Career Mobility As In-House Counsel

// When I left law firm life for my current role, I was a senior associate up for shareholder. And one of my concerns about moving in-house was the fear that going in-house would be the end of the road for my career, that saying yes to the corporate counsel life would somehow be the end of my growth. I was afraid that there was nowhere to go after going in-house, especially if I wasn’t sure whether I’d want to become a general counsel one day. At least so far, my fear was unfounded. While I have limited personal experience because I have stayed “managing counsel of employment” since I joined my company almost eight years ago, I have witnessed how corporate counsel experience has actually led to more doors being opened than closed.

Moving Up In Legal

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A traditional trajectory for moving up in legal is a corporate counsel who is promoted internally, usually from a role where they do not supervise a team to one that does. As I have written before, in-house counsel titles can be elusive and misleading, but what is consistent about promotion is that you will usually manage more people or more matters or clients or areas of law as you move up. More often than not, there is a move away from being a deep subject matter expert toward becoming more of a generalist. How quickly this can happen depends on the organization. Of course, if there aren’t any opportunities at their current company, I have seen how in-house counsel move to other companies to get the extra title and responsibility.

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Growing In Place 

For larger companies that tend to be flatter organizations, there are very limited opportunities for actual promotions in the legal department. But there are many opportunities to grow — either by changing clients so you get to know other areas of the company or by learning other areas of law. While expanding your practice areas may be challenging as a private practitioner because clients often want someone who is a deep specialist and not a generalist, in-house counsel can have an easier time picking up different areas of law because they get the benefit of learning from those very experts that they hire.

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Moving To The Business

Another way I’ve seen in-house counsel develop is when they move into the business and out of the legal department. For example, I’ve seen employment lawyers become chief diversity officers and chief human resource officers. An easy shift is also from legal into compliance and procurement. I also know many a lawyer in government affairs and lobbying.

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Don’t forget that if you absolutely hate being in-house, you can always return to law firm life. That proverbial “fork in the road” or false binary construct that we all make up when we are faced with a career decision isn’t actually a fork in the road. As lawyers, we have a lot of flexibility with the trajectory of our careers. I personally know of in-house counsel who have returned to private practices and who credit their in-house experience for making them better outside counsel. To me, having an in-house opportunity is less of a fork in the road and more of a multiplier of opportunities.

Meyling “Mey” Ly Ortiz is in-house at Toyota Motor North America. Her passions include mentoring, championing belonging, and a personal blog: TheMeybe.com. At home, you can find her doing her best to be a “fun” mom to a toddler and preschooler and chasing her best self on her Peloton. You can follow her on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/meybe/). And you knew this was coming: her opinions are hers alone.

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Biglaw, In-House Counsel, Meyling "Mey" Ly Ortiz