Spilling the Tea: In-House Life

What is it like to be an in-house attorney? This, by far, is the number one question I am asked. Usually, it’s asked out of pure curiosity – law students or young lawyers wanting to know whether it’s a viable option in their career path, and if so, how to get here. Sometimes, it’s asked out of frustration at current work situation (my friends in private practice) and there’s that gnawing question of whether it’s truly greener on the other side. And at times, it’s asked because a friend is interviewing for an in-house opportunity -and the idea of taking that unknown fork in the road is scary. Either way, I get asked so much that I might as well put it into writing.

Before I delve into my response, let me preface with a few disclaimers:

1. I have only been in-house at one very large, stable company for almost 4 years.
2. My practice area is employment law.
3. I am not in a leadership role.

Why the disclaimers? To set the table in dispelling the myth that all in-house opportunities are the same. It varies by company size (and stability), company culture, industry, who you work with and for, what your role is, whether the company is privately or publicly held and your practice area, among other factors.

But first things first, what is my typical day like?

This is a tough question because for me, one of my favorite things about being in-house is that I am never bored. I don’t have a typical day. But here’s my attempt at “bucketing” the work I do.

1. Meetings. Lots of meetings.

The number one way I am of value to the company is to be available to clients when they have questions and need advice. This means that I am invited to lots of meetings and conference calls. In fact, one of the major differences between firm life and in-house is that everyone at the company has visibility to my outlook calendar and can send an invitation to a call or meeting – and if I have not blocked it, it is fair game. Instead of back and forth emails regarding availability, clients simply look on your calendar and book a free spot. What this means is that when I look on my calendar today, I may think that I have a free hour to work tomorrow, but tomorrow, when I look on my calendar, it is taken up by a client need. Certainly, I have the ability to decline the meeting or call if needed, but it goes back to my purpose: I am here for clients, and if they need advice to move forward with their projects and work, then they are the priority.

By the way, I overnight travel once a month for meetings for 1-3 nights at a time. And there’s often homework / to-dos coming out of these meetings.

2. Advice & Counsel

I look back at private practice and can remember days where I hardly talked to anyone. Instead, I spent my time reviewing, analyzing and drafting pages and pages of documents. There was time to think deeply about the law, what it meant and what it should mean – and I spent a lot of time carefully crafting persuasive arguments. And now, ain’t nobody in-house got time for that.

Instead of drafting written memos or pleadings or motions, most of my advice and counsel is on the phone or in meetings – on the fly. If it requires more analysis or research, then it may come in the form of bulleted emails, high-level powerpoint decks or one-pagers, with information distilled to only the most important. No one wants a treatise or memo. Legalese is not appreciated and perhaps, is scorned.

By the way, it should probably be mentioned here that legal is simply one of other stakeholders. Meaning, you can be overruled despite how many trials you’ve won or if you’re a published legal scholar. It comes down to whether you can be trusted and relied upon to help the business solve problems and move forward in a legally compliant manner as quickly as possible.

3. Project Management

As outside counsel, I would give advice, but I never thought about what it took for clients to follow the advice. Now I know.

It’s one thing to advise a client of new lactation accommodation requirements in California because a law just passed. It’s sending one email and takes minutes.

It’s another thing entirely to be the lawyer in-house, who has to figure out who needs to know (rest of legal team, HR, leave administration, facilities, etc.), how many locations in California are affected, assess each location for compliance with the new law, help create a priority list for each “fix” that needs to occur – as well as ensure that the fix happens.

Of course, that’s just one example of project management. Now consider all the new laws that get passed all the time. Consider all the changes in practice or a process that may not even be fueled by a change in the law.

Yep. That is why project management is huge.

4. Managing Litigation

Some companies expect their lawyers to litigate and arbitrate while others (like my company) only expect me to manage outside counsel. Admittedly, our outside counsel do the heavy lifting when it comes to drafting pleadings, discovery, motions and conducting depositions, hearings and arbitrations.

But my role isn’t minimal. For pre-litigation matters, I am responsible for overseeing investigations, preparing pre-litigation correspondence, including responses to EEOC charges and preparing and attending pre-litigation mediations. I also prepare releases and settlement agreements.

When we have litigation, I have to figure out who the key witnesses are, what documents they have (to hand them over to outside counsel) and issue litigation holds. I drive strategy with outside counsel, prepare witnesses, review written work product, and attend depositions, major hearings and arbitrations/trials.

5. Training

My number one favorite thing to do in-house is creating and conducting training for employees. I find or create the content, ensure that it’s legally compliant and do my best to be creative and engaging. This can be as boring as creating a powerpoint or as fun as producing an internal video – from drafting a script to playing an extra to helping direct the filming as well as editing the video. I love conducting live training for employees the most.

Now for the tea – what are some of my personal pros/cons with being in-house:

Pros:

• No billable hour. Work is work, and I love getting it done without having to keep track of it.
• Work / life integration (I don’t believe in balance) – I work for a leader and a company that allows me a lot of flexibility to be the kinda mama that I want to be – and for me, this is everything.
• The variety of work – no day is the same.
• Identifying with larger purpose / brand – being a part of something larger than myself
• Stable company with phenomenal benefits and competitive compensation
• I prefer trying to prevent problems in the first place over defending them after the fact

Cons:

• How long it takes to get things done / have decisions made (probably unique to larger companies)
• Navigating murky company politics (at least at a firm, it was mostly hierarchial / based on rainmaking)
• Flat organization. Promotions are improbable because of lack of openings.
• Lack of growth. If you don’t proactively seek growth and development, it’s easy to be stagnant and do the same-o same-o.
• Compensation is set (vs. being a partner at some firms)

And of course, the question I always get asked is, “do you really work less?” And the answer is yes. I still work a lot, more than 40 hours a week but not as much as I did in private practice, and the honest answer to why that may be is that there isn’t a monetary incentive to do so. My typical day is 9-5 because I have daycare dropoff and pick up, and I plug in at night when the kiddos are asleep for an hour or two — except for one day a week when I work from home in the morning for a half day and then have half off. I also try to work from home on Fridays.

Enough with the tea for now! Next week, I’ll write about the questions you should ask, when considering going in-house.