I have been looking at in house roles and some places seem to have aweful salaries (like sub 200k or even 100k) but require an insane level of specialization. Do people take these roles?

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Yep. Took a sub 200k base. Came from biglaw, was a 7th year when I lateraled. The job was in the industry I wanted, location I wanted, and seemed to have great WLB.

6 months in and zero regrets so far. I haven’t worked a single weekend and have a standard 9-5 schedule. Work is interesting, too!

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Some in house are such a bad deal. Yes biglaw sucks but they pay you for it. Public sector pay isn’t great but pressure is low. Inhouse can be the best of both worlds or the worst. Some people making great money with great wlb and others getting paid less than a county attorney with terrible hours and limited support.

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yeah dont work at a startup, limited support, terrible hours and bad longevity. some may pay over 200k and look more attractive than larger companies in general, but pay doesnt matter if u get let go less than a year in

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I have one and I’m grateful, and I do hope to grow and will probably have to jump companies in a couple of years. It was a big opportunity for me because I was pivoting from the public sector and had zero truly relevant experience.

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So how'd you get the job w/no experience? Connections? Or did they just want big law exp?

Most people don’t have big law background

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Many of these companies comp comes more from bonuses and other incentives than salary. I’m in house and my salary is less than 50% of my comp. The rest is bonus and shares.

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Something to be said for WLB and being able to actually take a vacation. Plus as others said, there’s other comp

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They do. I see the first in-house job as getting your foot in the door. My salary doubled when I got my second in-house job.

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How long did it take you to get your second in house job and how long did you stay at the first?

Believe it or not, they do, especially for sexy name companies.

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do you even have in house experience yet?

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Often only as their first IHC job, then they jump to something more competitive.

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people dont realize that 200k plus ihc is usually for people who have either been in the ihc industey for a while or worked a biglaw job doing something niche like m/a , ip and privacy. Legal is a cost center so jobs that pay 200k plus arent necessarily going to be chill unless u have a unique value add

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I’m basically a generalist. I support a service line at my company with their legal needs, so both commercial transactions and commercial operational legal support. I work for a large company, and I sit on a team of other lawyers. However, I’ve been told that my comp is strong but not top of market.

The issue is you’re up against mostly people who are not coming from biglaw, which is most lawyers in general. So they won’t take a big paycut and may even get a bump. Biglaw experience isn’t valued for most in house roles either, so you are directly competing with people from worse firms who are happy with the pay.

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besides that, biglaw lawyers are not ready to be in house attorneys, the mindset is different, and there is more of an emphasis on being able to break down legal concepts rather than give dense memos or 50 state surveys

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Yeah I think it makes me feel more stuck in big law or that the grass is not greener.

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grass is greener, i dont bill. i work less than 40 hours and TC over 200k but i started making way less and was willing to work

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I would do it for the right company. But, there must be bonuses and stock. Pay must also be 180ish or higher. Otherwise, it’s a pass for me. Plenty of options out there for my specialty.

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Yeah it is just sometimes a huge mismatch for geography and don’t understand how people could live in the regions where these jobs are. But it is like some places want like someone that has a background in derivatives but won’t pay for it

Lucky

Some in house jobs do not pay very much. They are not good landing spots for big law lawyers. I know that I went up against a number of “general counsels” who made a fraction of what I did.

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