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I am about to graduate in the top 15% of a T2 school in a large secondary market and have been trying to get a Biglaw job doing corporate transactional work. I am really interested in M&A, Private Equity, ect., but have not been able to land one of those jobs. At this point, I'm just trying to find a job at a mid-size to smaller firm with hopes of getting good experience and being able to lateral into Biglaw after 3-5 years.

However, a friend of mine recently recommended I apply for an entry-level Contracts Attorney position at a the company he works for (a publicly traded advertising company). If I got this job and started my career there, would I essentially be kissing any Biglaw or significant law firm jobs goodbye? What impact would this have on my career? Any advice is appreciated.

Yes. The position is not a "contracts attorney" it's "contract attorney" (which means that you're paid per hour and not on partnership track). It's also a temp job.

If it's all you can get then it's all you can get. But it will preclude you from working as an associate in Biglaw

OP here. This is not a "Contract Attorney" position. This is a "Contracts Attorney" position. The responsibilities are to manage all the client contracts for the company, including drafting and negotiating the contracts. It's a full-time position, not a temp job.

I actually have the same question. I am in a position to gain a full time patent prosecution job in a large (50+ billion dollar) company....if I take this job will I be precluded from lateraling to a firm if I ever want to?

Anonymous User wrote:I actually have the same question. I am in a position to gain a full time patent prosecution job in a large (50+ billion dollar) company....if I take this job will I be precluded from lateraling to a firm if I ever want to?

No. You can lateral into a firm. At Year 1 or Year 2 use a recruiter or network. You are doing more work than an Associate so it is the perfect level of experience.

mr.hands wrote:Yes. The position is not a "contracts attorney" it's "contract attorney" (which means that you're paid per hour and not on partnership track). It's also a temp job.

If it's all you can get then it's all you can get. But it will preclude you from working as an associate in Biglaw

THIS IS BS

Sorry... those last two comments were me. Idk. why I hit anon.

It won't preclude you from biglaw per se. But most probably will from practicing PE. Any Biglaw you hustle into will want to take advantage of the experience you gain in house. Edit: For what it's worth, figure out what you want to do. M&A, PE while finance-based (granted, they overlap occasionally) are incredibly different practices in the same way that the day to day operations of a VC and HF aren't comparable.

Anonymous User wrote:

mr.hands wrote:Yes. The position is not a "contracts attorney" it's "contract attorney" (which means that you're paid per hour and not on partnership track). It's also a temp job.

If it's all you can get then it's all you can get. But it will preclude you from working as an associate in Biglaw

THIS IS BS

Whoa pump the brakes kid. It sounded like a contract attorney position. If that were the case, he would be precluded from later starting in biglaw as a partner-track associate. "Contracts attorney" is not something that is often said

With respect to your other comment, OP isn't asking about lateraling to *any* firm. He's asking about biglaw, which generally takes in law students or laterals attorneys from other firms. You're dramatically overstating his ability to lateral into biglaw from an in house position. (I'm not saying it's impossible, just difficult if the applicant hasn't had any post-grad firm experience.)

Since he's not weighing a biglaw offer with this one, though, this calculation doesn't really matter much at this point. Unless you already have an offer from those mid-size to small firms, what alternative is there?

Given your description of the job, OP, it sounds like a good job.

mr.hands wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

mr.hands wrote:Yes. The position is not a "contracts attorney" it's "contract attorney" (which means that you're paid per hour and not on partnership track). It's also a temp job.

If it's all you can get then it's all you can get. But it will preclude you from working as an associate in Biglaw

THIS IS BS

Whoa pump the brakes kid. It sounded like a contract attorney position. If that were the case, he would be precluded from later starting in biglaw as a partner-track associate. "Contracts attorney" is not something that is often said

With respect to your other comment, OP isn't asking about lateraling to *any* firm. He's asking about biglaw, which generally takes in law students or laterals attorneys from other firms. You're dramatically overstating his ability to lateral into biglaw from an in house position. (I'm not saying it's impossible, just difficult if the applicant hasn't had any post-grad firm experience.)

Since he's not weighing a biglaw offer with this one, though, this calculation doesn't really matter much at this point. Unless you already have an offer from those mid-size to small firms, what alternative is there?

Given your description of the job, OP, it sounds like a good job.

You seem like a 0L. "Contracts attorney" positions are listed on numerous job searching sites, so I don't know why you're implying it's an uncommon job description.

It's true that it will be very difficult to lateral into biglaw if you start in house.

Biglaw_Associate_V20 wrote:
You seem like a 0L. "Contracts attorney" positions are listed on numerous job searching sites, so I don't know why you're implying it's an uncommon job description.

It's true that it will be very difficult to lateral into biglaw if you start in house.

Not for someone in OPs position. Given that OP is a 3L at a TT school with limited firm experience, i figured it was far more likely that he was looking to a position as a part-time contract attorney (not a full-time position as an attorney for a publicly traded company.)

Then again, OP is referring to a job posting not a job offer. That's why i was confused.

Also, i'm a 3L.

You're an unemployed 3L at a TT. At this point you need to apply for anything and everything. You can afford to be choosy once you have choices.

I don't know why you are wasting everyone's time with this question. You haven't even received an interview at this job let alone an offer. If you get the position, you would be wise to take it. YOU HAVE NOTHING ELSE DUDE.

Can you get Big Law after a couple of years in-house. Yes, possibly. But that would be dependent on the work that you do and your chances are probably less if you had worked at a mid-size firm or even done litigation as an Attorney General. You should be fortunate that you can even get a job in-house. Most corporations want you to work at a firm before going in-house.

The biglaw boat has probably long since sailed. I think you need to recalibrate your goals.

I'm a third year in-house attorney. You can get into big law from in-house, but you will need the work experience to do so and do it early enough in your career.

Once you start practicing, you really can only move to a BigFirm if you have the experience in a practice area that they are interested in. For example, if you are working for a movie studio as in-house attorney doing entertainment deals and a Big Firm had an opening in their entertainment practice, on paper you would be an ideal candidate. There are a surprisingly small number of in-house entertainment related positions worldwide, and so your tool set would be valued. However, the complexity of deals done in Big Law is usually far greater than what an in-house legal department handles, so likely you would have to be trained quite a bit which is why the jump likely has to be made within the first 2-4 years of your practice. After that it gets harder to train you and Big Law would rather take a younger person who is fresher than an older one.

My advice is you need to get the job. Any job. Get experience. Worry about moving on once you get 1-2 years of experience in.

Would working in a small law firm really make your chances of getting into big law in a few years any better than starting in-house?