Learn why the belief that going in-house is a good career move is completely wrong and what going in-house actually does to your legal career. RESOURCES & LINKS:
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You're wondering about going in house as an attorney? Well, I hate to break it to you. But it's often the worst decision that a good attorney can make.
A lot of times people believe that, when they go in house, they're going to have fewer hours and a happier life. And the work is going to be easier. And to some extent that may be true, but it's not always the truth.
Going in house is not always going to make you happy. And most often it can be a career killer.
Your skills will often deteriorate very rapidly and significantly.
In most cases, you're going to become a cost center and not a profit generator. So when the company experiences financial problems or a recession or a different product line, you may be one of the first to go.
Smart partners who encourage other partners to go in-house may want your clients or a bigger share of the profits with the firm. No one inside of a law firm is ever going to tell you that going in-house is a bad idea, because that would not benefit them.
I'm a recruiter, and part of my job is to speak with candidates all over the world who are seeking jobs. I cannot tell you how common it is for in-house attorneys to lose their jobs when the work dries up or the company experiences dire financial problems.
You will no longer be employable by almost any law firm whatsoever when you lose your job. And most likely you will lose your job inside of a company.
Smart companies are efficient. And like law firms they want people who are most likely to do the best work for the least amount of money. Attorneys coming from law firms are generally hungrier and more desirable.
Without clients of your own, you will generally have zero control over your career. Partners with business have control over their careers, so much so that they can pretty much do whatever they want.
Most attorneys inside of companies are often consider the resident buzzkills who spend their days covering their behinds by telling management, the people that are actually doing things inside the company, what is not possible.
I've made more in-house placements than I can count. I'm going to deliver some harsh news and tell you that the sort of attorney that should be working in-house is the sort of attorney that often should not be an attorney.
If you don't care about ever getting clients and impressing them with good work, you should go in-house.
If you're more interested in having other people do the work than doing it yourself, then you should go in-house.
If you're suicidal with your career and family, and do not care when your career will end and are interested in having it end suddenly without warning, you should go in-house.
If you're interested in politics and playing dishonest games with your time and legal matters, you should go on house.
If you want to feel it at the end of the day that you've not accomplished much, but someone else has, you should go in-house.
If you have no idea why you're an attorney, you should go in house.
If you're interested in long stretches of unemployment, you should go in house.
All these reasons are valid reasons to go in house.
You cannot and should not ever lose your perspective that being an attorney is like running a business. You need clients to run a business - this is the only game and the only means of control you have over your life in the future.
Something I rarely see is attorneys going all out inside of large law firms to get business. They would rather go in-house and lose control of their future.
Something I rarely see is an attorney moving to smaller firms or different geographic locations where they know they could get business. They would rather go in-house.
Something I rarely see is attorneys doing everything they can to become sought-out experts in their practice area. Writing speaking and teaching for example. They would rather go in-house.
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