Experts on the in-house legal market say they don't think the recent deep layoffs at Snap, which included prominent members of the legal team, are a sign of things to come at other tech companies.

They cite myriad reasons, including that, at startups especially, legal teams tend to be so small that cuts there don't move the expense needle. Then there's the reality that much of what a legal department does is essential, in good times or bad, and as a result cuts there could force companies to farm out more work to pricey outside counsel.

"Companies need their in-house lawyers," said John Gilmore, founder and managing partner of the legal recruiting firm BarkerGilmore. "You can't live without the corporate governance or litigation or securities or labor and employment or whatever the specialized lawyer is. So somebody is going to have to do the work—whether it's inside or outside."

Law.com reported last week that at least a half dozen in-house lawyers and other legal team members were swept up in a more than 1,200-person layoff at Snap, the Santa Monica, California-based parent of Snapchat. They included a Seattle-based associate general counsel who had joined the company behind a week before she got the pink slip.