Lit Exit Opps Forum

[jets4life]

Trying to decide between corporate and litigation. Know I ultimately want to work in house and many lawyers have told me that if that is the case then corporate would be the better route. Anyone have any opinions on this? Also how common is it to switch from working in lit at a big law firm to working on transactional matters in house?

[OutCold]

If you know you want to work in-house, you should go corporate. The in-house positions for lit are few and far between.

[Lacepiece23]

I honestly believe that if you want to go in-house, you shouldn't do Lit. That's not saying that you can't do it. That's saying that people who want Lit generally want it because either they like writing intellectual things or hope to eventually go to court/depositions and actually litigate. In-house, from what I've heard, is just mainly a lot of middle management where you have a huge portfolio of cases and you're not involved in any of the above. At that point, might as well go transactional if that's all you really want to do in five years. And you will have a way easier time getting that job.

[homestyle28]

Focus on the kind of work you want to do/why you want to work in house. Lots of people say that, but have no concept for what it means to work in-house beyond "not a firm." Do you want to put deals together? Great, but probably go get an MBA because in house corporate lawyers often don't actually put deals together. Do you want to to risk/compliance work? Great, but you're gonna need to litigate some first.

[foregetaboutdre]

Labor/Employment has some litigation like aspects and molds well to an in-house career (probably less so than corp). But you won't be doing an appellate practice - more like DOL, EEOC, state agencies, bargaining, etc...