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May 05, 2022

Community Perspectives: Tell me your success story about moving in-house after 10+ years of practice

In-house legal professionals discuss their success stories of moving in-house after several years in practice.

(Author) Partner

Does anyone have a success story about moving in-house after 10+ years of practice? Please provide details about your prior practice area, in-house position, region, when you moved, anything you did to market yourself, length of time of your search, etc. Thanks! (Note: I am not looking for anyone to remind me that 6-8 years was the sweet spot. That time has passed so, it's not helpful to me now.)

Counsel Responses:

I went in-house as Chief Legal Officer of a ~$1B company after 20 years in BiglLw as a litigator. It took me a few years to find the job and I found it through personal connections. The hardest part of the job search was to stop looking at myself as a litigator instead of an experienced counselor who can handle and resolve all sorts of different issues. And moving at 6-8 years wouldn’t have helped me find this position.
I changed everything from how I present my experience in my resume, how I discuss my qualifications to what I’ve done in my career. Litigation was the 3rd or 4th thing I mentioned.
Hi! I was a litigator in Detroit at a mid-sized firm for 11 years before moving in-house. I’m a generalist in a small department with $1.5B annual revenue (public company). I started as Deputy General Counsel, then Assistant Corporate Secretary. I’ve been promoted twice in 2.5 years, and am making more than I was in the firm. I love it and am happy. I would say you definitely need to find the right boss and right fit, but it’s doable at any stage in your career. I met the GC for coffee after finding a company I wanted to join and asking a mutual friend for an introduction. We got along well and she ended up calling me three weeks later and offering me an interview (they weren’t hiring but she thought about it and figured they could use the help). I specialize in commercial litigation, some auto supplier but general complex contract litigation. I’m at an auto supplier now. I interviewed for YEARS to get in-house. No one wanted a litigator except for in house litigation positions, which are rare and not what I wanted to do. I ended up going back to school part-time to get an MBA and I still didn’t get hired. I ended up leveraging connections and working with recruiters on figuring out what transferable skills to focus on in cover letters and on my resume. I was miserable in my firm and wanted out, so I was a little aggressive with trying to find something else. You never really know where an opportunity will arise but put yourself out there and don’t be afraid to ask others for help. As far as pitching myself - litigators draft settlement agreements and negotiate all the time. We also have strong oral advocacy skills, strong problem solving skills, and generally aren’t too rattled by high stress environments. Those are all positives and really have come in very handy in-house. Honestly, I rely a lot on outside counsel. I also know who is good to call on/does good work from working in firms. I’m billed fairly and they prioritize my work because of our relationship.
🙋‍♀️ I moved in-house after 10+ years in BigLaw. I primarily practiced complex commercial litigation, but I also had a niche specialty and employment law counseling and litigation experience (the niche is completely irrelevant to my current role, other than I have regulatory experience in addition to litigation). I'm in Texas but practiced in the Northeast as well. I also had a fairly national litigation as well as counseling practice so that was a good selling point. I was pretty selective about where I wanted to go, and looked off and on for about 2 years, but only seriously searched and applied for about 8 months. I ended up going in-house with a firm client as head of litigation. Some in-house departments look to hire partner-level experience - they don’t have time to train or supervise people and need lawyers who can hit the ground running. The biggest challenge is usually compensation; very few in-house roles will or can pay BigLaw partner compensation numbers so you have to be willing to take a pay cut and communicate that you understand that.
These folks who were job hunting 1.5-2 years are renewing my faith. I've been at it for what feels like forever.
To be honest, I probably looked and interviewed for 6 years. But during that time, I worked on building new skills and sought opportunities (such as some transactional and employment work) that I thought a company might be interested in me having and that I thought might help me be a better in-house lawyer. - Just keep at it and explore your connections.

Attorney and Associate Responses:

I’ve found it hard for companies to accept that I’m more than a litigator during interviews.
I have seen a lot of corporate folks going in-house after 10+ years of practice. - NYC/Chicago - M/A/Investment Funds - GC, Senior Counsel, Counsel, Deputy GC, Chief Commercial Officer
Spent 20 years riding real estate deals for REITs and similar funds at a regional firm before being asked by a client (not a REIT, but a player in one of the spaces in which my REIT clients operated) to come work for them as senior counsel to learn the job before my AGC retires, at which point I’m to fill her role. Two years in and I’m unspeakably happier.
Spent about 10 years in litigation, before first taking a low level attorney role at a large health system and then a senior legal role with a medical device company. It took about 1.5 years of searching and I worked with lots of recruiters, and plenty of recommendations. I wasn’t in BigLaw and didn’t do commercial litigation, but apparently had sufficient health care defense experience that they were willing to take a chance on me. I didn’t find the transition the the health system as difficult as to the medical device field. And believe me, it was a difficult sell. But I tried to show ways I’d been able to branch out my practice to establish that I have the capacity to be trained/learn new areas. - Good luck!

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