The road back: from in-house law to private practice

  • March 01, 2014
  • Emily White

It’s a familiar scenario: a young lawyer perfects his or her skills at a private firm, then leaps—to an in-house role.

Much less common is the opposite path, back to private practice. Warren Smith of The Counsel Network says, “It’s going to be more of a challenge for somebody who comes from an in-house background rather than a private practice background to make the transition to another private firm.”

An early challenge is defining one's motivation for the change. “One of the questions that came up was, ‘You’re coming from a really comfortable background, and working really set hours. Why do you want to switch to a bigger firm with more hours and more work and more challenges?’” says Ann Behennah, who worked with the City of Calgary’s law department before joining Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP in Vancouver.

At the hiring interview, Behennah’s stressed her desire for professional growth. While with the City of Calgary, she worked in planning law; upon joining BHT last July, she was able to expand her interest in municipal affairs to a practice that includes a variety of local governance, planning, and real estate issues. “I wanted to build my strengths up as a junior lawyer. In order to have as rich a practice as possible, I wanted to make sure I had as much exposure as I could early on.”

It’s a point worth emphasizing, says Smith, “for junior lawyers who want to go into private practice.

“My experience is that one of the more persuasive arguments—if you’re genuine about it—is to say, ‘I want to be good at my craft.’ And that’s not to say they’ve had a good or a experience in-house, but that they’ve recognized there are some limitations.”

Mentoring is another aspect that in-house lawyers might choose to highlight, adds Carrie Heller of The Heller Group. “If you went in-house, and found yourself to be one of two lawyers, and that lawyer isn’t in a position to be mentoring you sufficiently, that might make you stop and think that you should go into private practice, where there are many lawyers who are more senior, and who can offer mentorship.”

In addition, it may be that your in-house experience has exposed you to a very broad range of tasks, and the firm may value that breadth. “Quite often, when you’re junior and you’re in-house,” says Heller, “you might have been given a greater level of responsibility than you would have found as a junior in private practice in your first couple of years.”

Such candidates “will have had responsibilities in the management of external counsel, and they’ve probably had more interaction with non-lawyers, so they have a good skill set in terms of the business side of things and relating with other departments,” adds Warren Smith.

Chris Borden, who moved from an in-house role with a major regional oil company to private practice in McInnes Cooper’s energy and natural resource group in Saint John, says in-house experience can be invaluable in preparing you to understand problems from the client's perspective. “When you’re in-house,” he explains, “you’re the person responsible for engaging other lawyers, and making sure that external lawyers are being responsive enough and are providing good service.”

There are certainly some bumps on the road from in-house to private practice. “You get used to the billable time challenge pretty quickly,” says Borden. Other issues, however, such as the shifting range of clients, and very large offices, can take some time to adjust to. “I try to be very proactive in terms of connecting, and networking,” says Behennah, referring to her move to a five-floor office, “and making sure I go to the young associates’ functions. There are so many opportunities to take advantage of.”

While there are opportunities to make this kind of transition, especially at the junior levels, there are caveats.

Be aware that a private firm might not understand the hours or responsibilities a lawyer has had in-house, says Heller. One in-house lawyer might have been part of a team of seventy people, while another might have spent their time as sole counsel.

And even if no one on the hiring committee asks about it, many lawyers at a private firm will be wondering whether someone with an in-house background will eventually return to an in-house environment. “That question is definitely going to be in the mix, and if I were in the interviewee’s chair, I would be looking to address that right out of the gate,” Smith says.

A lawyer seeking to make the transition from in-house to private practice, in other words, has to be clear about the story they’re telling, about why they want to make the switch, about their desire to remain in private practice, and about the strengths and skills they can bring to the new role they’re seeking.

Says Smith: “There’s a much greater onus on the individual to be able to articulate the work they did, and how their experience is going to be relevant or helpful to a private firm.”

Emily White is a St. John's-based freelance writer.