Why Lawyers Should Start Out in General Counsel Positions

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published October 02, 2015

By Author - LawCrossing

Summary: Find out the benefits of starting out as a general counsel as an attorney.

Starting out as a general counsel may be the right move for you.

Why Lawyers Should Start Out in General Counsel Positions

As with evolution as a whole, you have two options when evolving your legal practice. You can become specialized like Darwin’s finches, which can eat nuts specific to the Galapagos islands, and will starve anywhere else, or you can become generalized like the squirrel and live basically anywhere on the planet. Why not become a general counsel?

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General counsel lawyers work with companies on a broad range of topics from negotiation, writing, reviewing, summarizing, and researching agreements, to drafting every manner of contract. You will advise on every sort of topic, and work alongside employees in strategic business units, brand communication, human resources, or whatever other departments a given business has.

The advantage of starting out as a general counsel is that you don’t get overly specialized too quickly. Your experience is broad, so you not only know what area you want to specialize in, having sampled the buffet, but further, if that niche market dries up, you have a broad range of experience to fall back upon.

General Counsel is a good field to start out in, as it gives a broad range of experience. Specialized niche markets have less competition, true, but they are more of a risk, and can render you skill set obsolete if the market changes.

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