Discussing the move to General Counsel position Forum

[heyguys]

Hey guys,

So the more I've read about the whole biglaw, the more the general unsustainability of the individual associate becomes a pressing reality to me (i.e. very small percentage making partner, average duration of employ being like 4 years, etc). The general consensus seems to be that most transition from their positions in biglaw to a general counsel position.

I'm from the southwest (OK/NM/AZ), and I'm very amenable to moving back there. I'm currently at HYS, and I've been planning on doing biglaw in TX (hopefully either Dallas or Austin). That said, I haven't been planning on clerking or doing law review or any of that stuff.

So the question: is a move to general counsel merely a function of who you know and having the biglaw on your resume as getting some experience under your belt, or is there more to it? Should I be concerned about clerking/etc for a general counsel position? Any other insights on this line of work?

[gglr24]

As you probably know, in-house is a lateral move. There are only a few corporations that hire straight out of law school. If you want to move in-house, you will want to go big-law. From there, you want to practice in an area that translates to in-house... such as labor and employment law. If you fit a need for a corporation, you will be head-hunted by recruiters. And you can always seek them out yourself.

[heyguys]

Is there a difference between moving in-house to a big corporation v. moving in-house to a smaller business? Or do smaller businesses not generally have much in the way of counsel? I'm not thinking about moving in-house to a big multinational or anything--I was thinking about, for example, moving in-house to a smallish construction business or something of that sort in AZ/NM/OK...? Should my approach be different? How do people end up in these jobs? Is it just networking?

[Posner]

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[Oblomov]

While it's not common, some huge corporations (GE, P&G, etc) do hire new grads for in-house. No idea how competitive it is or how many positions exist, but there are some out there. Baring connections, I don't think you'd find anything in-house without experience (and the connections that brings) in anything other than a giant multi-national, never mind small TX construction.

That said, even if you could get a job you're probably better off doing biglaw for a while. Cliched as it is, the latter opens many doors.

[gglr24]

Correction: GE does not hire new grads

[Posner]

Checkout this thread on ATL. The comments section, for once, is extremely helpful.

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