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I'm a 3rd year lit biglaw associate in the bay area and have been offered to be moved to my firm's L&E department from commercial lit. They're extremely busy and need more bodies. I've done a few L&E assignments and have really enjoyed them. I'm not too fond of straight commercial lit and think this is a great opportunity to specialize.

That being said, a big part of why I'd want to move is for the in-house exit opportunities, but I know very little about them. What kinds of gigs can a senior associate get coming from a biglaw L&E shop. What's the in-house salary like, especially in CA? Also, my firm is not really known for being a big L&E player, so how much does my firm's relative lack of L&E prestige hurt me moving forward?

Just curious if anyone had any thoughts. Thank you!

I'm a former biglaw L&E litigator in CA. The in-house options are excellent. Almost every company needs an L&E lawyer, and the larger companies often have several. Every associate I worked with had in-house opportunities after 5 or so years, and it seems like the options are continually growing due to CA's EE-friendly laws (namely, PAGA). I didn't want to go in-house so I didn't look into salaries extensively, but from what I gathered from colleagues is that $150-200k base is standard, with widely varying total comp, especially for tech companies.

Agree with prev poster--your in-house exit opps are BETTER as L&E than general commercial lit. Much better. I'd definitely consider this move (if I weren't a transactional person!). I'm in house and do a lot of employment (counseling/EB&C) work, and while the lit can get nasty for all of the reasons that lit is always nasty, it's very interesting work. And there's plenty of tech companies that would love your experience when you're done. Good luck.

Is this true for plaintiffs L&E, as well? I'm currently with a small (~10 atty) firm in SF/LA that handles many class action/exec firings, so defense is always handled by biglaw firms (some around v20, for what that's worth). Obviously I'm being exposed to the do's and dont's, but will my lack of actually advising management side preclude me from going in house?