Considering a Move In-house?
June 18, 2015
The sage advice, given by Fernando Garcia in the article “Finding the path to an in-house career”, to lawyers thinking of moving in-house got me thinking what advice I’d add to his. It is this: pick an industry in which you have a genuine interest, even a passion. Follow top companies in that area. Learn as much as you can about that industry. Ask your partners in your firm if you can do work for any clients they have operating in that industry. If they don’t, consider an intermediate move to a firm that has such clients. Whatever you do, don’t drift into an industry that doesn’t excite you because a good in-house job comes up in a particular company in that field. Once in-house, it helps enormously to be truly enthusiastic about the industry. It helps your daily work life be more enjoyable and enhances your prospects of promotion as the people that matter notice enthusiasm and like to see it.
The traditional approach was to spend four or five years as an associate at a law firm and then make the shift to in-house practice. However, my experience shows this doesn’t always have to be the case. In fact, some are now going in-house immediately after articling. It depends.
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