Surf’s up
LIFE AS A JUNIOR IN-HOUSE LAWYER
There are many journeys that one can take in the law and there is no right or wrong path. Since walking into Philips Fox all those years ago, I had no idea that it would lead me to where I am now and working with the incredible people and clients It’s hard to easily capture the life of an in-house that I do each day. lawyer as no two days are the same. It’s a less The law is a demanding profession, especially homogenous experience than life at traditional when learning the base-level skills that will make large law firms. It’s much more dependent on the you a valuable asset to your firm. It is vital to ensure nature of your organisation. If you work at a global that you take control over your own balance during bank, your typical day is likely going to look quite these formative years and build strong routines different to your day if you worked as in-house that will last throughout your career: clock off at a counsel at a tech start-up or for a government reasonable time, don’t make weekend work a habit department. and have something else to ground you outside the To provide a general idea of what life is like within law. For me, that is getting out for a surf whenever in-house legal teams, LOD spoke with a few of I can. its lawyers on secondment. We thought that the Good luck to you all on your journey through the law wherever it takes you. Feel free to get in touch with us if a career in insurance law sounds like it would suit you. D: +61 8 9222 6909
easiest way to illuminate the life of in-house lawyers is to paint it in broad brushstrokes that sketch out common activities and advantages. So, here are some things you might expect to experience as an in-house legal professional:
E: William.Robinson@wottonkearney.com.au
Less handholding There is more autonomy in-house – there is much more ‘up to you’ to solve. A real positive that flows out of this independence is you gain greater experience in a shorter amount of time than law firm work. You are not just expected to get involved in matters; you’re expected to complete them. To do this, you do need a level of legal judgement already developed – this is typically done after graduation via law firm graduate roles and through the College of Law. It’s quite important to have a little bit of background knowledge and experience before moving in-house as you are expected to be able to get on with it. Closer to the action While commercial negotiation for junior lawyers at law firms is usually a legal-only affair, in-house professionals can expect to negotiate more directly with the commercial experts. You can get down into the nitty-gritty matters with the commercial expert in a way junior lawyers at law firms never could. This more direct negotiation has the added bonus of being a more efficient process with less back and forth as you’re dealing with the end-users of the contract.
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