Moving your legal career from in-house to private practice

 

For many in-house lawyers, thinking about a move to private practice can pose a lot of uncertainties which makes it crucial to evaluate the options available.

As an in-house lawyer, there are attributes that you would be able to take with you into a private practice legal role that would be invaluable to an employer. These include things such as understanding what goes on behind the scenes and, more importantly, having insight on what is required from external lawyers.    

There are many outdated assumptions about working in private practice and ultimately, it comes down to finding the right firm for you and your career aspirations.  

 

What are the differences between working in-house and in private practice?

There are several reasons why legal professionals choose to make the move from in-house to private practice. For some it’s to because they want to focus on a certain area of the legal profession such as specialising in commercial contracts or property.

For others it’s to work towards different KPIs and targets, which private practice legal roles can provide. An example would be having a certain number of chargeable hours a day to work towards, which is something that many see as a motivator as it can enable candidates to get recognition they deserve and provides them with tangible evidence when asking for a promotion.

Here, we will outline some motivators and things to take into consideration if you are thinking about moving from an in-house legal counsel position to working within private practice. 

Promotions

A career in a legal private practice can offer a clear and structured promotional pathway. The teams are often bigger and there are different levels of management and seniority, which can be attractive to legal professionals looking to progress.

Senior in-house roles can be limited and may come up infrequently, with little opportunity to progress to the highest positions such as Head of Legal. Additionally, if you are interested in partnership at a company, the best way you can do this is to move into private practice.

Partnership is perfect for those wanting to be involved in the overall direction of a firm or the people management. It could also be ideal for those who put less significance on the fee-earning aspect of their role and instead want to reach the top of their game when it comes to their professional title.

There are two different types of partner: the first is a salaried partner, where you would take home a guaranteed salary and the second is an equity partner, where you get a share of the firms’ profits. There’s often more chance of getting salaried appointments.

Salary

Despite jobs in private practice sometimes initially offering lower salaries than their in-house counterparts, they do tend to rise steadily as they gain experience and progress their career, especially when it comes to the partnership roles.

In-house legal roles usually offer a higher salary to those at the junior end, however, these can plateau the longer the employee works for the company. 

Variety of clients

Private practice roles offer legal professionals the opportunity to work with a wide range of clients, meaning that you must have the ability to adapt and change your approaches.

If you are working in-house, you are only ever working for the company that employs you, and are therefore providing legal services to one client. Moving from an in-house legal role to a private practice role gives you the ability to offer a completely different perspective, as you will have experience in looking at things from the point of view of the client.

When I speak to experienced legal professionals, I find that they might be happy to work in-house because they have experienced the fast-paced nature of working within private practice, which is an environment that many people strive for.

Become a specialist

Whilst we’ve spoken about the variety when it comes to clients, working within private practice gives people the ability to become an expert in a particular area of law.

In comparison, when working in-house, although you may be working within commercial law you could also be required to pick up tasks that focus on property or corporate work. These are often broader roles as you are expected to pick up company-wide legal issues that may include things such as giving colleagues advice on certain matters.

Flexibility

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of private practice firms I work with are open to part-time contracts and hybrid working.

As a result, private practice roles are becoming more attractive to those that need to work from home or that may need to change their hours slightly, opting to start earlier or stay later to juggle other commitments.

Prior to the pandemic, in-house legal professionals were generally offered a better level of flexibility because client contact was limited to the company they were employed by, whereas private practice employees have a lot more to juggle, such as scheduling and meeting with different clients.

However, after it became mandatory to work from home and adapt to different ways of communicating, we saw flexible working opportunities across all industries/sectors balance out.

How you can stand out coming from an in-house role

 

To secure a move from in-house into private practice, my biggest advice would be to demonstrate adaptability and versatility.

Think of some examples that you can provide at the interview stage that will clear up any concerns they may have been emerging.

Right now, we are experiencing a candidate-short market, meaning that clients are having to be flexible if they want to find the best person for the role, and often that includes looking at people from in-house backgrounds.

Ultimately, having experience in both private practice and in-house can go a long way in enhancing your CV, as you will have a varied background. Sometimes, doing this sooner rather than later is advisable.

You could also consider switching to private practice to get the experience on your CV, before returning to an in-house role. This means you can always pursue private practice opportunities once again in the future.

 

 

Take a look at the current roles from Sellick Partnership

 

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