Do you need to go to a t14 for an in house counsel position? Forum

[studyingeveryday]

From what I've researched, it looks as if there aren't too many in house jobs, and that usually people do them after biglaw or something else (if I'm wrong here, would gladly love accurate info). However, for the jobs that are out there, is the difficulty to getting them similar to the difficulty of getting biglaw, in that one should go to a t14/a school with great biglaw numbers, or not necessarily?

If anyone working in house doesn't mind sharing how they got there/if they went to t14/t20/t1 etc. that would be really helpful! (i have looked through the legal employment threads but could not find anything based on law school attended)

Thanks!

[cavalier1138]

Probably depends on where you're going in-house. In-house counsel for a a local newspaper in a small town outside of Des Moines probably doesn't have the same requirements as in-house counsel for the New York Times.

[lnsl123]

.

[studyingeveryday]

Thank you both! This is good to hear. It does seem like these companies prefer at least three, more commonly five, years of experience for these positions, though. Does that usually mean biglaw or other types of initial legal experience?

[studyingeveryday]

Probably depends on where you're going in-house. In-house counsel for a a local newspaper in a small town outside of Des Moines probably doesn't have the same requirements as in-house counsel for the New York Times.

I work at a company offering a private community for over 400 general counsels. Our membership skews in the VC and tech startup space (so mostly smaller private startups but many household names as well), but many of them are non-t14 grads. It's incredibly diverse, with some regional school grads. But of course you see a lot of NYU and Harvard folks as well. I think who you know is more important than where you went to school.

Thank you both! This is good to hear. It does seem like these companies prefer at least three, more commonly five, years of experience for these positions, though. Does that usually mean biglaw or other types of initial legal experience?

[lnsl123]

.