Potential Downsides: Lawyers Going In-house
July 02, 2015
It is true that the wrong reason for going in-house is seeking shorter hours; I’ve “pulled all-nighters” in-house! Also it is right to say that there’s no greater job stability; that’s very rare anywhere in today’s market. Colleagues who don’t appreciate the value of their in-house lawyers’ contribution to the business are fairly common too. However, you get to be a truly commercial lawyer working closely with the business and key decision makers. When you do your job well, you can turn even the most skeptical, who see lawyers as deal blockers, into raving fans who always get you involved at the start and value your contribution.
Brown considered a move that many law firm attorneys do at some point: going in-house. But before she made that transition, Brown abandoned the legal profession altogether. What happened? “I was increasingly unhappy,” she says. “It was only after I left my firm and started looking at going in-house that I discovered the grass isn’t greener—it’s not so much better in terms of schedule, and there are all these additional downsides.”
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