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[TUwave]

Chiming in to spread a little more positivity/hope. Just a couple months ago I was another miserable midlevel big law associate doing M&A work and I absolutely hated life. Not to sound too melodramatic, but I felt more and more like a shell of my younger self the longer I stayed in the job. The partners I worked for weren’t even that bad for big law standards, but the nature of PE/M&A work where EVERYTHING is urgent ALL THE TIME was really getting to me. I hated feeling like I had zero control over my life and would get anxiety making weekend plans six months in advance knowing that a deal could blow up anytime with no warning.

I reached the point where just the thought of doing another deal would give me a straight up panic attack, so I dived into the in-house search really hard. FYI I actually think right now is an ideal time to interview while most people are WFH because you don’t have to worry about people noticing your absence from the office, plus you don’t have to travel for your interviews.

I ended up getting multiple in-house offers all around the same time and accepted an offer to be counsel at one of the FAANG. There’s definitely a learning curve working at a new company and it’s still relatively early to make a fully informed judgment, but the quality of my life has already drastically improved. I can make weekend plans without fear of them being ruined, I’m encouraged to take vacation by my manager (even though I just started my new job, I’m already planning to be out a week for the holidays - in big law, the holidays were always the worst time because of deals trying to close by year end), and people aren’t constantly hounding me to turn a document ASAP that I just found out about five minutes ago. I much prefer the steadier and more predictable work flow that I’ve had so far, instead of the feast or famine nature of corporate work. I actually find the work substantively interesting even though I’m still drafting contracts and appreciate that I get to learn more deeply about one company/industry versus serving multiple clients. And no more billable hours is a huuuuge game changer and burden off my shoulders.

I also feel pretty lucky in terms of compensation. While I did take a pay cut, especially factoring in big law bonuses, I currently make mid-200k all-in (with most of it being cash and not unvested equity) and feel like it’s plenty, especially because I paid off my student loans before I left big law. I definitely wouldn’t want to return to big law even with a senior associate salary and bonus, though I realize some may not agree.

The in-house process is definitely competitive and involves a lot of luck and timing, so if you’re serious about leaving big law, you have to put in the effort, unless you’re lucky to be poached by a client. I spent a lot of time searching for job listings online, researching the companies I interviewed with, updating my resume, perusing in-house advice threads on TLS, and coming up with good answers for why I wanted to make the transition to in-house. Happy to say the effort paid off, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with where I am now. I’ve come a long way in terms of both job and personal happiness throughout this rollercoaster of a year.

Thank you for posting your point of view, definitely gives people hope. Can I ask what type of role you are in-house? Is it a product/commercial counsel role or is it more general? I'm trying to figure out what types of roles to target when I start my search.

[Anonymous User]

Chiming in to spread a little more positivity/hope. Just a couple months ago I was another miserable midlevel big law associate doing M&A work and I absolutely hated life. Not to sound too melodramatic, but I felt more and more like a shell of my younger self the longer I stayed in the job. The partners I worked for weren’t even that bad for big law standards, but the nature of PE/M&A work where EVERYTHING is urgent ALL THE TIME was really getting to me. I hated feeling like I had zero control over my life and would get anxiety making weekend plans six months in advance knowing that a deal could blow up anytime with no warning.

I reached the point where just the thought of doing another deal would give me a straight up panic attack, so I dived into the in-house search really hard. FYI I actually think right now is an ideal time to interview while most people are WFH because you don’t have to worry about people noticing your absence from the office, plus you don’t have to travel for your interviews.

I ended up getting multiple in-house offers all around the same time and accepted an offer to be counsel at one of the FAANG. There’s definitely a learning curve working at a new company and it’s still relatively early to make a fully informed judgment, but the quality of my life has already drastically improved. I can make weekend plans without fear of them being ruined, I’m encouraged to take vacation by my manager (even though I just started my new job, I’m already planning to be out a week for the holidays - in big law, the holidays were always the worst time because of deals trying to close by year end), and people aren’t constantly hounding me to turn a document ASAP that I just found out about five minutes ago. I much prefer the steadier and more predictable work flow that I’ve had so far, instead of the feast or famine nature of corporate work. I actually find the work substantively interesting even though I’m still drafting contracts and appreciate that I get to learn more deeply about one company/industry versus serving multiple clients. And no more billable hours is a huuuuge game changer and burden off my shoulders.

