In House Summer Associate

[templeace]

Recently offered a position as a clerk in house with a medical corporation that specializes in distribution and development of medical technology. International company that is looking to grow through acquisitions. Also alot of patent litigation and product liability defense on occasion.

I have a few other opportunities and would like to know if anyone knows of any long term benefits that go with working with a company in house (other than money lol). I know that this is valuable corporate experience but what about mentoring and such... things you get when you work with a judge or in SOME firms...

Temple ACE.

[Slice57]

It may not apply to you... but here is my situation. I work as a clerk for an insurance company. When an insured gets sued, the company will hire an outside firm that is local to handle the suit. What the old clerk told me is, that she could have gotten a job a pretty much any of these firms because of the contacts she made at the home office. So maybe something similar could happen with you!

[pikey]

I'm working in-house (also at an insurance company) this summer and I love it.  I'm involved in a range of stuff from contractual work to arbitration to litigation.  I feel liking I'm getting a wide range of experiences, even though they're all related to a specific industry.  My boss actually has the opposite experience to Slice.  He was a litigator at a NYC biglaw firm, and my company was one of their clients.  He moved to their NYC office and they recently transferred them to their office [country of origin].  The great thing about my company is that they have offices all over the world, so your legal contacts are international too.  Just yesterday I was sitting in on a conference call between lawyers in NYC, London and our office.  My boss will be appearing in [state] supreme court soon and regularly travels to the US or UK for court, mediation and arbitration.

The good and bad thing about in house legal depts is that they're often fairly small (though that depends on the company) so you get a good variety of work and a lot more responsibility.  You also work closely with some pretty senior people from the start (ie my boss was meeting with the global CEO yesterday to discuss a pending matter), so you learn way more that you would in the same time at a firm.  You can take that experience pretty much anywhere.

[UFBoldAsLove]

This is interesting. Pikey... I haven't seen a lot of corporate counsels listed on schools OCI, so what is the most common way to score such a job? Through contacts, do they seek you out someway, or do you seek them out?

Thanks

[Astro]

It may not apply to you... but here is my situation. I work as a clerk for an insurance company. When an insured gets sued, the company will hire an outside firm that is local to handle the suit. What the old clerk told me is, that she could have gotten a job a pretty much any of these firms because of the contacts she made at the home office. So maybe something similar could happen with you!

I've heard similar things from other people.  I guess it depends on the company you're working for, though.

[pikey]

This is interesting. Pikey... I haven't seen a lot of corporate counsels listed on schools OCI, so what is the most common way to score such a job? Through contacts, do they seek you out someway, or do you seek them out?

Thanks

For 1L summer jobs, there are programs that you can apply to, you can use any connections that you have or you can cold call.  For my current job, I knew someone at the company and she forwarded my resume/cover letter to the legal dept.  Since they don't get many students with my credentials (their words, not mine  ), they were very interested in having me here. Think outside the box for who you know.  My connection was a former co-worker. If you don't have any connections, you could contact the legal dept of a company that you're interested in.  You never know who might be interested in having an intern.  I also applied to several set programs and interviewed at my university's legal office during OCI.  Talk to career services, as my ocs had a list of companies that offered in house positions and also knew of people who had worked in house in previous summers.

For post-graduation jobs, it's not gonna happen straight out of law school.  Most companies are not prepared to give you the training required for a new lawyer.  They want you to work at a firm for at least a few years (apparently 3 is the magic number) to get training and experience, then they'll swoop in and poach you away.  If you know that you want to go in-house, you need to be constantly networking when you're at a firm.  Many people who move in-house get their jobs through firm clients or even adversaries who liked their work.  At the firm you should try to concentrate on some type of corporate/transactional work, since that's what you'll usually be doing.  However, there are some exceptions.  My boss was a litigation guy and mostly directs litigation, arbitration and mediation now, though we use outside lawyers for most of the dirty work.  Industry experience is helpful but not required. 

[UFBoldAsLove]

Gotcha, thanks!