In house lawyer career path

Hi, I've seen many law students discussing how to become a solicitor or barrister here, but can't find any information about in-house lawyer. Personally I would prefer to start working immediately after graduation and don't want life to be too busy as solicitors and barristers , so I am considering the career path of in-house lawyer. But this is just a rough idea, is there anyone who can share their opinion or experience as an in-house lawyer in a company or bank?
How many hours do they work every day? What is the average salary for an in-house lawyer in medium size company?
Is this job much less competitive as TC in solicitor firms?
And as we know that doing vacation schemes is essential for TC application, then what is important in pursuing a job of in-house lawyer? Do they have internship program every year? Is it essential for the job application? And shall we apply for jobs as in-house lawyer in our second year or third year?

Paula,

I am an in-house counsel.

The short answer is that, unfortunately, it is extremely rare to find corporates who will take on very junior lawyers, let alone trainees. Companies take on in-house lawyers because they want experienced solicitors who know their industry and have a good number of PQE years under their belt.

The usual route is Law firm training contract -> few years experience at law firm -> move in-house.

I want to eventually become an in-house lawyer - however you do still need to get a training contract and qualify as a solicitor first - and very few companies offer a training contract so you will have to enter the tc world at a solicitors firm first and get qualified before you consider moving in house.

http://www.legal500.com/books/l500/in_house_lawyers

Fire away!

So your plan is to get a TC and be trained as a solicitor first? I'm just not sure if I can finally secure a TC at my third year...

Bear in mind that the training and variety of work offered by an in-house legal team will be nowhere near as broad as that offered by a law firm. In addition, you will not be exposed to other aspects of private practice which are just as valuable - exposure to various types of client, billing practices, marketing/business development, workload pressures etc.

While an in-house training contract may seem an attractive prospect, I don't think it's the best way to start your legal career.

Hi Chalks, just got a few questions about working in house, as I intend to start my career in private practice, but always thought of in-house as an 'escape route' if I decide I want a better work-life balance at a later stage.

Does working in-house really offer better hours or is this just a myth?

Also what is the best area of the law to qualify into to go in house, and how easy is it to make the transition?

Also how easy did you find re-qualifying in Australia, as I am a dual English/Australian citizen so there is a possibility that I might want to move there at a later stage.

Cheers

Hi,

Yes, the hours tend to be far better in-house. Most importantly, you don't have the pressure to bill with those associated weekly/monthly/annual billing targets to hit. Few in-house lawyers make the move back to private practice: I think that says a lot.

That isn't to say that the pressure in-house is any less. The working day tends to be incredibly intense as your "client" (the business) may be coming to you on an enormously wide range of topics at short notice. Some people enjoy that, others don't. If you like the idea of working on one large project, and little else, then private practice is probably the place for you.

Generalist corporate/commercial is probably the best for in-house transition. However, it can be easy for banking lawyers to move across to their clients also. The problem with that is that it can be difficult to subsequently move into different industries. IP/IT/Telecoms type lawyers are also popular - there are lots of roles with media, telecoms and IT companies whic require relatively specialist knowledge.

Requalifying in Oz is straightforward provided you have a few years experience under your belt. Many English lawyers work here for awhile without requalifying. But, once they decide to do so, its just a matter of studying constitutional law and attending some accounting and ethics courses.

Im aware PWC Legal are not a proper in-house law firm and I never advised treating the firm as such however the experience at PWC Legal would be much more different than in private practice. They work quite closely with PWC and use their network pretty well.

There are a small number of in-house TCs available if you scout around for them.

I know BT, Vodafone, EDF Energy and Tesco (and I guess PWC Legal counts to some degree) do inhouse TCs. There may be more companies that do this in the near future following the Legal Services Act

Bear in mind that the training and variety of work offered by an in-house legal team will be nowhere near as broad as that offered by a law firm. In addition, you will not be exposed to other aspects of private practice which are just as valuable - exposure to various types of client, billing practices, marketing/business development, workload pressures etc.

While an in-house training contract may seem an attractive prospect, I don't think it's the best way to start your legal career.