Working 2 remote jobs as a lawyer at the same time? Forum

[Anonymous User]

This is purely theoretical. I read through the ethics rule in my state, and it appears a lawyer can get a second legal job so long as they do not present any conflict. For example, working as an in-house counsel at Tinder and having a second job as an in-house counsel at Planned Parenthood won't create a conflict.

Without getting into scheduling conflict and workload, any reason why this cannot be done?

[victoremsemper]

This is purely theoretical. I read through the ethics rule in my state, and it appears a lawyer can get a second legal job so long as they do not present any conflict. For example, working as an in-house counsel at Tinder and having a second job as an in-house counsel at Planned Parenthood won't create a conflict.

Without getting into scheduling conflict and workload, any reason why this cannot be done?

Because no one is crazy enough to work two full-time jobs

[mardash]

One of many is that your employer can make only working for them a condition of your employment and only allow moonlighting on a pre-approved basis. If your question is “can a lawyer work for two clients at the same time” the answer is kind of obvious.

[gregfootball2001]

I don't realistically see how this could be done from a conflicts perspective. If you are in private practice, clients brought in by your colleagues could easily present conflicts issues, and you may not even know until the shit hits the fan. This would only be feasible if you have enough power at one job to reject potential new clients. Even if you are working in-house for both positions, what happens in your scenario if Planned Parenthood sues Tinder?

[Phillygirl19004]

Also, most lawyer jobs will have a provision somewhere -- in an employment manual, the offer letter -- that the employee is expected to dedicate their full time to that job and not engage in substantial other professional commitments. So working two jobs, without disclosing and getting employer sign-off from both employers, would be a breach of employment agreement.

[Anonymous User]

Most lawyer jobs will also have strict rules about doing any legal work outside of the job.

[johndhi]

Read your employment agreement with the folks who hired you first.

[Anonymous User]

I have definitely thought about it. Working for a firm in a drastically different time zone and I could get a job in another time zone. There are obvious legal and ethical issues which stopped me. In addition, it would definitely lead to burnout and sometimes have scheduling issues: you will also have to be on top of your game to make sure nothing conflicts. But making about 400-500k in half the time? Yes, please.

But again, legally and ethically just not doable. No reason to get disbarred.

[RecruiterMan]

Because you will need to disclose this to both employers, and get both employers to sign off on it, which they, in all likelihood, will not do. You could of course try to hide this, but having a legal job that you had to hide and lie about sounds like a very quick road to disbarment.

[Anonymous User]

I have definitely thought about it. Working for a firm in a drastically different time zone and I could get a job in another time zone. There are obvious legal and ethical issues which stopped me. In addition, it would definitely lead to burnout and sometimes have scheduling issues: you will also have to be on top of your game to make sure nothing conflicts. But making about 400-500k in half the time? Yes, please.

But again, legally and ethically just not doable. No reason to get disbarred.

Leaving aside the legal and ethical issues, how can this even be feasible? A low billing year is like 1500 hours. If you're doing that at both, aren't you billing a completely untenable 3000 hours? Would the idea be that one of them was like an in-house job or something?

[1styearlateral]

I do this, but one job is in-house counsel and the other is a self-owned business that is not competitive. I've thought about getting another in-house job and keeping my current, since it doesn't require all of my time, but there is definitely risk of burnout and getting double booked.

[Anonymous User]

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[Antetrust]

This is purely theoretical. I read through the ethics rule in my state, and it appears a lawyer can get a second legal job so long as they do not present any conflict. For example, working as an in-house counsel at Tinder and having a second job as an in-house counsel at Planned Parenthood won't create a conflict.

Without getting into scheduling conflict and workload, any reason why this cannot be done?

Lmao, working for two in-house companies and having access to confidential information at two companies/firms doesn't create a conflict? You didn't read shit, you're a dumbass. I would be stunned if you have one job let alone two.

Very brave of you to spew insults behind a curtain of anonymity.

