• I have a client in a very similar situation. When he started, he was handling the day-to-day issues (letters, etc.) in addition to overseeing acquisitions and litigation. He did not have anyone in a support role, and I think had a very difficult time for a while. He mentioned that he had taken some things for granted, like not having access to a good document management system, redlining software, or anyone to handle filing. He leaned a lot on outside counsel when needed. He has since added an assistant and a paralegal, and his life is much improved. From what I've heard, it helps if you get comfortable with the idea that your work product may only need to be "good enough" rather than being BigLaw perfect.
• I do this — the only in-house — for a real estate private equity/investment firm I cofounded. I’m also heavily involved in the business side, but my day-to-day consists of drafting and negotiating leases, managing our in-house property management team, negotiating with our lenders, reviewing lending agreements, preparing/editing financial documents with our accountants, drafting subscription agreements and other fund documents, entity formation, etc. I also go to court from time-to-time. (In my former BigLaw life I was a bankruptcy litigator). But most of the work is transactional stuff—and a lot of negotiating with respect to buying and selling properties. I also went to a B school and, other than the accounting classes I had to take, I use excel now more than I ever thought I would. This made my JD/MBA invaluable.

Counsel Responses:

• You may want to start planning for some help, if feasible, down the road. Another attorney to help shoulder the workflow and requests that come into the legal department (i.e. contract management etc. if there isn't already someone there doing that). But, please for the love of all that is humane, treat the people that work with you with kindness and respect. It will make your job 500x easier. There is bit of a stigma in the corporate world about attorneys not playing well with others. Just something to think about.
• Be prepared to do things, advise on and handle issues you’ve never handled on the fly or with short turnaround. Have great lawyer friends who will take your call and help with quick complimentary opinions (or at least guidance and direction) quickly. It will be somewhat solitary, but I loved it because I was able to be flexible and set my boundaries and routine. Also, you may want to consider the upward progression or lack thereof if that’s what you want.
• I am right now, because my boss got promoted to a non-legal role and it kinda sucks. It helps a lot if you can get contract manager / paralegal staff, but the fact that every legal review always has to be done by you is a lot. I’m not sure how I’d go on vacation at this point!

Attorney Responses:

• I'm the 2nd attorney in our legal department. This exact topic was a message board thread in an Association of Corporate Counsel network recently. So many people responded that they created a law firm to solo in-house LinkedIn group. I only mention to point out that there are resources available if you make the move.
• We're at a small tech company so our day-to-day is lots of agreements, supervising our government relations team and monitoring relevant state legislation. We also do data privacy compliance training and anything else that comes our way (which is the blessing and curse of a small organization). Our owner is an attorney but doesn't do any legal work day-to-day.
• Plan to have help. Maybe a second hire in 3-12 months; maybe an outsourced service to provide contracting support, etc. obviously not on day 1, but you should plan to have help in months, not years.
• One person for a $1 billion dollar company??
• Been there, done that. Exhausted. Left. Made a killing. In retrospect, learned a lot, helped my resume, lots of residual trauma (CEO was a nightmare.)