Irene梦里不知身是客

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A long while ago, one of my friends got to know about my transfer from a law firm to a corporate as a legal counsel. She said, "Congrats! From now on, what you need to do is to shake your head and say no." Actually it is not that funny to be.

Compared to private pratice, an in-house does not have to worry about the marketing and client maintenance, because he/she is employed for the full-time service by one client-- his/her company. That also means, he/she will have stable income, holidays, annual leaves, and all kinds of benefits. In many cases, it is even possible for an in-house to climb the corporate ladder to the top management.

However, I would like to share with you those negative aspects being an in house:

First, you are isolated. As a legal professional, you must update your knowledge and discuss with lawyers about the hot cases or legal issues. It is easily fixed when you work in a law firm. But in a corporate, unless there is a big legal team, which unlikely happens, you are swimming in sea alone. 

Second, you get pressure from two sides--your co-workers and the external opposite party. I hate but have to say that, from my own experience, your co-workers are more difficult to deal with.  One day, your co-worker may rush into your office and say, "hey, here is a contract we need to sign within today. So please review it as soon as possible. It is URGENT!"  Or your co-worker called you with an unpleasant tone, "We could not break the deal, so please don't revise the vendor's standard contract so much."  You need to be very skillful to face these situations, when your co-worker does not treat you as a professional but a colleague.

Third, your pratice area is narrowed, because you only have one client. Day after day, it becomes an office treadmill. This explains the reason why an in house usually change his/her job every three or five years.

But anyway, I escaped crazy over-time working in the law firm. I have a normal and peaceful life now, where I have a chance to figure out about myself. :)