Thinking of going in house. The billable hour system is really stressing me out and honestly just very incompatible with how I work. Those who made the switch: did that give you piece of mind? Did the lack of billable hour system play a role?

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Words cannot describe what a colossal difference the lack of billing has made on my quality of life. I am now able to actually enjoy my slow days, evenings, and weekends without anxiety or the feeling of “falling behind.” No longer am I concerned about having to “catch up” following a day of suboptimal productivity, or half-ass vacation, or “losing” the morning to go to the dentist.

I can now fully engage in activities at work that would have previously been non-billable, such as team lunches, business socialization, group CLEs, etc., without stress or guilt.

Honestly, it has completely rehabilitated my perspective of this profession following five brutal years of big law. I now cannot help but feel sorry for many of the outside counsel I use, because the vast majority of them, despite being kind, smart, and capable people, are so obviously miserable and tattered.

Highly recommend making the switch.

likeuplifting

Yes, huge difference for me. It takes off a lot of pressure and stress of the job and enables me to get home in time for kids' bedtime and usually dinner too. In Biglaw I'd just stay in the office late to bill to make up for my inability to focus and bill the hours earlier in the day. But each in house role is different, even in the same company so YMMV.

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That was the driving factor for me, and I haven’t looked back. I simply could not bill my time. I put out good work product, but struggled to do it within cost expectations. I would also struggle to bill when I was in the zone on a project.

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Just made the switch earlier this week. In biglaw I could never hit my hours because id either procrastinate and not bill anything or hyper focus and finish the assignments too quickly. Boss just gave me a bunch of contracts to review to fill up my week, while the same amount might’ve been like a day’s worth of billing in biglaw.

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I need to know tooooo. Commenting for visibility

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Going in house literally saved my career. I was drowning at my firm…I was either working or thinking about working and worrying about my hours constantly. Now I work 8-4 in a chill environment. The work itself can be dull, but I remind myself that it’s better for my mental health

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Thank you CC1!

Can someone explain what in house counsel means to me like I’m in kindergarten? I’m in trusts and estates litigation, so any helpful thoughts on how I could best transition would be great.

I know this post is old but pretty much every bank/trust company has trust counsel or fiduciary counsel. In these types of positions, you are typically reviewing trust documents for business acceptance and are consulted with when issues arise in the trust and estate context. Being a litigator is helpful in these types of positions because it is all about risk management and as a T&E litigator, you know where those issues arise and how to solve them. A lot of people also go the trust officer route. You’re not acting as a lawyer, but many banks like to hire T&E lawyers for those jobs because you already know the subject area.

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