In-house counsel from big law: do you find in-house life more or less professionally competitive than firm life? I thought by leaving a firm I was escaping the cutthroat environment, but competitiveness does pop up in different ways in-house. I'm curious what others' experiences are.

Counsel Responses:

• In my experience, it wasn't competitive when I was in a small legal group of 15, but very competitive when I joined a F50 legal department of 1000.
• Depends on size of group. If large, likely yes because you’re all fighting for the same promotions. In the smaller group of seven I’m in now, we pretty much know our hierarchy and understand title bumps will happen after you gain the requisite years of experience. Salary bumps come with that, but you will get annual raises and bonuses.
• There isn't any competition; just a lot of misplaced ambition 😂

Attorney and Associate Responses:

• This has not been my experience and nearly all of our attorneys came from BigLaw. My department has less than 10 attorneys, so maybe that has something to do with them not being that competitive.
• Definitely more competitive. Less promotions and less resources.
• I see more competition for advancement (limited spots and opportunities), but not at all in my day-to-day life. (I'm with an F50 company.)