Related Posts
Additional Posts in Ask A Recruiter - Law
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Download the Fishbowl app to unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Copy and paste embed code on your site

Scan your QR code to download
Fishbowl app on your mobile

I think it’s best to join mature companies that have been around for a bit and have actual legal teams. I’d avoid the ones that have such an array of responsibilities. Generally, the ones with a stricter set of areas you’d be responsible for, still allow you to look around and assist with other matters.
It really depends on the size of the company. For a smaller operation, like startup and a little above, they really only have the budget for one in-house counsel, so naturally they'll want more of a generalist. If you want something more tuned to a specific practice area, you'll need to be looking at bigger, more established companies.
Avoid first legal hire unless you are totally ready. Joining a team is not a guaranteed way to avoid this issue but at least somethings are being handled.
Agreed that it depends on the company. For small start up, you are wearing a lot of hats as the single mini GC. but for a large company, they normally have well established legal departments and you expect to mainly work in one area such as commercial contracts, employment, regulatory, real estate etc, but the fun part being in house is that you will be expected to know a little bit everything except the area that you are specializing in