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Hello,

My friends and I were talking about our potential futures in law earlier today.

Any law students or graduates out there have any experience working with In-house counsel at a major hospital or children's hospital? Any idea how hard these jobs are to snag? What kind of background do you need first to be competitive in this field...health law big law first? What is the best path to take to get there?

Also, is this field still "best school you can get into or bust"? Any idea of lifestyle / pay?

Thanks!

You could probably spend your 1L summer working in an internship like this and that would be a good opportunity to get to speak with in-house counsel at those firms and ask them. Especially if your school has a hospital associated with it (like for its med school), they may have internship slots reserved for law students from your school (at least that's the case at my school).

Thanks for replying. I am interested in the best path that one would take to get to that role.

Ie...HYS --> Big law health care --> In house counsel?
Or... Good health care law school ---> in-house counsel?
Or... Cheapest good school possible --> health care related PI work --> Work hard and move up the ranks --> In-house counsel?

Basically we don't know how competitive these in-house counsel jobs are, and therefore which path would make the most sense. Anybody with experience in this field?

NEVER EVER pick a school by its speciality.

While going to a cheap school is a good idea to keep down debt if you want to go into PI, you don't know that you'll get a good PI job from a lower ranked school.

I don't know this field or how to get what you want, but just don't restrict yourself by going to a low ranked school or picking a school by its speciality.

Also consider that your career goals might change. I know a lot of people whose goals changed after being exposed to something like IP and finding it fascinating or after having an internship in their chosen area and realizing it was not what they expected.

Thanks!

Anybody out there with experience trying to get a similar job?

notactuallyposting wrote:Thanks!

Anybody out there with experience trying to get a similar job?

I worked the past two summers with a large system, and they only hire people with firm experience- they don't want to train people, and it's a really cushy, high in-demand job. Maybe smaller systems and individual hospitals have different practices, but I doubt it.

notedgarfigaro wrote: I worked the past two summers with a large system, and they only hire people with firm experience- they don't want to train people, and it's a really cushy, high in-demand job. Maybe smaller systems and individual hospitals have different practices, but I doubt it.

Thanks for your reply. By firm experience, are you referring to big law firms that deal with health care issues? And considering that it is a high in-demand job, would it follow that it makes the most sense to go to the BEST possible school, get the best possible health care related big law job, and make connections?