This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho.

Are you a law firm lawyer or litigator looking to shift into an in-house role? It is a great idea. This is a line of work that has gained a lot of prominence and is an in-demand choice for young lawyers.

Law firms have not remained as attractive as they used to be, as the horror stories of long nights at work, cruel partners, boiler room situations on a daily basis and difficult work conditions have made it less attractive for millennial lawyers. There are plenty of young lawyers who still dream of making it as a partner in a big law firm, but there are a bunch of alternatives now that everyone is forced to seriously consider.

In-house legal jobs are one of them.

Who are the sought after candidates for in-house legal jobs?

In-house legal teams are fairly specific about the kind of people they want to hire. 

Their top priority is to hire lawyers with extensive and varied experience of working in other in-house legal teams. They also love to hire lawyers from big law firms and occasionally hire litigators to handle their own litigation work.

In-house legal teams are happy to pay well for experience and expertise because the salary payment usually pales in comparison to what law firms and top lawyers charge. Hiring good people in-house usually leads to savings for the company.

Therefore, if you have a proven track record, and appear to be highly competent, you can command a premium from an in-house legal team. Also, it is harder to get hired into these positions. They are looking for the perfect fit, unlike a law firm that may be more willing to experiment at the entry-level positions. 

There are two kinds of in-house legal teams, and one of them is more like a captive LPO

There are some in-house legal teams which do mass recruitment – such as insurance companies that may hire an internal team to process insurance claims or a consumer conglomerate that may hire a team of low paid lawyers to handle a rising number of consumer complaints across India. 

Banks and finance companies often hire a large team of lawyers to process a large number of documents at a rapid pace, and these teams are more structured like LPOs than anything else. 

This is also true for large IT companies too – they have separate legal teams that do high-level legal work, are paid more and a separate captive LPO type structure which does low skill repetitive work for a lower salary. Contract management roles often fall in this category.

Even law firms have begun to adopt this same strategy. Some top law firms like AZB have transaction support teams that are 40-50 strong, which basically provide secretarial and DD support for large transactions. These lawyers are paid far lesser than normal associates.

So watch out, if you are joining a real in-house legal team that does cutting edge legal work or a captive LPO that almost certainly masquerades as an in-house legal team.

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The problem with joining these teams that do mass recruitment and low-skill repetitive work is that you may find it hard to get well-paid jobs when you try to shift to a different job in the future, and the quality of your experience may be doubted by future recruiters.

However, most of these jobs still pay better than working with litigators and hence many people are happy to take up these jobs. And while it is trickier to find a job in full-fledged legal teams after this stint, it is not impossible. You just need to build up your profile and skills on the side so that you become an attractive hire. Let us know if you need help.

I am just saying you should know what job you are getting and not walk in blind.

Specialization v. general expertise

In-house counsels often need to be specialized generalists. They have to handle anything that the business may throw at them, and it is hard to predict what that could be as a business grows big. An in-house counsel may handle competition law raid and defend a patent infringement suit on the same day while coming up with a new ESOP policy for the organization. 

They need to advise the board on corporate governance and future acquisitions with equal elan and also answer questions about criminal liability arising out of a cheque bounce allegation or GST goof up. 

In fact, knowing the law of one single country is rarely sufficient. You may have to negotiate contracts that have to be enforceable in a different jurisdiction or comply with the local laws of a city you have never even heard of before because your sales guys landed a big client there. You may have to comply with anti-bribery or data protection laws in 12 different countries because you have investors there or just a handful of clients.

And you need to also draft and negotiate agreements like a champion, apart from managing litigations in different courts, where the local litigators are not particularly cooperative.

And it is your job to ensure that things do not fall through the cracks!

Many would say that it is far easier to work in a law firm in a team that has a single-minded focus on one practice area only. It takes a very different bend of mind to deal with this kind of mind-boggling complexity that every in-house lawyer is expected to handle.

This is why, when it comes to training in-house counsels on business laws, we have a separate course altogether. Check out the 16 modules we think are most critical for them.