[Anonymous User]

This is purely theoretical. I read through the ethics rule in my state, and it appears a lawyer can get a second legal job so long as they do not present any conflict. For example, working as an in-house counsel at Tinder and having a second job as an in-house counsel at Planned Parenthood won't create a conflict.

Without getting into scheduling conflict and workload, any reason why this cannot be done?

Lmao, working for two in-house companies and having access to confidential information at two companies/firms doesn't create a conflict? You didn't read shit, you're a dumbass. I would be stunned if you have one job let alone two.

Very brave of you to spew insults behind a curtain of anonymity.

Having confidential information of two different companies does not pose a conflict of interest unless they are adverse to each other. How would Cravath having access to the secret Coca Cola formula create a conflict with also having access to your GRINDR app's algo?

[anon168]

I do this currently.

GC for two companies.

[hugerez]

I do this, but one job is in-house counsel and the other is a self-owned business that is not competitive. I've thought about getting another in-house job and keeping my current, since it doesn't require all of my time, but there is definitely risk of burnout and getting double booked.

Any ethical concerns with 2 inhouse jobs? I read California's rules and so long as there is no conflict (actual or apparent), it seems to be okay. Whether your employment contract or employer policy may prohibit a second job is a different issue.

[hugerez]

I do this currently.

GC for two companies.

Can you touch more on the state you are in and any ethics concerns? I am inhoise myself seeking a possible 2nd inhouse job.

[nealric]

I do this, but one job is in-house counsel and the other is a self-owned business that is not competitive. I've thought about getting another in-house job and keeping my current, since it doesn't require all of my time, but there is definitely risk of burnout and getting double booked.

Any ethical concerns with 2 inhouse jobs? I read California's rules and so long as there is no conflict (actual or apparent), it seems to be okay. Whether your employment contract or employer policy may prohibit a second job is a different issue.

I think this would only be acceptable if it were disclosed up-front to both companies. Perhaps two companies who are too small for a full-time GC might allow you to take two part time GC gigs (of course there are many law firms that do an "outsourced GC" type service), but they'd have to be prepared for the possibility you'd have to resign or at least withdraw from advising if a conflict arose. But beyond that, you'd be setting yourself up for conflicts.

Unless you know every single business interaction of each company, you could have situations where the companies are adverse without you even knowing it. You might only find out when called in to assist on a matter. In-house roles tend to follow industries, meaning that tech firms tend to hire people with tech in-house experience, finance firms tend to hire people with finance experience, and energy people with energy experience. It's extremely common for companies in the same industry to either do business together or be adverse. I can tell you that I would have been conflicted at one time or another with just about every major company in my industry after 10 years in-house.

[Anonymous User]

GC of multiple companies is a thing, but it's usually more like being a small firm /solo and having clients that you act as generalist for. I've seen ex BL people do this type of thing, where they act as external GC. I also know someone who got hired by a client as GC but kept his (small) firm job. Again, it was just a new structure for the existing relationship. This is all done with full disclosure and consent to the arrangement. Not at all the same as trying to be a full time employee of two different companies.

[1styearlateral]

I do this, but one job is in-house counsel and the other is a self-owned business that is not competitive. I've thought about getting another in-house job and keeping my current, since it doesn't require all of my time, but there is definitely risk of burnout and getting double booked.

Any ethical concerns with 2 inhouse jobs? I read California's rules and so long as there is no conflict (actual or apparent), it seems to be okay. Whether your employment contract or employer policy may prohibit a second job is a different issue.

I'm in NY and there's no ethical rule that says you can't represent two different clients in-house. As you mentioned, the company's policy does not prohibit (neither does my contract) additional employment. Assuming the foregoing two items are not an issue, the only way I could see having two jobs be problematic for your employer(s) is if you are too busy at one job to satisfactorily fulfill your duties at the other.

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

Heard a story someone actually did pick up an in-house job in addition to their firm job for about 10 months in 2020/2021 and apparently had no issues other than explaining to new job that they had no idea why they were still on the firm website, other than of course it being an absurd amount of work overall (which is why I’m guessing it didn’t last).

Think you’d have a much harder time finding two fully remote jobs to pull it off now.