In-House vs. Consulting: Where Is It Better for a Lawyer to Work – Guest Post

All lawyers are always divided into two camps – those who want to work in-house, and those who ardently defend the advantages of consulting.

Obviously, these are completely different areas in their specifics, so let’s analyze the main pros and cons, and also come to an answer to the question “Where is it better to work? “

Pros of working in-house

For those who don’t know the meaning of this “fashionable” term, I’ll explain right away: in-house is working as a lawyer inside a non-legal company. For example, I work as a lawyer in an IT company, so I’m considered an in-house lawyer. 

What are the advantages here:

It’s calmer in-house

Whatever anyone says, the percentage of tasks “due yesterday” in consulting is clearly higher. Clients come at moments when their deadlines are approaching, and you, in order not to lose this client, have to run headlong and solve their problems (even at night, I’m serious). In-house this also happens, but much less often. And your assistant for lawyer is also not stressed out with her responsibilities and deadlines at all.

During my entire time working in-house, I can count on my fingers the number of times I worked at the “wrong” time, but in consulting I once had an urgent task “Make a package of documents on personal data” by 10:00 the next morning. By the way, the task was received at 18:00.

More resources

It is obvious that the turnover of a regular law firm will be less than the turnover of some product enterprise in another field (the same IT developments).

For this reason, in-house lawyers often have the maximum versions of Consultant, Guarantor, Code (there is such a thing), and they are also more likely to be sent to refresher courses if they ask nicely. But in consulting this does not always happen, and I have encountered the fact that not everyone even has consultant.

Higher salary

The average lawyer in-house earns $1000, but in consulting you can earn $500. Salaries of in-house lawyers are about 50% higher, and there are exceptions, but my personal experience, as well as the practice of colleagues, suggests that such exceptions are extremely rare.

Immersion in all company processes

Working as an in-house lawyer is a great opportunity to work through all the internal processes, as well as build your own. You may encounter situations and cases that an entrepreneur would not trust to any consulting service.

Disadvantages of working in-house

So that all the perks of in-house do not tempt you, it is important not to forget that this area has its own certain disadvantages.

Here are some of them:

Limited tasks

Working in-house is always bound by the boundaries of the company’s activities and needs, which can limit opportunities for development and growth. You can check five supply contracts a day and become a supply specialist, but you will not develop other skills.

I had a situation at work when I was doing the same contracts for more than 6 months. Over time, I began to make changes automatically. I think my development was very limited, and for a lawyer this is terrible.

Lack of flexibility

In-house, there may be many more rules that must be followed. For example, coordinating a trivial document through an internal EDI system may take 3 days. For example, you must work exclusively on a work laptop, use a specific email, etc. In consulting, there are certainly requirements, but not in such quantities.

It turns out that in-house is cool, but with its peculiarities. Another nuance is that it is difficult to get a job there without experience. In consulting, too, but students can get some free internships, and then in the positions of assistant for lawyers / “junior lawyer”.

In-house does not have this; in most cases, companies are looking for a ready-made specialist. Therefore, let’s take a look at consulting. This is the image generated by the neural network for the query “Tired in-house lawyer.”

The Pros of Working in Consulting

Since I have already defined “in-house,” I will also explain what “consulting” is. In essence, consulting is work in a law firm that provides services (consulting) to various clients. There are as many consulting law firms as there are business areas, so the choice is quite large. Let’s start with the advantages of consulting.

Lots of experience and diverse tasks

This is, objectively, the main advantage of consulting. You will face many tasks from different companies, work through various problems and situations. This is definitely not the case in in-house. It’s actually a really cool experience, especially at the beginning, because you’re kind of transforming quantity into quality. I recommend consulting to students because they can gain skills and improve their professionalism.

Opportunity to communicate and learn from top lawyers

In law firms, senior associates and partners are often top-notch professionals, so working with them can be extremely useful and productive. This can be the case in-house, but it is far from certain that the lawyer working with you will be as experienced as in consulting.

That’s all. Let’s move on to the cons.

Cons of Working in Consulting

It is always much easier to reveal the downsides, and I want to note that there are plenty of them in consulting immediately:

Lots of work

And this is not the “lots of work” when you just work during working hours and don’t drink tea for hours. No, here we are talking about when a client needs it, you can sit over documents until the night. I remember a story in which one lawyer told how they spent the night in the office, just to close a project. 

Not a very high level of payment

In consulting, you can work for $500, and for $300. For some reason, our law firms have not adapted to salaries in the thousands of dollars, as in the West. And if at the initial stage (at university) such an income (any income) will be normal, then later on this salary will be hard to live on.

Lack of immersion in many processes

A lawyer from consulting often comes in-house and is surprised by the completely new terminology of IT specialists, marketers, and project managers. This happens because lawyers in consulting often interact with lawyers or management of their clients, but the technical staffing does not reach them.

What is the conclusion?

Consulting is ideal for beginners when you need to gain experience. Later, when your skills have already been formed, you can move on to in-house work. But everything is individual here, so you can happily work in some consulting jobs your whole life.