Has anyone here experienced a very difficult transition from biglaw to in house life and if so, what were the reasons and what did you do about it? Was it the shift from working for just one client, dealing with business people, loss of law firm "perks" (ie, facetime, tech budgets, meal stipends, etc) or flexibility? Ive been in biglaw at a v10 for over a decade, just trying to understand the landscape. Thank you!

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You have to be comfortable making big decisions with imperfect information and accepting that the “right” answer for the business may/ may not align with the “right” legal answer on paper.

likehelpfulsmart

Yes, this.

I had to transition from thinking like a legal services provider to thinking like a member of the business team. But turns out I vastly prefer that. Every single thing about the move (except the pay cut, sure) has been better.

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Echoing all the above - but especially SC 1’s comment that it’s wholly worth it. I just hit one year in house and I’m paid half of what I would’ve been at my firm, but in that time I had 3.5 unbothered weeks off, almost zero weekend and evening work, and maybe five hours of lost sleep due to working late/waking up early to finish work.

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+1 this is exactly me too

For me it has been dealing with business people. I learned you can’t use the same approach with everybody…

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I went in house as a senior associate to a large tech co earlier this year. I went from working about 85h a week to say 15h. My salary took a nose dive (and I had full meltdowns over it) but I’d do it again.

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Ya. Got the partner track call and I bolted. I still work with big law efficiency though. I could easily drag out projects much longer.

My new life was rather foreign at first. It’s the ability to sleep at night, not checking my phone every 20 min to see what new hell erupted, being able to make plans, not considering grocery shopping/eating/working out as super coveted personal time.

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Weighing in from a heavily regulated industry:

Business leaders have strategies and they rely on in-house to advise them on how to achieve what they want to do. It's not just logistical - it's having an overview of the risks associated with any particular course of action. Even when attorneys are in the room when a particular idea is discussed, they may not be aware of all the internal politics behind it. The only thing the attorneys can control is our analysis of the risks involved. Often times this has to be done based on imperfect information and lots of moving parts. We're there to advise the business on the best course of action, but understand that the leaders may decide to accept more or less risk in a particular situation.

Occasionally you have to have the guts to stand in front of a moving train to stop the business from doing something that will really hurt the organization. Your client is really the company, not the particular people in the company so they will usually listen (even if you become their least-favorite person right then).

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Glad you found it helpful.. Good luck!

by the way, I currently have an offer to go in house. just deciding whether to take it ...

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That’s on the high end, yes, but I’d also expect that a fund is on the high end of compensation.

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