Is Corporate Law worth it?

Neonzeus
Sun, 23 Oct 2011 04:54:39 +0000

Haven’t posted for a long time since I’ve been doing a lot of international travel plus considering relocation. I’m an in-house lawyer, and am the client who occasionally hires the big-law or medium sized law firm. Everything that SallyAwp said is absolutely correct. We go from airport to hotel to conference room and back again. If you’re staying over for the weekend, it’s because you’re working through the weekend.

No, there’s no “prestige” within the company for the legal group. We’re a support function. The only people who kiss up to us our the outside lawyers looking for work LOL.

By the way, we recently laid off some of our lawyers. There’s no security in-house either. We’re a Fortune 500. We don’t do much hiring though. I can only think of one instance in which I hired someone right out of law school, and the starting salary was less than $75,000 (we’re not in the NYC, Chicago, LA market though). I’d say our average salary for very experienced lawyers is in the mid-100s, which is on the lower side. No shortage of applicants though. You can find salary surveys for in-house lawyers online.

I don’t see corporate law as an entry into too many other fields. You become a specialist in the legal issues of the industry that you’re working in. If you work in the health care industry for example, it’s unlikely that a bank would choose you for an interview. If you’re working in the power industry, you’re unlikely to be asked to teach about family law.

Due to the glut of lawyers, if someone wanted to hire a lawyer in another field there are numerous candidates to choose from.