As my title indicates, I'm both a product and a privacy counsel at my tech co. The product is consumer-facing and deals w/ privacy issues, so lots of overlap. I'm relatively junior, and currently am in the position of being able to commit to one path or the other. Anyone been here before and have thoughts on career progression for the two tracks?

My work priorities, in order: WLB; predictability; $$$; interesting work

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I'm Director of Product Legal at my company so I'm probably biased, but I'd say Product if you want a path to GC. Privacy is very in demand and will likely remain so, but you'll also get pigeonholed into just that. Plus hours can be unpredictable because breaches/fires happen whenever they happen, and the work might get boring/predictable over time. Product is a broader set of work with a wide variety of issues to work on, plus has a larger strategy component that gives you visibility to leadership and them to you - big picture strategy work better sets you up for GC.

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WLB is great, but that's also VERY company dependent. For me, some of the WLB come from the work I've done with internal clients to try and get in with them early on their projects - if I am looped in early there are less surprises so workload is more predictable and there are less fires.
SC1 has a great point too, though, that the variety of things you're tackling in a day can be exhausting. I tend to like how varied the work is, but it's certainly a better fit for someone who enjoys being a mile wide and an inch deep on a ton of subject areas

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Could you elaborate more on what product counsel does? I’m in BL now and looking to transition into in-house.

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Product counsel advises on the product the company makes and sells - that's really all there is to it.

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Is this a public company?

No

D1, smart reply! I’m going into a similar field as OP and see where you’re coming from

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