There are many perks when you work in-house, but there’s still one big negative: companies have very little room at the top. Corporations usually employ fewer lawyers than big law firms do, and in-house law departments tend to be organizationally flat. Advancement depends on a number of factors mostly out of your control, such as the size and structure of the department, the age of its attorneys, the health of the company, trends in the industry, or a combination of the above. If your boss is competent, healthy, happy, and not close to retirement age, you have nowhere to go. Therefore, doing prodigious amounts of great work may not move you up the ranks.
The In-House Path
Job security may be problematic in-house because law departments are at the mercy of upper management’s business strategies and economic forces beyond their control. For example, after a merger, sale, acquisition, or reorganization of all or part of the company, the law department may be eliminated or “duplicative” attorneys let go. Even if the legal department isn’t disbanded, new management may bring in its own team of senior executives, including legal personnel. Often, companies or divisions relocate, requiring unwanted transfers. If business declines, a division or entire company may downsize. The law department frequently is among the first to go because it’s a cost rather than profit center—and in fact may be viewed as an impediment to accomplishing business goals. And of course, entire businesses or divisions simply may shut down, leaving everyone without a job.
This is not to say that you can’t succeed. But it may require equal measures of creativity and flexibility to build effective detours around obstacles you encounter on the road to success.
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