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For context: transactional third year at a biglaw firm in a LCOL city. No debt of any kind, good savings. I've been trying to move in house for about six months now and am starting to get very burnt out at my current firm.

One of the companies in my city that I'd most like to go in-house at recently posted an opening for a junior attorney focused primarily on contract review. The pay, besides being a severe paycut (which itself I'm okay with), seems a little below market (~120,000 base) and I've heard that contract review in-house positions can be a dead end. Was wondering if anyone has any experience/insight into working in such a position for a couple years, and then moving into either a more generalist corporate counsel role or a more specialized role, either at the same company or leaving for a different company. In my job search, I've been surprised by how highly companies value prior in-house experience, and I'm curious if I could use a position like this just to get my foot in the in-house door, deal with the low pay for a couple years, and then move to something slightly better. Frankly, I'm also a relatively frugal/not super ambitious person, and if the height of my career is an AGC position making 200,000, I'd be fine with that. Just not sure if a role like this would lock out even that possibility.

The path you outlined is not unrealistic, but might take one or more inter-company moves to make happen. Since the market isn’t great, if you can get it and don’t want to wait at your firm longer that seems like a viable path to what you want.

I would not do this.

In-house roles often don’t have much upward mobility because you can never move above your manager and in a lot of departments you can get pigeon holed. If a new position opens up they are more likely to hire outside then retool someone inside. My company just went through a RIFF and laid off an attorney — 2 months later they hired 2 new attorneys for roles that attorney could have done.

It’s not warranted but it is true that commercial contracts roles are often considered low-level - so that doesn’t help.

It’s a tough market right now. Keep your chin up. 3 years is also very early to go in-house. You will start seeing more traction around year 5. Good luck!

persia1921 wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 18, 2024 2:21 pm

I would not do this.

In-house roles often don’t have much upward mobility because you can never move above your manager and in a lot of departments you can get pigeon holed. If a new position opens up they are more likely to hire outside then retool someone inside. My company just went through a RIFF and laid off an attorney — 2 months later they hired 2 new attorneys for roles that attorney could have done.

It’s not warranted but it is true that commercial contracts roles are often considered low-level - so that doesn’t help.

It’s a tough market right now. Keep your chin up. 3 years is also very early to go in-house. You will start seeing more traction around year 5. Good luck!

I appreciate the sentiment here, but three years is not necessarily "very early" for in-house; it depends a ton on what OP practices and other factors as well. There are plenty of in-house roles you can get at three years in that will provide for meaningful upward growth, especially if you just jump ship to another company after a year or two. Telling someone to keep their chin up if they're burning out is not necessarily good advice.

I don't think the junior position you're describing will lock you out of an AGC role one day. I agree with others that generally there isn't much upward mobility for in-house counsel within a company, but it seems like the more important play for you right now is to leave your firm. I'd probably take it and look to move companies in a year or two. I'll also note that six months isn't a very long search, especially for a third year in this market.

FWIW, at my big tech company, junior attorneys on the commercial legal team have been able to move to the product and privacy legal teams.