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Hey guys,

Looking for some advice here. I'm currently a third year practicing at a pretty sizable west coast firm. Definitely not big law size but the firm has multiple offices. My goal has always been to go in-house. Litigation isn't for me and I know it. In the last three years I've had the fortune to get some pretty solid litigation experience. Had some good bosses, mentors and met great attorneys. Still, I want to go in-house. I just joined my current firm 4 months ago. So far everything is good with no complaints. Great boss, great people. Right after I accepted the offer to join this firm, I got called in for an interview for an in-house position. Of course I turned down the interview since I already accepted my law firm position but it was a very tough decision for me. I would've killed to be in-house for that company. At that time, I just said OH WELL and moved on. In the last few months, I've been keeping busy with my current gig and today I see that that same in-house position just got posted again. Looks like they never filled the spot.

My dilemma - Should I apply? I already had some dealings with the HR folks so they have my resume, application, etc. I mean...if I do quit my current gig, how will that look...leaving a firm after four months? I wouldn't even know what to say in the interview if they ask me what I've been up to in the last four months and...why I turned them down the first place?

I really enjoy my boss and the people in my office but like I said, litigation isn't for me. I've been doing litigation only because that's the "traditional route" after school, plus most in-house positions won't even look at you unless you have a few years of law firm experience under your belt. Thanks.

If my dream gig opens up, I'm taking it.

Same think happened to a woman that worked in my office - she took the in house spot after being at my firm for 5 months and no one thought any less of her. I'm very close with the managing partners of my office and I know that they had no problem with it. We are about 130 attorneys total (guessing you are a similar size) and a firm in that range can replace someone pretty easily. It also stings less when you're leaving to do something completely different. If you were leaving to go to a different law firm - that would be a different story. I knew a guy that did that at my firm and years later people still talk shit of his name comes up.

Anonymous User wrote:Hey guys,

Looking for some advice here. I'm currently a third year practicing at a pretty sizable west coast firm. Definitely not big law size but the firm has multiple offices. My goal has always been to go in-house. Litigation isn't for me and I know it. In the last three years I've had the fortune to get some pretty solid litigation experience. Had some good bosses, mentors and met great attorneys. Still, I want to go in-house. I just joined my current firm 4 months ago. So far everything is good with no complaints. Great boss, great people. Right after I accepted the offer to join this firm, I got called in for an interview for an in-house position. Of course I turned down the interview since I already accepted my law firm position but it was a very tough decision for me. I would've killed to be in-house for that company. At that time, I just said OH WELL and moved on. In the last few months, I've been keeping busy with my current gig and today I see that that same in-house position just got posted again. Looks like they never filled the spot.

My dilemma - Should I apply? I already had some dealings with the HR folks so they have my resume, application, etc. I mean...if I do quit my current gig, how will that look...leaving a firm after four months? I wouldn't even know what to say in the interview if they ask me what I've been up to in the last four months and...why I turned them down the first place?

I really enjoy my boss and the people in my office but like I said, litigation isn't for me. I've been doing litigation only because that's the "traditional route" after school, plus most in-house positions won't even look at you unless you have a few years of law firm experience under your belt. Thanks.

You gotta do you man. Doesn't hurt to interview. Come back here if you've got the job and are still agonizing about it.

OP here. Thanks all for the replies. Any thoughts on how I can explain myself should they ask me why I'm leaving current firm after only four months in conjunction with why I shunned their initial offer for an interview in the first place? Thanks.

If it comes up, could probably just give some version of the truth - you had just accepted another job and didn't feel it was a good time to interview, but when you saw the new opportunity you realized it was something you wanted to pursue after all.

Anonymous User wrote:OP here. Thanks all for the replies. Any thoughts on how I can explain myself should they ask me why I'm leaving current firm after only four months in conjunction with why I shunned their initial offer for an interview in the first place? Thanks.

Here's a thought:

"Initially I had already accepted position X at ____, and wanted to see it through, as I felt it would give me some good experience doing ____. Now that it's been a few years and I have more experience under my belt, I feel a lot more comfortable going for my dream job, which would be to work with you guys doing ____; I applied as soon as I saw the opening was still there, as I did not want to risk missing the opportunity a second time."

Tweak/make more professional as appropriate. Basically, sell a reason why it made no sense to come the first time, but why it makes total sense to do so now, while propping up the skills you now have as an asset to the company.

EDIT: I don't know why I posted this anon, hah.