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Just wondering how easy it is to move from practicing antitrust at a firm (mix of litigation and merger/regulatory counseling) to an in house position. Anyone who has made this transition or is familiar with those who have, please chime in. Thanks!

I've literally never heard of this.

From my experience only very large companies in select industries have in house antitrust counsel. Most of the people I'm aware of who have these jobs are very experienced in the public sector or private sector. You need to have pretty high level credentials already (partner in a firm or fairly senior official at DOJ/FTC). There might be other positions that are less visible to outsiders, but it hasn't struck me as a likely exit for mid-senior biglaw associates.

There's some in house exit options out there for mid-levels, particularly in the tech industry. I've also seen people go from antitrust to in house commercial law positions at large companies where only a portion of what they do is antitrust.

Thanks for the responses. I'm not very interested in pursuing a transactional career, so I guess I'm just trying to figure out what other avenues might be conducive to a move in-house other than litigation, which has always been my focus. Just wanted to see what other options might exist for consideration.

Sorry, last post wasn't meant to be anon, OP here.

Anonymous User wrote:Thanks for the responses. I'm not very interested in pursuing a transactional career, so I guess I'm just trying to figure out what other avenues might be conducive to a move in-house other than litigation, which has always been my focus. Just wanted to see what other options might exist for consideration.

I'm a 3L, but I've heard it's reasonably common for more traditional regulatory people to go in house. Might consider it if you're going to a firm that does that.

I practice antitrust. In-house exit options aren't nearly as strong as in a standard transactional practice, but they're better than in general commercial litigation (i.e. they actually exist). The antitrust attorneys I know who have gone in-house do transactional/compliance-related work; there's no demand for in-house antitrust litigators. I don't think it makes sense to do antitrust if your primary goal is going in-house, but it's an OK field if you want to do litigation while preserving some hope of going in-house (although L&E might be better for that).

A friend of mine did antitrust lit for 5-6 years and spent the last few looking for exit opportunities. It seemed like the skillset did not match up well for an IH transition, but after a long search, she did find a gov't regulatory job which she now enjoys very much.