Resume Expectations When Moving In-House
Interested in making the transition to an in-house counsel position? Whether you’ve been working with a private law firm, or a public agency, there are a number of common factors that in-house legal departments tend to look for when hiring. Though in-house counsel and firm associates share certain similarities, there are a number of differences in their on-the-job responsibilities and expectations. As such, not all firm associates will fit the in-house environment, and vice-versa.
When you work with an experienced legal recruiter — such as the recruiters here at Garb Jaffe & Associates — you will be given end-to-end guidance. Your legal recruiter will help you rewrite your resume to more effectively target in-house legal departments, and will provide you with valuable guidance throughout the hiring process. However, your resume is simply one piece of the larger recruitment puzzle. Generally speaking, those vested with decision-making power in the in-house department are on the hunt for certain attributes that indicate an attorney candidate will make for excellent in-house counsel.
Let’s take a look at some of those attributes, and how your resume might reflect the presence of such attributes.
Minimum Experience Level
Generally speaking, hiring executives in the in-house context are looking for attorneys who meet some minimum degree of specialized experience, or who have a substantial amount of generalized experience (along with a demonstrated ability to handle client-oriented issues and various other business-related matters). For example, a third or fourth year intellectual property associate who lacks client-oriented or business matter experience might still be an attractive candidate for an in-house position. Similarly, a fifth or sixth year associate who has demonstrable experience handling client-facing matters will likely be an attractive candidate for an in-house position. Of course, it’s important to note that these are simply guidelines. Not every in-house legal department will have a strict view of experience. So long as you can demonstrate your “fit” in an objective way, you’ll have an attractive recruitment profile.
Risk and Strategy Assessment
Core to the in-house counsel skillset is risk and strategy assessment. In-house counsel often work closely with non-lawyer colleagues (and are attached to various projects) that require them to assess the legal risk of certain corporate strategies. Critically, however, effective in-house counsel offer alternative solutions, and do not simply act as pure compliance specialists — in-house counsel are intimately linked to the business of the larger entity, and to that end, must not shy away from engaging more deeply with the business-side from a strategic perspective.
Though your resume might not directly reflect a risk assessment background (unless you have been involved in compliance and corporate governance matters), you can project a narrative of capability by putting your client-facing and business-oriented experiences at the forefront of your application.
Effective Communication Skillset
Fundamental to being an effective in-house counsel is having the ability to distill and communicate difficult legal concepts for a non-lawyer audience. In-house counsel — unlike firm associates — must engage with non-lawyers on a regular basis, and must be convincing in the way they articulate their concerns. Without the ability to effectively communicate their points to a non-lawyer audience, an in-house attorney could risk conflict. Intelligence decision-makers will not necessarily commit to a decision until they fully understand the justification for such decision, even if they are not trained in the law.
You can demonstrate an ability to effectively communicate difficult concepts to a non-lawyer audience if you highlight experiences involving community outreach, or experiences in which you worked closely with client non-lawyer teams.
Ability to Work in a Collaborative Environment
In many firms, there is a competitive — not a collaborative — environment among the associates, and in some cases, this workplace culture is actually encouraged. In the in-house context, however, work is necessarily collaborative. As in-house counsel, you will have to work with different teams and projects, from teams within your legal department, to projects from outside of the department, and you will have to be able to slot in to each of these various workplace environments and make meaningful contributions. Doing so will require a collaborative mindset.
—
If you’ve been working in a firm for some time, you may not understand the experiences that are highly sought after by in-house legal departments when making hiring decisions. Naturally, the in-house transition can be frightening for firm attorneys who aren’t quite sure of how to effectively make the jump. Here at Garb Jaffe & Associates, our recruiters have a proven track record of success in placing attorneys with in-house legal departments in prestigious multinational corporations located across California, and will advise throughout the process to ensure that you secure an ideal placement.
Call us today at (310) 207-0727 to schedule a consultation with a recruiter today.