How Can I Get an In-House Counsel Job Straight Out of Law School?

Dear Lawcrossing,

I am halfway through law school and am just beginning to seriously look for a job. I have always wanted to work in a corporations legal department, but it seems like they always want someone with several years of experience in practice. Is there any way around this?

KS, Kentucky

DEAR KS,

LawCrossing gets many letters like yours, KS, basically asking the same question: "Is it possible to get to Heaven without dying first?" In this instance, the LawCrossing is happy to tell you that the answer is yes.

Let's talk for a moment about the nature of the problem you face, KS. And in doing so let's say that you run the MiB Clothing Company, which specializes in exactly one style of black suit. You need to have some lawyers in- house. Who are you going to choose? Somebody who has some experience in legal practice, who may be able to foresee and quickly handle potential legal problems? Or somebody with a freshly-minted law school diploma, all enthusiasm but lacking hands-on knowledge? Ah, you see the difficulty companies face, and why it is that they typi-cally require a few years worth of "real law" under your belt before they'll hire you. But having said that, not every company fits that mold, and LawCrossing being LawCrossing, she can't let you down. Let's see how to overcome that little matter of practical experience.

There are two basic ways to skin the in-house counsel cat. One is to look for companies that are sufficiently large that they can afford to have new lawyers cut their teeth there. Some even have internship programs, the corporate equivalent of a summer associateship. Your career services office will have resources that tell you who these companies are. As an alternative, you can do a little footwork of your own and call the human resources departments at any large corporations that interest you, and ask them directly if their legal department has such a program. Needless to say, companies that have internship programs will typically hire new full-time lawyers from those programs, and presumably when their interns don't work out, they will hire new graduates, as well.

Aside from internship programs, there are a few large companies that routinely hire new law school graduates for their in-house counsel departments. One that comes to LawCrossing's mind is Procter & Gamble, which has a law department that rivals the size of many large firms, including a number of new law school graduates. (Coincidentally, P&G is supposed to be a wonderful place to work; so wonderful, in fact, that it appears in LawCrossing's book, America's Greatest Places to Work With a Law Degree. If you're curious about why it's so great, turn to Appendix A.)

Another option is to go to the other end of the scale, to very small companies. As Mary Birmingham, Career Services Director at the University of Arizona School of Law, points out, "Look for small companies that can't afford someone with huge experience!" She recounts a couple of stories about recent law school graduates who did exactly that. One of them went to a new technology company that wanted a law school graduate who was interested in helping to get the business off the ground. The other went to a construction company that needed someone to be able to interpret and negotiate contracts, as well as help out on the business end. As she says, "Think about what it takes to run a business!

Every business needs somebody to negotiate contracts, watch out for potential liabilities, be aware of insurance matters. As a small business person, a lawyer is your right hand." Mary Birmingham also points out, KS, that you may want to look at corporations as more than a source of in-house counsel jobs. LawCrossing knows of many companies that hire law school graduates not as lawyers, but in all sorts of other interesting capacities. For instance, many multinational companies hire law school graduates as contract negotiators. You aren't technically a 'lawyer,' but on the plus side, you certainly get to use your legal knowledge doing interesting work, and you frequently get to travel to all kinds of exotic places.

And when it comes to opportunities to advance, as Mary Birmingham explains, "You can make much more money moving up the business side than the legal side of a corporation. Companies have only one general counsel, but there are many steps up the ladder on the business side that will outstrip others in the legal department." For information on these kinds of opportunities, Bill Barrett, Jr., Career Services Director at the Wake Forest University School of Law, has an ingenious idea. He suggests that you visit the undergrad or MBA school affiliated with your law school (or your own undergrad alma mater), talk to the career services people there, and find out which corporations come on campus to interview. He says that those same companies may be ones who are interested in J.D.s for the business track, as well.

In short, KS, there are many incredible opportunities open to you, doing exactly what you want to do: namely, starting off in a corporate environment. Now that you know what they are, LawCrossing encourages you to put your energy into finding-and pursuing-those opportunities!