After spending your career as a litigator, perhaps those job listings for in-house positions are growing more attractive to you. Over the course of your career, you have successfully represented your clients and received outstanding results. Now, you may find that you are looking for a bit of a change of pace. Through your network you are hearing more and more about these ever-elusive in-house positions. At this stage, many of us have a colleague who is a newly minted in-house attorney and has shared the increased focus on work-life balance. For others of us, the promise of shedding forever the notion of the billable hour has proved too intriguing to leave unexplored.

Irrespective of your reasons, if you are considering making the move to in-house counsel, you are in good company, and here are some insights to keep in mind. As with any move, there are two critical questions you should ask yourself. First, what skills do you pack to bring along for the move? Second, what skills may be best to simply leave behind?

What Skills to Pack With You for the Move?

As an initial matter, let's discuss the many tools you've developed over your career that will continue to serve you as in-house counsel. As an experienced litigator, by putting certain of your experiences to work you can most definitely succeed as in-house counsel. Those skills include:

• Issue Spotting:  In your role as litigator, your success or failure is determined by being able to efficiently and effectively ascertain the potential issues in your file. These experiences in litigation have rendered you uniquely equipped to identify, research, and communicate potential risk factors. These skills will prove invaluable should you choose to accept an in-house role. Specifically, as counsel, you will be called upon for your legal expertise and acumen to not only spot potential issues, but offer practical solutions in a time-sensitive and thoughtful manner.

• Time Management/Prioritization: Now, more than ever, the fast paced nature of business and litigation requires that counsel be able to prioritize their time in order to effectively serve their clients. As outside counsel, you may have an increasing number of files each with pending motion deadlines, discovery to be culled through, court appearances to prepare for, and legal issues to be copiously researched. Similarly, as in-house counsel, your rise or your fall will be determined on your capacity to prioritize and address a number of time-sensitive issues. Many in-house counsel describe their day-to-day experience as fielding various teleconferences, putting out or managing "fires" that come up in finalizing deals or business plans, while also managing outside counsel and conferring regarding strategy in connection with litigation or regulatory matters. It should come as no surprise, then, that your ability to tackle varied and complex issues in an efficient, calculated, and intentional way will be necessary for you to be a meaningful contributor to an in-house team.

What Modes of Thinking Can You Leave Behind?

At the risk of sounding Polyannaish, as with any journey, you should assess and ultimately release those things that will no longer serve you. As such, it is encouraged that you think through the habits, traditions, and rites of passage you've experienced as a litigator and "unpack" those things that may no longer be best for your practice and, more specifically, may not be as useful as in-house counsel.

• Think Like a Lawyer, But Speak Like a Business Person: As a juris doctor, you have spent at least three years engaging with complicated issues, real and theoretical, which were the byproduct of ever-imaginative professors of legal academia. As a result, many attorneys have developed a skill and appreciation for wrestling with the theoretical. In your role as in-house counsel, it will be imperative that your intellectual curiosity not come at the expense of offering practical, timely solutions. It is often better to take a practical rather than strictly academic approach.

Put simply, it is critically important that you know you audience. What would no doubt make an impressive argument before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, may draw disinterest or, worse yet, ire during an informal business meeting. For example, assuming, arguendo, that as an experienced litigator Latin phrases easily roll off your tongue, such phrases may be ill-suited and impractical for your role as in-house counsel. A simple recommendation will often be preferred to a legal treatise. As in-house counsel your audience may include business experts and other professionals who are not familiar with legalese. Accordingly, your role will be to communicate with these individuals in a fashion that is efficient, reliable, and accessible without them having any legal training.

• Emphasize Being Proactive, Rather than Reactive: The nature of litigation is often intrinsically reactive. From the perspective of the plaintiff at least, something has gone wrong, and litigation is the avenue that has been selected to correct some misstep. As a litigator, you are often investigating and litigating facts and occurrences that have already taken place. In your role as in-house counsel, you will have an opportunity to be proactive and lay the groundwork and think prospectively about the goals and objectives of your organization, with an eye toward avoiding litigation.

• Aim for Risk Management, Rather Than Risk Aversion: Many litigators view their role as avoiding, minimizing, and, when possible, eliminating risk. As in-house counsel, more often than not it will be your role to assess and communicate risk while making a recommendation that is ultimately aligned with moving the goals of the business forward. Rather than terminating a plan because of a potential risk, in-house counsel distinguish themselves when they are able to provide solutions to manage the risk while reaching core business objectives.

In conclusion, as you consider a potential move to an in-house counsel role, be mindful to accurately set your own expectations. Just like no two law firms are identical, in-house roles may also vary greatly. The culture of each business and organization is unique. Similarly, the perspective of the role of an in-house legal department within the business may also be very different depending on the organization. If and when you're ready to make the move, be prepared to always continue learning the business.

As with any position in the legal profession, those who are most successful continue to achieve by learning from and maximizing every opportunity.

The NJLJ Young Lawyers Advisory Board is a diverse group of young attorneys from around the state. Follow them on Twitter, @YoungLawyersNJL.