OK so where now? In this miniseries on career transitions, we’ve looked at the jump from student to associate, then from associate to partner. In both cases, we saw how it was harder than you thought. Now we look at the transition from partner to in-house, and vice versa.

Transitioning from Partner to In-House

Let’s start with the jump to in-house. A common assumption, as related to us by those who have made the leap, is that everything is portable. It’s not. Suppose you’re a partner looking to move in house. Maybe you got the job offer from your biggest client. This is usually how it starts. Will the money be the same? No, that’ll be your first surprise. You expected a differential but wow, is that really what you guys pay?

No matter, maybe money isn’t the driver it once was. There’s the prospect of a steady flow of interesting legal work that you don’t have to find. Except that doesn’t pan out either. You find that the really interesting work still goes out, even though that was never the idea, and the in-house team does the rest. Suddenly it’s not clear what your purpose is.

Then, if your face fits, you’ll do less lawyering and more business strategy. Still, at least it’s 9 to 5. Except it’s not. You’d heard the mantra “do more with less,” only now it applies to you. It’s your entire job spec.

It’s not that the jump was a bad idea, it’s just that it’s not what you expected. You discover, as we explained in Lean Adviser, that the job is about not failing.

Transitioning from In-House to Partner

What about ex-GCs who move from in-house to law firms? This community tells us that they have a few things going for them. First, they usually have a captive client to bring, which is their entry ticket. Also, they usually have a great Rolla deck of GCs and business folks. They will need to convert all these assets to survive in the eat-what-you-kill environment of big law, with the sharp elbows and the relentless billing pressure.

Again, not everything is portable. Your ex-employer is your biggest potential client. But you’ll know better than anyone the budgetary issues around paying your new firm enough in fees to cover your comp, overhead and profit contribution.

It turns out that the most portable asset you have is the one least recognized. It’s your understanding of the GC mindset. In an era when law firms are finally starting to grapple with client service, your insights are invaluable. In all the other transitions we’ve looked at, the mover was under-prepared and ill-equipped. The ex-GC is the outlier.

As we say at Lean Adviser, methods matter. If you’re an ex-GC you already know the importance of practicing law the way clients want, and you’ll instinctively let that shape your work. You’ll soon become the client’s go-to person on every assignment you touch.

The next lesson, “Partner to Oblivion,” wraps this miniseries on career transitioning.