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Landing a job in-house used to be the ultimate dream. One client, a budget to outsource work, stock options… every way you sliced it, the in-house world beat working for a law firm.
But these days, in-house counsel aren’t as happy with their jobs as you might think. While the number of law department attorneys actively looking for new jobs remains small, the majority of in-house counsel report that they’re open to a new gig.
That’s the finding of the Axiom In-House Counsel Survey, conducted by Wakefield Research with responses from 300 US in-house counsel working at organizations with a minimum annual revenue of $1M.
The glass half full folks will note that only 14 percent of these counsel are actively looking, but the glass 71% empty folks will see a lot of dissatisfaction in that graph.
Most in-house counsel view their current positions as not completely aligned with the legal department or with the company as a whole (94% and 87%, respectively), as well as stressful (78%) and unengaging (34%). As a result, most (57%) are open to new positions, with 39% considering a flexible legal talent provider for their next position. Sixty-two percent say the pandemic heightened their interest in this type of position.
This tracks what we’ve seen in earlier reports showing that businesses don’t really feel aligned with the legal department either. Meanwhile, law departments have seen more and more work dumped on them as budgets tighten. This transforms a job that used to provide both better hours and a greater sense of strategic involvement into a time-consuming exercise in unengaging work.
And where are these lawyers looking to move to find balance and fulfillment? According to the report, lawyers are roughly equally divided between law firms (40%), flexible talent providers (39%) and another in-house position (34%).
It’s a rare work-life balance question where the answer is “law firm” but here we are.
The full report is available here.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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