In-house at Exxon? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on working in-house there?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on working in-house there?

Much of your time is spent on defending against investigations by state AGs. You will work with lit departments at many of the biglaw firms. Obviously, you'll be representing the best interests of an oil and gas company so if you have moral or political qualms about that, then you probably shouldn't take the job.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on working in-house there?

Much of your time is spent on defending against investigations by state AGs. You will work with lit departments at many of the biglaw firms. Obviously, you'll be representing the best interests of an oil and gas company so if you have moral or political qualms about that, then you probably shouldn't take the job.

That’s funny-if you have qualms about repp’ing an O&G company, then don’t join XOM. That’s insightful.

[garthdiesel]

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on working in-house there?

Their department is deep. They have all kinds of transactional, projects and specialist teams too. I was surprised to see the number of dedicated specialists they have.

[Anonymous User]

Not personal experience and not Exxon, but another major O/G. The person I know does what seems to be interesting international work involving current/future drilling projects and works a lot with engineers -- they travel all over the place pretty frequently if that appeals to you -- ME, Africa, Northern Europe, South America, Asia. I don't think their experience is necessarily representative of all O/G work, but I would think the legal department there is huge and like someone else said there are all kinds of different types of in-house work you could do.

[Anonymous User]

Exxon doesn’t have the greatest reputation as a place to work these days. They are rigid about physical office attendance, and that means schlepping an hour from town or living way out in the burbs. OK if you have a stay at home spouse or someone who can get work out in the Woodlands, but not great for others. Culture tends to be pretty rigid and stodgy. Lots of administrative overhead to get things done.


There was a time when they boasted about top of market pay, but former Exxon folks say they got big raises going elsewhere. Exxon tends to be all cash, with minimal bonus/equity comp (different from the other oil companies). So your base may be a bit higher, but your all-in less than at peer companies.

Anyhow, I’d personally be more interested in Shell or Chevron if I were going to work for the oil majors. They’ve had a job in my practice area open for literally years and seem to have had a ton of trouble filling it.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on working in-house there?

Much of your time is spent on defending against investigations by state AGs. You will work with lit departments at many of the biglaw firms. Obviously, you'll be representing the best interests of an oil and gas company so if you have moral or political qualms about that, then you probably shouldn't take the job.

The vast majority of attorneys at Exxon will never work on AG investigations. You are going to be doing corporate transactions, tax, general lit, or whatever your practice area is. You’d only work on AG investigations if you were specifically hired to work on that sort of thing.