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In House Legal Jobs - Better Work/Life Balance Than Private Practice?

 

In House Legal - Better Work-Life Balance?

In House Legal Departments – the Green Grass on the Other Side of the Fence? How easy is it to move from a solicitors’ firm to an in house legal department? Is it an easier life on the other side? Will my stress levels reduce if I work as an in house legal counsel? Will my pay packet go up or down? What benefits are there working in house as opposed to private practice solicitors firms? 

Article from Ten Percent Legal Recruitment (permanent legal recruitment) and Interim Lawyers Locum Legal Recruitment (specialists for locum solicitors in the UK).  

Working in house is often considered the holy grail of legal jobs. After all, what could be better than a job that has no external financial pressures, no requirement to put in long hours to generate fee income and no awkward clients? In house legal Jobs have perks such as flexible hours, set office hours, benefits in addition to salary, real pensions, small legal teams and more autonomy. Unfortunately although all the perks above are correct and the day to day work of in house lawyers tends to be quite different to that of solicitors in private practice, it is not all wonderful and in house legal departments tend to be under pressures albeit of a different nature. We regularly see CVs for in house counsel who move on every 2-3 years throughout their career.

How Easy is it to Move from a Solicitors Firm to an In House Legal Department?

It is not easy to move from a solicitors firm into an in house legal department. The reason for this is fairly simple and applies both ways – in house legal departments look for in house solicitors, not private practice solicitors. Working in house tends to require a different mindset and also more generalist experience than a lot of private practice solicitors have. To give you a specific example – a lot of private practice solicitors specialise in one area of law – for example a solicitor working in a corporate finance department will undertake a considerable amount of work involving asset financing and arranging deals. They will have limited experience of reviewing a contract for the supply of photocopiers to company headquarters. In house lawyers tend to be jack of all trades.

Is it an easier life working In House rather than in Private Practice?

Its pretty clear that a lot of private practice solicitors think so. However we similarly get calls from in house solicitors wanting to make a move into private practice because they are fed up of the in house work. The main reason lawyers look to move out of in house roles is usually to increase their pay packet. Salaries are traditionally lower in house. Similarly job security is a major issue - at some companies staff remain in a perpetual state of uncertainty, for example the company planning to relocate to Alaska or sell/merge.

Flexible Hours

Private practice solicitors usually base their decision to move into in house roles on the basis of the perceived flexible hours that are available and a more relaxed approach to working. In house departments seem a lot more comfortable about remote working, and also tend to be situated in more regional locations, whereas commercial law firms are usually located in city centres. This can be viewed as a considerable benefit to solicitors who have spent many hours of their lives commuting into the centre of cities and getting home at ridiculous times of night.

Will My Stress Levels Improve if I work as an In House Legal Counsel?

For a good number of years I provided career coaching to solicitors looking to make a change in their professional lives and there was very often a common theme running throughout these sessions - stress. It is often related to a specific part of your job, not the type of job itself. It is almost always caused either by a colleague making someone’s life a misery or by dissatisfaction with the day to day work. The first step is to identify the cause of stress and do something about it, rather than make a move elsewhere. Decisions to change jobs are difficult enough without making them for the wrong reasons. I coached in house solicitors with exactly the same issues as private practice lawyers.

Will my pay packet go up or down?

I have rarely come across solicitors in private practice moving into in house roles and getting a pay rise. Anyone coming from a commercial law firm, unless they are working for one of the regional law firms who pay lower salaries to local staff in their regional offices, is going to be earning considerably more than the salary ranges indicated for in house roles. The only place in house legal departments tend to trump private practice law firms is with the benefits that go with a role.

If you decide to go in house, do it for the right reasons.

Jonathan Fagan is Managing Director of Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment and a non-practising Solicitor. Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment provides online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Licensed Conveyancers, Legal Cashiers, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search our Vacancy Database.

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Location: London, UK

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