Biglaw to In House - back to biglaw? Forum

[Anonymous User]

How hard is it to return to biglaw after being in-house? Gave it a good 2.5 years but I am (a) bored and (b) doing very little real legal work.

[Anonymous User]

How hard is it to return to biglaw after being in-house? Gave it a good 2.5 years but I am (a) bored and (b) doing very little real legal work.

This is me almost exactly. I spent a little less than 3 years in-house and then recently went back to biglaw. Liked my time in-house, but was getting bored and wanted to actually feel like I was practicing law again.

I found that returning to biglaw in this current market was actually much easier than moving to another in-house role in a higher position. I took a one-year class cut to return, which seemed reasonable. I actually got more bites from firms than I expected, given that folks had told me it'd be hard to go back to private practice.

[Anonymous User]

That's great to hear. I keep hearing it will be hard and it's been too long. Is it usual to take a cut in class year? If so, is it normally one or two years or more?

[Anonymous User]

That's great to hear. I keep hearing it will be hard and it's been too long. Is it usual to take a cut in class year? If so, is it normally one or two years or more?

I can only speak from my and my friends' experiences. I don't know a single person who didn't need to take a class year cut. Cuts ranged from 1-3 years, but most were 2 years. Generally, for my friends who were in-house for 3 years, firms brought them back with a 2-year cut. Some paid a signing bonus to offset the cut a bit, though.