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Who’s planning on leaving after getting their bonus?
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Add in some unnecessary negotiations for an NDA and resorting to google as your sole research resource and you’ve got the whole in house experience.
You forgot about cutting your hours by 2/3!
As a third year in house, expect to be doing that exclusively for awhile on repetitive forms. And agree with C1 for someone at your level.
Def not. And going in house at your level makes it much more likely that you never even get to really substantive work.
+1 to GC1. I’ve always been in house and doing a lot of substantive work. Your experience may vary depending on firm/industry or years of experience, but it’s not unheard of to do substantive work in house.
I’m at a west coast biglaw tech firm and our third years are doing more than that for sure - but also I think at a lot of top shops your experience is not abnormal so do not fret - maybe consider lateraling though if you want a little more hands on work
Would not go in house this early I think the people who do miss out on a lot
Depends. My associate product counsel (just started after 3 years in tech biglaw) is managing some litigation, our primary interface with our partner bank on our fintech product, managing our responses to inquiries from AG offices, and a lot of other things that I consider pretty strategic. Having worked at most all of the top tech companies and for many as outside counsel as well, I’d say that it’s highly dependent upon the stage of the company and what stage in team development you join. We’ve just secured our series C and still a small team, so my new to in-house counsel are doing a lot and getting broad experience across the company (a little commercial, but definitely not repetitive).
I went in-house as a fifth year and have had a very different experience. I was responsible for managing all sorts of transactions, big and small - and as big as a divestiture of the company. Also, smaller the company you go to work in-house, the more experience and responsibility you’ll get. I’ve worked at big and small companies and small is waaaay more interesting/fun.
If you really want to be fulfilled and actually do substantive work, the public sector is always hiring. A year of substantive work there will put you miles ahead other associates. The pay cut will be painful though.
Have you tried speaking with your boss/managing partner to ask for more substantive work? Or at least a few opportunities to try your hand at it?
Yes that’s definitely putting some pressure on me to jump ship soon. Targeting midsized/regional firms, I think.
This is highly dependent on the legal department and it’s culture.
If you want pure legal work stay at a firm. If you want to build a biz go inhouse somewhere with that culture (likely a modern department perhaps an amazon)and expectations (and likely avoid a legacy style bank dept).
Even as a junior, asking to take the first cut at putting certain things together usually is answered with “go for it” (if time permits).
For example, when you get a draft of the definitive agreement back, ask to take the first cut at an issues list (or, if you really want reps - put one together and compare with what the senior/partner put together). Sometimes you have to ask directly for certain opportunities.