal departments of 800. But don’t overlook the tremendous value of joining a startup: yes, the legal department is usually smaller (sometimes, it’s just you) and the budgets are tighter, but startups are full of unique, unusual and exciting opportunities.

Here are our top 5 reasons why startups provide amazing opportunities for development and growth:

  1. You make a significant and visible difference. Few opportunities will allow in-house counsel to make a truly significant and visible difference given how broad the legal duties at a startup are. Startup lawyers are truly in the middle of the action and receive all perspectives. “Being at a startup I am in ‘The Arena,’ as Teddy Roosevelt put it,” says Stephanie King, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at AdRoll. “I have a direct influence on decisions — many which can make or break the company. I get to be a real team player with the business. I share the ups and downs, emotionally and financially,” she explains. King adds, “Honestly, I am a bit of a control freak — being in-house gives me much better access to information, which was always a bit of a challenge as outside counsel. Yes, it’s messy sausage making and there are lots of mistakes, but you get to learn about law and business, push yourself, think creatively and quickly, and that gets me up in the morning every day.”
  2. Your decisions have immediate impact. Perhaps most satisfying is that fact that legal advice in a startup has a real-time impact. The very nature of high-speed growth means your internal clients will act on your advice as soon as you give it. Many startups are adept at practicing the fail fast and fail often mentality, which means you’re making decisions at lightning speed. “Our advice really matters — it has such immediate impact [in startups] where there are few, if any, layers and little to no established policy and process, which we get to build as we support, nurture, and help these amazing companies grow and extraordinarily smart business people and partners succeed. It can be exceedingly scary — you cannot hide from the tough decisions — but oh so much fun and satisfying,” Dana DuFrane, Vice President of Legal Affairs at The RealReal. explains.
  3. You learn to be flexible. Unlike many established companies, where each lawyer is providing subject-matter expertise, lawyers at a startup give broad advice on everything legal-related and much more. “A lawyer will get a variety of experiences in all sorts of areas of law. It’s a really exciting opportunity that always encourages creativity,” says Sarah Feingold, the General Counsel at Vroom.com. No two days look the same and no two internal clients have the same needs. You will work with clients who’ve regularly worked with in-house counsel, and those for whom this is a totally new experience. You have to adapt your communication style to fit both scenarios. Alexandra Sepulveda, Vice President Legal & Deputy General Counsel at Udemy provides one of the best metaphors for the realities of working at a startup, “If you’re interested in exploring being a generalist, startups require that you be the Swiss Army knife of lawyering.”
  4. You get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Evaluating risks proactively and effectively is yet another skill startup lawyers perfect to an art form. Yet, you will spend a large portion of your time working on issues you’re unfamiliar with and making decisions with a limited set of information and data. But that’s what the fun is all about – you learn to lean into feeling uncomfortable until it becomes second nature. After all, startups are all about taking calculated risks to yield great rewards. As a first-year associate at a large Silicon Valley law firm, Su-Jin Lee, Vice President of Legal and Associate General Counsel of PopSugar, once sat in on an initial meeting with some partners and a few young founders of a new startup. “These founders were bold with big ideas and also pretty candid. One of the founders, with a sardonic smile, said something to the effect of ‘Here are the lawyers, where our dreams go to die,’” she says. This bold assertion still resonates with Lee. “I decided at that moment that I would not be that kind of lawyer. Working in a startup means I am constantly learning new things, championing exciting ideas and a part of making dreams happen,” she explains.
  5. You are guaranteed a transformative career changes. A broad range of skills, significant business impact, and great opportunities are the recipe for a successful legal career. As Michelle Fang, Vice President and General Counsel at Turo explains, “Transitioning from a large established in-house legal department to a startup provides an exceptional opportunity to get closer to the business you support. You are expected to not only provide strong legal counsel, but also help steer the direction of the company whether it’s business strategy or company culture. As the only attorney at a startup, you don’t have the benefits of a large team of legal experts to rely upon when questions outside your area of expertise arise. These challenges force you to learn new things, develop new skills, and help build the confidence in yourself that you can in fact handle any problems that come your way.”

For lawyers seeking one of the most creative professional experiences, joining a startup might be the best decision they’ll make. Though, like any job, they’re not for everyone – startups offer great opportunities for lawyers to gain skills that they will be hard-pressed to get in any other in-house legal environment.

Olga V. Mack and Katia Bloom are startup enthusiasts who embrace the current disruption to the legal profession. Long gone are the days when in-house legal departments simply manage outside counsel or provide services. Today’s legal department is a sophisticated business unit that co-manages the company’s bottom line, embraces technology, and analyzes risks constructively. Mack and Bloom love this change and are dedicated to improving and shaping the future of the legal profession. Together they passionately collect and share inspiring stories of legal leaders who are thriving through the ongoing tectonic shift. Mack and Bloom are convinced that the legal profession will emerge from this revolution even stronger, more resilient, and inclusive than before. They are currently co-authoring a manual of the skills and traits lawyers need to succeed in — and even enjoy — today’s rapidly evolving in-house legal departments. You can reach them at olga@olgamack.com and katia@katiabloom.com or @olgavmack and @bloomkatia on Twitter.

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