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I've heard so many negative things thereof. However, in my case, the associate position I took right out of law school was what I took because that was all I had. (15 ~ 20 Atty. Insurance Defense) I wanted to do corporate/transactional practice much more than ID. Besides, this corporation, which requires Korean-English bilingual attorney seems to fit perfectly in my niche. (And not sure whether it matters, but it's a major corporation) When I move to Korean practice groups of law firms in the future, this may be a silver lining.

That being said, I'm still scared of going in-house as a second-year associate, because people roll their eyes at resumes starting with an in-house position. (Position starts on June and I worked at my current firm right out of law school) I would greatly appreciate any advice.

I'd say go for it. What's wrong with moving in-house as a second-year associate?

phan wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 29, 2021 4:43 pm

I'd say go for it. What's wrong with moving in-house as a second-year associate?

Two concerns primarily:

1. That I know so little about the business and in-house works, though they are very enthusiastic about giving me training.
2. I heard that it is very difficult to return to a law firm if you leave to in-house early in your career.

Regardless, in the other post, one of the commenters said that those who look down on in-house background will look down even more on small-mid ID firm, so my concern no.2 is irrelevant lol And this job does connect very well to any Korea-focused practice group. So yeah maybe I'll give it a try.

Why would anyone ever want to go back to a law firm?

In your position I'd say go with in-house.

The reasons not to go to in-house early are:
-career-lasting prestige of a big firm's name
-building a solid understanding of (litigation/corporate/whatever type of work you're doing that is relevant in your inhouse career)
-becoming a hard worker who understands how to actually do deep work
-it's hard to get promotions and salary increases in-house so you generally want to start with as high a salary as you can, which is harder when you move earlier.

If you're working in insurance defense it doesn't strike me that many of these points are really valid for you -- maybe the hard worker thing. The salary thing seems moot given I'm guessing it's hard for you to find good in-house gigs, and this one seems perfectly suited to you. If the pay is reasonably good and the company isn't full of psychopaths, sounds like a good outcome to me.