What was your answer to “why in-house” during your interview? And what is your unfiltered answer?

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“I truly enjoy the practice of law - the intellectual stimulation of identifying my client’s issues and finding efficient, deal oriented ways of resolving them; maintaining client relationship; negotiating transactions with an eye towards getting deals done; all of the part of the profession that make it interesting - and I’m very good at those things.

In a private form setting, those skills are valuable, but they’re always secondary to business development, and rightly so, and while I enjoy maintaining client relationships, I’ve never loved originating new business.

I’m excited to go in-house because it will allow me to make the most valuable contribution to the organization that I can possibly make by using the skills which I already employ at a very high level and which already brings me the most satisfaction in my career.”

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My clients always paid lip service about how they appreciated me and how I was part of the team, but I always knew that at the end of the day, I was just a service provider.

And I wasn’t a rainmaker, so managing and maintaining others’ client relationships was how I earned my living, but when those clients inevitably go away, I’d have to find new clients to service, which I had to do a couple of times. It was like the sword of Damocles being over my head, even in the busy years.

And that also made me subordinate to my rainmaking partners. It didn’t matter if I was a better technical practitioner. The rainmakers were still going to make more and end up in the firm decision maker roles. And the reality of it is that that’s not unfair, nor did I begrudge the form for making those decisions, especially since I was paid fairly well for my role.

But when a client invited me to join their reasonably large (30-40 lawyer) in-house department for purposes of running one of the teams in their legal department, doing the kinds of deals that I’d always done, it was a no-brainer.

So my answer was genuine, even if filtered.

As a follow up, I’ve never been more professionally satisfied than I am now, a couple of years after making the move.

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Public answer: The work I enjoyed in private practice the most was when I was embedded with a client for an all-hands team project to resolve an urgent issue. All cylinders are firing and because there isn’t much time, everyone appreciates and understands every team member’s role and unique skill set. That mindset isn’t always front and center for most private practice projects just because of the type of projects that get farmed out. In-house draws from business and legal and everyone is able to focus on bringing their skill set and role to the table, which makes for (1) a learning experience, and (2) a much more efficient solution.

Private answer: you must have never met my biglaw boss

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Filtered: my favourite part of practicing law is being a valued advice giver and I want to play that role in an environment where I can see the results of what we are working towards and be part of the business team.

Unfiltered: mostly the same but with also dear god the biglaw lifestyle is killing me and I work with psychos

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I really enjoy this industry. And I am looking to get more exposure to it by working inhouse side by side with the business. Too often outside counsel only sees a portion of what happens on a deal or a potential product launch, and I would love to be involved with all of it working across the various departments.

That is my real answer, and if the person is a biglaw escapee then I might add somthhing about having more control over my workload.

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I was part of a three person startup straight out of law school. We hit a roadblock that ultimately proved to be a killer. I moved on, took the Bar, developed my skills via firm life, but I always intended to return to the business world as in house counsel.

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“I can ask you the same thing” -raise eyebrow

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The correct answer is you like their company. It’s like telling your girlfriend why you decided to date brunettes, where the correct answer is you like her and not brunettes as a group.

“The” correct answer?

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