You need to be a generalist. Lawyers in private practice, especially with larger firms, are often subject-matter experts in narrow or niche practice areas. Although this may also be true in some in-house roles—particularly those within giant legal departments of companies in specialized industries—most in-house legal departments are smaller and require tremendous flexibility from their teams to address quickly and competently a vast scope of long-term and day-to-day legal matters. These matters include contract review (especially IT and HR contracts in addition to those more directly pertaining to the company’s primary business), labor and employment, privacy, corporate governance, intellectual property, and tax. As an in-house lawyer, you will most certainly encounter legal questions and matters that you have never seen before (or even thought of) that may need to be addressed within hours. Before deciding to move in-house, consider expanding the breadth (vs. depth) of your core competencies. This could include volunteering to work in other substantive practice groups of your firm instead of remaining in a singular practice where you are most comfortable.
After you decide to move in-house and accept an offer, you will find yourself in a completely new environment. The day-to-day business will be busy, and, as a new member of a legal department, you may need some direction. The following are suggestions for your first year.
Gain institutional knowledge—meet as many people and learn as much about your company as you can. Unlike at a law firm, little of your daily interaction will be with lawyers. Instead, you are there to provide legal support to the company itself. To effectively do this, you must understand its operations as fully as possible. Here are a few things to do in the first two to three months:
- Review and keep available the company’s personnel organization chart.
- Introduce yourself to as many business and operations personnel as you can, especially those you will directly work with the most. Building good relationships at the start of your tenure is critical. If possible, in-person or by phone is preferable to e-mail. Consider setting up lunches. Understand the roles of all these people, the regular legal support they will require, and the upcoming business and legal challenges they foresee.
- Learn as much as possible about the company’s business model. This could include reading external annual reports and internal documentation as well as speaking with colleagues. In particular, do not overlook the employees who have been with the company the longest and likely have the most institutional knowledge.
- Educate yourself concerning the company’s underlying products and services, even if they are highly technical. Though you may not need to understand at the same level as, for example, a design engineer, it is critical to have adequate base knowledge. Most people like to talk about their jobs and work products, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find someone.
- Take time to understand the larger industry that your company is in, the legal issues that are most pertinent and unique to it, and outside resources that may be available (e.g., trade associations and specialized legal organizations).
Familiarize yourself with and (generally) follow existing practices while identifying areas for long-term improvement. During the first three to 12 months, you will become very familiar with existing (and sometimes longstanding) business practices, forms, templates, policies, etc. Unless something is clearly problematic or deviates notably from best practices, as a new in-house lawyer it is best not to be overly critical. This is especially true for petty, stylistic, and non-substantive issues in which changes could disrupt day-to-day business. Here are a few things to consider doing instead:
- As you identify critical and problematic shortcomings, bring them to the attention of your business colleagues and propose specific and reasonable solutions. You should not ignore shortcomings that could result in significant legal exposure to the company. If you have begun to build those internal business relationships (above), then these recommendations will likely be well received.
- Identify and maintain a list of longer-term changes and needed improvements. These may include making substantive changes to or completely replacing standard forms, revising processes to be more efficient or cost-effective, and adopting and implementing revised policies and practices needed to better address a changing legal and regulatory environment.
- When appropriate (e.g., maybe around the time of the one-year mark and review), rank your list of long-term matters and present them to your colleagues. Be prepared to justify the need for the changes, potential proposals to accomplish the same, and estimated timelines and costs.
Whether you are considering serving as in-house counsel, or just starting your first in-house position, the above information will help guide you in the right direction.