In-house lawyer
Lawyers working in-house now make up 22% of practising certificate holders, rising by 3% between August 2022 and July 2023 to 35,738 registered solicitors, according to the Law Society’s most recent report. This group is made up of solicitors and barristers, many of whom have opted to move into industry from previous careers in private practice.
There are as many different specialist roles in industry as there are in private practice. In-depth specialist legal knowledge gained in private practice is often what the employer will be buying from its in-house lawyers.
A construction company may look to hire a good legal mind to oversee its planning and environmental workload, just as a City financial institution may require a lawyer with broad experience of banking and capital markets.
If you’re interested in the banking/finance practice area, read this solicitor’s Practice Area Profile.
Obviously, the nature of the work is dependent on the type and size of each business organisation, and on the role that’s specified. For instance, BT employs hundreds of lawyers in its legal department, which is made up of individual specialists covering many disciplines, from intellectual property and patents to telecoms and media law.
In contrast, smaller companies will often employ just one in-house lawyer who’d probably have a much wider brief. In this instance, whatever the nature of the company's business, the in-house lawyer will be expected to provide a full legal and contracts service and have a good knowledge of company and employment law.
In addition, there’ll be the responsibility of ensuring that the company is always compliant with the relevant laws governing its day-to-day operation. In-house lawyers are also usually responsible for instructing and managing outside legal counsel – and for controlling the ensuing legal costs.
Although commercial organisations are usually the main employers of in-house lawyers, an increasing number of non-profit making bodies (eg, charities and trade unions) are hiring legal advisers to work in-house.
One interesting aspect of working as a lawyer within a non-profit-making organisation is that many of its legal concerns relate to its own interests, in addition to the general laws that affect other companies.
Why be an in-house lawyer?
Whatever the variation, many in-house lawyers enjoy the hands-on commercial activity of working in industry and for one 'client', to the quite different pressures of private practice. The long hours often demanded of solicitors in commercial private practice is often enough to provoke interest in working elsewhere as a solicitor and in-house is a fantastic option.
Career paths
In recent years the contribution made by in-house lawyers to the success of companies has become more highly valued. As a result, with commercial awareness and a good legal mind, in-house lawyers often move swiftly through the ranks of corporate management into senior boardroom jobs.
As for training in house compared to private practice, there are fewer in-house training contracts available and they can often be harder to find. That said, an increasing number of companies are taking on trainees, including the BBC, Tesco and EDF Energy.
If training in industry is your preferred option, you may like to contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for a list of organisations that offer training contracts. Otherwise, you should contact companies that you're interested in directly for more information.
Salary expectations
In the beginning, be prepared to earn less than those in successful commercial private practice. But as head of a legal department or as company secretary, you could easily expect to earn more than £100,000, with the additional benefits of working for a major company (eg, pension, company car, healthcare schemes and share options).
At the top end, high-flying senior lawyers are increasingly recruited into senior boardroom jobs at major international corporations.
How to apply
Jobs are advertised in the legal press (including the Law Gazette, Legal Week and The Lawyer) and the national newspapers (in particular The Times). There’s also a wide array of websites for legal recruitment, as well as LCN’s own jobs board.
Useful addresses
The Bar Association for Commerce, Finance and Industry (BACFI) represents barristers in industry. Further information and careers guidance should be available from both organisations.
Bar Association for Commerce, Finance and Industry
PO Box 4352
Edlesborough
Dunstable
Beds
LU6 9EF
Telephone: 07507 237218
Email address: [email protected]
