What’s it like being a senior in-house corporate attorney in biotech or tech? Is the work interesting or is it mainly just reviewing contracts and admin/CYA work for biz folks?

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Drafting and negotiating commercial contracts, which is largely a form-based exercise (pretty easy, not a ton of room for contention except re: reps and indemnification basically); sitting in on lots of meetings and very occasionally weighing in; fielding calls from random departments with various legal questions; making calls to those random departments with various legal questions making sure they don’t obliviously get themselves into a jam; maintaining the cap table; reviewing outside counsel work, and managing their fees; very occasionally helping with a financing; one day hopefully working alongside (behind) outside counsel on the IPO or M&A exit.

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Literally none of that

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So what is it like??

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Thanks - this is helpful. Seems like some young attorneys are fast tracked for C-suite roles in pre-clinical biotechs. I see a lot of postings for these jobs but curious if you know what makes someone thrive in this type of role. From what you describe sounds like it’s more about managing expectations rather than any specific technical/scientific skill set

If your goal is to switch over to the business side in biotech, the fastest and easiest (IMO) way to do that as an attorney is to develop and prove strong project management skills. Good project managers are worth their weight in gold in that space.

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