When you appear in an interview for an in-house position, try to showcase your knowledge and experience in a diverse cross-section of law, rather than focussing on a specialization, unless you have been told that they are looking for someone for a specialized role only. 

How to find and attract the best opportunities

In-house legal teams get to work with a lot of different lawyers. They work with law firm lawyers, as well as litigators. They also interact with other in-house counsels across the table all the time.

And that is why, when they need to recruit a lawyer, they have people on their mind, and putting out an ad is rarely necessary.

The best and most coveted in-house legal jobs are offered to people the company already has worked with and admire. Companies may hire senior associates and partners they have already worked with. They may hire litigators they found to be diligent, brilliant and easy to work with.

Hence, that should be your top priority. Impress your best clients, build deep, friendly and mutually beneficial relationships and be the kind of lawyer they would want on their team.

If nothing else, you need people who can vouch for you and recommend you based on the work you have done for them.

In my estimation, 80-90% of in-house legal recruitments happen based on recommendations and past relationships. 

Yes, there are at times jobs advertised through websites and recruiters as well. No harm in trying for them either, but first see if you have someone who can give a strong recommendation for you.

Note that we recommend our best students and alumni, especially when we are familiar with their work and ethics, to recruiters and other students and alumni who seek our help. Recommendations and introductions always go a long way. 

How to prepare for the interview

There are two parts. Research the company. What kind of business do they do? What is the business model? How do they make money? What are the risk areas? What are the weaknesses? What legal problems did their competitors face? 

Based on that research, you will be able to narrow down on their legal priorities. Will they bother about data protection or more about policy liaison with the government about fintech regulations? 

Have they been acquiring many startups in the last few months? Have they heavily invested in blockchain or AI companies?

Do they have lots of litigations going on? Are they worried about pending recoveries? Do they have to sign multi-jurisdiction contracts with a lot of exposure to currency fluctuation?

The more you know, the more you will prepare yourself for the legal questions that would come your way.

The other obvious thing is to make sure you can answer any questions about the work you have done in the past and mentioned in your CV. In fact, your CV should be tailored after doing the analysis I described above, so you can show them on the CV itself that your experience so far is highly relevant to their current needs.

How can we help you?

• There are 3 skills that you need to be very strong with: contracts, compliances, and litigation management. If any of these areas are weak for you, let us help you. Call us and we will tell you exactly how and what courses you need. 
• You may have very good knowledge of one area of law and not be so good with a bunch of other things. This is not good for in-house roles. Let us get you up to speed on what you need to know through the 16 diverse modules of this course. It is tailormade for that purpose.
• We have lots of free sessions on how to create a better CV, how to prepare for interviews, how to network, how to make your brand as a lawyer stronger and a bunch of other training sessions. For instance, here is a session when we talked about cyber law, technology law and career opportunities. By joining our courses, you get access to hundreds of such sessions, recorded as well as fresh new ones. 
• You can get mentorship and support in your job hunt. You will get notified of opportunities that are relevant for you, and develop a professional network that includes other in-house counsels either teaching for us or studying in various courses. 

There are many other benefits. Let us discuss over a call and help you out. We can talk about how we can specifically help in your situation. Feel free to comment below and request a callback. 

Also, feel free to sign up on the waiting list for Master Access, Corporate Law Library, and Litigation Library. 

Here are the courses you can enroll into before the year ends so you can begin your new year with new learnings and growth opportunities:

DIPLOMA 

Diploma in Business Laws for In House Counsels

Diploma in Companies Act, Corporate Governance and SEBI Regulations

EXECUTIVE CERTIFICATE COURSES

Certificate Course in Advanced Corporate Taxation

Certificate Course in Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code

Certificate Course in Advanced Civil Litigation: Practice, Procedure and Drafting

Certificate Course in National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Litigation

Certificate Course in Arbitration: Strategy, Procedure and Drafting

Students of Lawsikho courses regularly produce writing assignments and work on practical exercises as a part of their coursework and develop themselves in real-life practical skill.