Transfer student to biglaw to in-house attorney: taking questions Forum

[TempAccountAttorney]

As a law school applicant, law student and early career attorney I used the TLS forums extensively to learn and help plan the development of my education and career. I wanted to come back (with a new account, of course) and see if I may be able to provide any advice regarding my navigation through earlier and mid-career experiences that I've had. So please, fire away.

By way of brief background, I'm about 8 years of out law school. I got off the wait list to get into a T50 and then transferred to a T14. My practice as external counsel spanned a few Vault 50 firms, in both litigation (IP) and corporate practices (specialized finance and general corporate groups). I've now been in-house for a few years at a mid/late stage technology company.

Please feel free to ask away and I'll do my best to come back and answer what questions I can. Hoping I can provide some helpful guidance to help pay back the community for the assistance I've gained along the way.

[almondjoy]

What year were you when you went in house? Any regrets?

[emptyflare]

As a law school applicant, law student and early career attorney I used the TLS forums extensively to learn and help plan the development of my education and career. I wanted to come back (with a new account, of course) and see if I may be able to provide any advice regarding my navigation through earlier and mid-career experiences that I've had. So please, fire away.

By way of brief background, I'm about 8 years of out law school. I got off the wait list to get into a T50 and then transferred to a T14. My practice as external counsel spanned a few Vault 50 firms, in both litigation (IP) and corporate practices (specialized finance and general corporate groups). I've now been in-house for a few years at a mid/late stage technology company.

Please feel free to ask away and I'll do my best to come back and answer what questions I can. Hoping I can provide some helpful guidance to help pay back the community for the assistance I've gained along the way.

How have you enjoyed your in-house experience compared to biglaw? Are you ever concerned re: advancement in house or job security in light of a downturn? Thanks in advance!

[dabigchina]

also curious about job security. i'd be inclined to think that job security is actually better.

[emptyflare]

also curious about job security. i'd be inclined to think that job security is actually better.

It could be; my reasoning for thinking that job security may be worse in house is because you're overhead/cost in house whereas you're a revenue generator at a law firm. On the other hand, companies may want to make their in-house counsel do more legal work in house during a downturn to save outside counsel costs

[Yugihoe]

How did you go from doing litigation (IP) to corporate practices (specialized finance and general corporate groups) while in big law? What industry are you in for in-house now? Did you find that having that broad big law experience helped you find your position in-house?

[janereacher]

As a law school applicant, law student and early career attorney I used the TLS forums extensively to learn and help plan the development of my education and career. I wanted to come back (with a new account, of course) and see if I may be able to provide any advice regarding my navigation through earlier and mid-career experiences that I've had. So please, fire away.

By way of brief background, I'm about 8 years of out law school. I got off the wait list to get into a T50 and then transferred to a T14. My practice as external counsel spanned a few Vault 50 firms, in both litigation (IP) and corporate practices (specialized finance and general corporate groups). I've now been in-house for a few years at a mid/late stage technology company.

Please feel free to ask away and I'll do my best to come back and answer what questions I can. Hoping I can provide some helpful guidance to help pay back the community for the assistance I've gained along the way.

How would you say that your status as a transfer student affected your career trajectory (i.e. 2L OCI, potential influence of journal/clerkships and any difficulty with those if applicable, etc.)?

[Anonymous User]

As a law school applicant, law student and early career attorney I used the TLS forums extensively to learn and help plan the development of my education and career. I wanted to come back (with a new account, of course) and see if I may be able to provide any advice regarding my navigation through earlier and mid-career experiences that I've had. So please, fire away.

By way of brief background, I'm about 8 years of out law school. I got off the wait list to get into a T50 and then transferred to a T14. My practice as external counsel spanned a few Vault 50 firms, in both litigation (IP) and corporate practices (specialized finance and general corporate groups). I've now been in-house for a few years at a mid/late stage technology company.

Please feel free to ask away and I'll do my best to come back and answer what questions I can. Hoping I can provide some helpful guidance to help pay back the community for the assistance I've gained along the way.

How would you say that your status as a transfer student affected your career trajectory (i.e. 2L OCI, potential influence of journal/clerkships and any difficulty with those if applicable, etc.)?

Not OP. I subscribed to this post because I'm in a fairly similar situation. Transfer from T20 and T10, time at a V10 and an elite boutique. Now in-house at a tech company. Since OP apparently gave up, I'll bite.

When the market is good, being a transfer to one of the top schools doesn't significantly affect your OCI prospects. You may have slightly worse chances than a non-transfer at your school, but you should still be able to get a decent, or even good, firm. Obviously, if you're coming from a better school prior to transfer and/or you are very close to the top of your class, your results will improve.

In terms of journal, it's not too difficult to get some journal, but the odds of getting law review are usually less favorable for transfer students. I'm not honestly sure how transferring affects clerkships. If I had to guess, I'd say the biggest impact would be with more competitive COA clerkships. I was able to get a COA clerkship, so it's clearly not impossible. In my experience, once I was a few years out, people cared less that I was a transfer than that I graduated from a good school and had an appellate clerkship. Certainly that was the case with the boutique and my current employer.