Going In-House and the Effect on Work/Life Balance

I remember when I was in high school, and dreamed of being elected president of a particular organization.

I assumed that if I won, my life would be irrevocably changed for the better. Food would taste better, my studies would be easier, and the air itself would be clearer. Well, I did win, but very little changed. Food tasted the same, school was still challenging, and the air was clearer, but only because my stepmother bought an air purifier.

Fast forward 18 years, and I was a senior associate at an Am Law 25 firm. Nothing summed up the job like the fact that I was completely thrilled when I left the office at 9 p.m. Because I often worked until 1 a.m., leaving with even a fraction of the day left felt like slipping out early.

My girlfriend at the time told me my perspective was, to be diplomatic, rather warped, and, agreeing with her, I decided to look for a better work/life balance. At this point, life as an in-house attorney beckoned.

Now, this was not going to be an easy transition.

Big Law associates everywhere covet the opportunity to go in-house. While you do take a significant pay cut, you are often much happier with your lot in life because many in-house lawyers usually leave work between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. each day, and rarely work on the weekends.

Also, being employed by a major corporation means a host of non-cash compensation and generous benefits that are rarely offered at law firms, such as stock options, stock-based bonuses, pensions, on-site gyms and commissaries, tuition reimbursement, business education, and superior health insurance.

For these reasons, it's quite common for hundreds of people to apply for only one such highly attractive in-house position, and I assume it's even worse now coming off the recent economic crisis. Luckily, a former client called and mentioned that they were hiring. We seemed to be a good match, and after a long round of interviews, I accepted their offer.

What was it like? Well, I would separate the experience into two different areas: (1) quality of life, and (2) quality of practicing law.