Reply to Is there such a thing as a 9-to-5 in law these days?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The stressful part about inhouse is that you are a cost center and can be cut any time. Has not happened so much in the good economy, but ask anyone who was in-house in 2008-09. [/quote]

This. My DH has been in-house since 2009 in two different companies. He was just laid off from the 2nd one (he was also laid off from the first one a few years ago.) Good in-house jobs are hard to find and with rare exception they pay $180-200k. DH has been aggressively looking for months now (he was given a lot of notice about the layoff) and has found nothing. He is considering going back to a firm as a senior associate/of counsel simply because he needs a job, even though he much prefers in-house.

So, in short, nice work if you can get it.[/quote]

And as you get older, it is harder to get the next in-house job (unless you are at GC level). It’s rare to see an in-house hire who is over 50. [/quote]

As a general matter. I agree.  When I was restructured as part of an M&A event roughly 10 years ago, I had no problem landing a new in-house gig within a month - for higher pay!  I used to get recruiter calls weekly because of my specialty.  Today, I'm in the same specialty, but am in my mid-to-late-40s.  The recruiter calls are rare, and while interviews were common, offers were rare (they all seemed to hire much younger and "diverse" candidates).

So yes if you're talking tech companies or where the company is looking for a "grinder" (i.e. in-house lawyer who does deals - sales and procurement contract negotiations).  The GC (or AGC/DGC) who is hiring wants someone who will keep Sales happy and out of their hair (so that they can go home at 5:00 pm or deal with more interesting legal issues).  The same goes for so-called "product" attorneys who support tech product development teams.  Somewhat "no" if you're talking about certain specialties, such as patent and employment.

By the time you get to 50, hopefully you have a cash cushion, your kids are teenagers (and college tuition is mostly saved), your spouse has a job with decent pay and benefits, etc...  If this is the case, then the risk in hanging out your own shingle is much lower and gives you the flexibility to work 9-5 or less.[/quote]

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