IN-HOUSE; AN EASIER EXISTENCE - OR NOT?

IN-HOUSE; AN EASIER EXISTENCE - OR NOT?

Everyone is more than familiar with the stresses of working in private practice, particularly in major City firms. The long hours, client expectations, being on call 24/7 - to name but a few of the pressures. A move in-house is often considered to be a less frenzied and somewhat calmer environment. But is this the reality?

Nicholas Eldred describes his career as being pretty linear. He studied law, qualified, worked in private practice specialising in M&A in a City law firm; then made the move in-house working for BT, Cellnet (which became O2), BBC and Christie’s. After his in-house career he decided to set up his own consultancy, NE Consulting Services, through which he provides fractional General Counsel services for several companies including the English National Ballet and the Royal Ballet School as well as doing governance work and mentoring in-house lawyers and Company Secretaries.

Nicholas’s decision to move in-house came at the beginning of the 1990s when boom had gone to bust. Nicholas wanted to keep busy to gain experience so leapt at the opportunity to continue doing M&A work at BT. He only ever intended to stay in-house for a couple of years and then return to private practice - which never happened as he loved in-house so much.

How do the stresses of working in private practice differ from those in-house?

“I certainly remember being in the office at midnight and working all-nighters when I was in private practice. There is pressure to hit a certain number of billable hours. But, in essence, what you are doing is giving your clients legal advice and it is their decision whether to act on it or not. In-house it is rather different. You are not there just to give advice but rather to provide solutions, to make issues go away or be an early warning system for problems which may be coming down the tracks. It is a much broader role and, in many ways, can be much tougher. You are expected to be horizon scanning, to consider issues left field, to deal with a whole load of things that are completely outside of the remit you had when in private practice.”

Nicholas says this isn’t something you are necessarily aware of when you first make the move; nobody warns you. He recalls one of his first meetings in-house where he was asked to give his view. That was then labelled as the ‘legal view’ and others were then invited to contribute their perspective. Nicholas realised he was almost in a competition, fighting for air time, and had to develop slightly sharp elbows to get his point across.

“You have to be both right at the time and also right in hindsight - which is extraordinarily difficult. It isn’t enough that what you advise gets you through the issue of the day, it has to be the right thing to have done when you consider it in retrospect six months later. There is pressure to be the wise person in the room. And that sometimes means holding the line, sometimes saying ‘yes, but…’ and occasionally saying ‘no’, going against the consensus. It is an art as much as a science; it is less about knowing the law and more about knowing whether something can be done and what the risks involved entail.”

Nicholas’s view is that the role of an in-house lawyer is, therefore, tougher than many people in private practice think it is, something which many lawyers who have done both roles agree with. Being in-house means being a decision maker not just a giver of advice.

“Quite often you have a huge number of issues flying at you and you have to sift the important ones to give your attention to and then decide the right path to take. But the smaller ones need to be dealt with too. Managing your time effectively is therefore an important tool in minimising stress levels.”

Another pressure facing in-house lawyers is the need which most businesses have of reducing cost. Lawyers are often seen as overheads and on an individual basis more expensive than other employees. Therefore, they always have to justify their existence. It is always at the back of their minds to demonstrate value, to prove they are the right person for that business.

Nicholas is a great believer in going home when you are not busy, when you can. Obviously, there are times when work is such that you work long, hard hours but when that is not the case being in the office for the sake of it achieves nothing. The quiet times should be taken advantage of to recharge the batteries.

He also sees prioritisation as an important factor in dealing with stress.

“There is always that one thing which is really difficult, which we put off. There is something about facing up to it and doing it as early as possible which makes you mentally lift and then makes all the other tasks somehow easier to tackle. If you don’t want to do something, just make a start on it, that’s the hardest bit - but once you do, it is never as bad as you thought.”

One of the services Nicholas’s consultancy offers is mentorship and this is something Nicholas feels is a hugely valuable tool for well-being.

“Having a go-to, trusted person, whose advice is good and in confidential terms bullet proof, a safe place to talk makes life so much easier. It is particularly helpful when you are going through any period of change. Just having a conversation can help to dissipate issues.”

Nicholas also recommends trusting in what you are feeling.

“If I make a decision and I don’t worry about it, then it usually turns out to have been the correct thing to do. But when I decide on something and I find my mind keeps wandering back to it and turning it over, that is a sure sign that something is not quite right and it needs to be revisited. Things nag for a reason. Explore them. Again, a conversation could help here, an outside perspective be it from a mentor or colleague may shine a light on something you have missed.”

It seems a life in the law is stressful, wherever you choose to practice it, be it in a City law firm or in-house. Whilst the challenges facing both may be different, the ways to manage the pressures are consistent and the rewards, not just financial, but the satisfaction of making a real contribution seem worth it. ■

You have to be both right at the time and also right in hindsight - which is extraordinarily difficult.