General Counsel, In-House Counsel

What It’s Like To Be A Solo In-House Lawyer (Part 1)

What are some of the best things are about being a solo in-house counsel?

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Wonder what it’s like to be the only lawyer at a company? I certainly do. Especially on those dark, brooding, gloomy workdays involving the gnashing of teeth… let’s not go there. There’s not a lot of data about how many of these solo attorneys are out there (read: that’s not available for free on Google). But back in 2011, the Association of Corporate Counsel, Southern California Chapter, did conduct an in-house compensation survey, which indicated that nearly 30% of their membership is solo in-house counsel.

Inquiring minds wanted to know more. So I interviewed five attorneys whose jobs are to be the lonely voices of legal reason at their companies. They work in the following industries: consumer goods, supermarket, biotech, commercial interior design, and telecom.

Three of these lawyers found their jobs using traditional methods — one went through a recruiter, the second applied through an online job site, and the third went to work for a client of his law firm….

The fourth lawyer actually reached out to the company on his own initiative: “I was reading an article about this company and thought that the company was really fascinating, so I reached out to the co-founders of the company on LinkedIn. I didn’t receive an immediate response from them. However, when they did eventually reply back to me, the conversation led to an opportunity to work at the company.”

The last lawyer had Twitter to thank for her job: “I graduated in 2007 as the legal market was crashing. While applying for legal positions, I waitressed. This was about the same time that Twitter rolled out. One of my followers was a reporter for the Boston Business Journal. We had a few conversations about what I was doing on the side, the fact that I was waitressing and having a difficult time finding full-time legal employment. She wrote an article, with my picture on the front page, on young attorneys who couldn’t find legal work and what they were doing instead. A week or so later, the reporter reached back out to me because the CEO of a local company had contacted her. He was interested in hiring a young attorney as in-house counsel for his company and wanted my contact information. I interviewed with the CEO and others within the company. I became the first in-house counsel the family of companies had ever hired and it was my first full-time legal position!”

(Incidentally, I know that particular lawyer through Twitter, which I’ve written the benefits about previously.)

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What kind of work do solo in-house lawyers spend most of their time on? The lifestyle goods lawyer was hired specifically for intellectual property work. But the other solos have much more generalist practices. They spend a lot of time drafting and negotiating all types of contracts and also spend some time managing litigation and regulatory matters. And since their companies are small, their responsibilities often also cover non-legal roles, such as employment/HR, insurance, compliance, and risk. Finally, a good portion of their time is spent in the trenches together with the company’s executives in planning, analysis, and strategy.

I asked them a bunch of other questions as well:

What some of the biggest challenges of being a solo in-house counsel?

  • Prioritizing, juggling, and time management. There’s a mountain of work and only little ol’ you to do it. And when crises arise, it’s even more difficult: “I learned very quickly that you have to prioritize between what’s important and what’s urgent.” Another lawyer explained that business people often don’t understand when they should involve a lawyer versus when they can instead resolve problems on their own by just having a “a friendly talk among the parties. If an overzealous in-house lawyer wants to answer all the calls from the rest of the company, he or she will sure to burn out soon. It is very important to know what to do and what not to do.”
  • Working with executives. You need to manage expectations and work with many different personalities and communication styles. It’s a constant challenge “to prove the value I’m adding to the company. It’s easy to be seen as an impediment as opposed to a valuable asset.” This is difficult for any in-house counsel, but as a solo, you don’t have the benefit of a team that can collaborate on how to best demonstrate their significance to business clients.
  • Learning a lot super quickly. When issues arise, you need to figure out how to immediately get sufficiently up to speed on certain areas of law. Said one solo, “Recently, with an antitrust matter coming up, I had to get a crash course on that topic.”
  • Lack of guidance. For the lawyers for whom this was their first legal job, not having senior attorneys to provide guidance and mentorship was difficult. They needed to figure out as they went with no daily guidance on “how” to be an attorney.

And what are some of the best things are about being a solo in-house counsel?

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  • Life at the very top. A couple of the solos most enjoyed being a key part of top management and spending a lot of time on not just the legal but also the business side (planning, growth of the company, etc.). “Once you earn trust from management by years of honest hard work, they will reward you accordingly, even though you are of relatively young age. And you will have exposure to various areas of practice and will have opportunity to work with top lawyers in those areas; sometimes, you learn a lot from the other side’s lawyer.”
  • Variety and creativity. “You’re constantly learning and working on matters that one never expects to work on; and have the freedom to find creative solutions to any problems thrown your way.” “I learned a ridiculous amount about a wide variety of legal issues. I was forced to take risks, learn on the spot and be resourceful. I think it gave me a very unique view of the business world. I see now things from many different angles as opposed to just one point of view.”
  • Flexibility. The last lawyer most appreciated “the freedom and flexibility on how I plan my day and what I want to get done by the end of the day.”

By the way, this is only half of the interview. The follow-up post will cover even more scintillating topics, such as: what were the top surprises of being a solo in-house counsel? What resources do solos use? And what are the top tips for someone considering a solo job? Stay tuned.

Susan Moon is an in-house attorney at a travel and hospitality company. Her opinions are her own and not those of her company or anyone she works with. Susan may share both her own and others’ experiences (especially the experiences of those who have expressly indicated to her that they must not under any circumstances be shared on ATL). You can reach her at SusanMoonATL@gmail.com and follow her on Twitter at @SusanMoon.

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