I also feel pretty lucky in terms of compensation. While I did take a pay cut, especially factoring in big law bonuses, I currently make mid-200k all-in (with most of it being cash and not unvested equity) and feel like it’s plenty, especially because I paid off my student loans before I left big law. I definitely wouldn’t want to return to big law even with a senior associate salary and bonus, though I realize some may not agree.

The in-house process is definitely competitive and involves a lot of luck and timing, so if you’re serious about leaving big law, you have to put in the effort, unless you’re lucky to be poached by a client. I spent a lot of time searching for job listings online, researching the companies I interviewed with, updating my resume, perusing in-house advice threads on TLS, and coming up with good answers for why I wanted to make the transition to in-house. Happy to say the effort paid off, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with where I am now. I’ve come a long way in terms of both job and personal happiness throughout this rollercoaster of a year.

Thank you for posting your point of view, definitely gives people hope. Can I ask what type of role you are in-house? Is it a product/commercial counsel role or is it more general? I'm trying to figure out what types of roles to target when I start my search.

To also piggyback, I am interviewing with these companies and could you expand more on your interview/offer process? Were you more senior (6-7 years) or 3-5 years? Did you negotiate your offer? Your comp seems sort of in line with what seems standard from my research but if you could give the breakdown and if/how you negotiated the process that would be great as I'm coming up with some limited information in some resources and think one seems hopefully promising!

[arandomuser1332]

Chiming in to spread a little more positivity/hope. Just a couple months ago I was another miserable midlevel big law associate doing M&A work and I absolutely hated life. Not to sound too melodramatic, but I felt more and more like a shell of my younger self the longer I stayed in the job. The partners I worked for weren’t even that bad for big law standards, but the nature of PE/M&A work where EVERYTHING is urgent ALL THE TIME was really getting to me. I hated feeling like I had zero control over my life and would get anxiety making weekend plans six months in advance knowing that a deal could blow up anytime with no warning.

I reached the point where just the thought of doing another deal would give me a straight up panic attack, so I dived into the in-house search really hard. FYI I actually think right now is an ideal time to interview while most people are WFH because you don’t have to worry about people noticing your absence from the office, plus you don’t have to travel for your interviews.

I ended up getting multiple in-house offers all around the same time and accepted an offer to be counsel at one of the FAANG. There’s definitely a learning curve working at a new company and it’s still relatively early to make a fully informed judgment, but the quality of my life has already drastically improved. I can make weekend plans without fear of them being ruined, I’m encouraged to take vacation by my manager (even though I just started my new job, I’m already planning to be out a week for the holidays - in big law, the holidays were always the worst time because of deals trying to close by year end), and people aren’t constantly hounding me to turn a document ASAP that I just found out about five minutes ago. I much prefer the steadier and more predictable work flow that I’ve had so far, instead of the feast or famine nature of corporate work. I actually find the work substantively interesting even though I’m still drafting contracts and appreciate that I get to learn more deeply about one company/industry versus serving multiple clients. And no more billable hours is a huuuuge game changer and burden off my shoulders.

I also feel pretty lucky in terms of compensation. While I did take a pay cut, especially factoring in big law bonuses, I currently make mid-200k all-in (with most of it being cash and not unvested equity) and feel like it’s plenty, especially because I paid off my student loans before I left big law. I definitely wouldn’t want to return to big law even with a senior associate salary and bonus, though I realize some may not agree.

The in-house process is definitely competitive and involves a lot of luck and timing, so if you’re serious about leaving big law, you have to put in the effort, unless you’re lucky to be poached by a client. I spent a lot of time searching for job listings online, researching the companies I interviewed with, updating my resume, perusing in-house advice threads on TLS, and coming up with good answers for why I wanted to make the transition to in-house. Happy to say the effort paid off, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with where I am now. I’ve come a long way in terms of both job and personal happiness throughout this rollercoaster of a year.

At the risk of seizing on this post, in terms of how you actually targeted your applications, did you just wait for the FAANG (and similar) job posting to be publicly posted before applying or did you use a recruiter, in-house connection, etc.? I check the FAANG sites pretty much on a daily basis and relevant position openings seem quite rare, particularly for Google.

[thelawyler]

Plenty of very helpful and thoughtful posts here so far. Thank you for sharing. Bumping it up, but also curious whether anyone has recommendation on whether to jump into the corporate counsel or product counsel roles when making the jump to in house.