What type of legal experience do I need to move in-house?
Traditionally, most in-house lawyers would have described themselves as generalists rather than specialists. The key to a successful in-house career depended on being able to give pragmatic and commercial advice whilst also serving as a first port of call on almost any area of law.
More recently, whilst commercial lawyers are still the most sought after by in-house employers, we have witnessed a trend towards more varied and specialist roles, often within increasingly complex legal teams. With larger organisations seeking to retain more of their legal expertise in-house, specialist M&A, competition, IP/IT, litigation and employment lawyers are now in demand.
In certain sectors, particularly those that are heavily regulated such as financial services, telecoms and pharmaceuticals, hands-on experience of the industry itself is also a requirement.