Working as an in-house employment lawyer

In-house employment lawyers frequently rave about their jobs. They enjoy flexible schedules and a great deal of independence in their work. They don't have senior attorneys breathing down their necks about a memo that was due yesterday because they are usually among the senior attorneys in their workplace. In-house lawyers also don't have the billable hour requirements that torment lawyers working at traditional law firms. Perhaps the most rewarding part of an in-house lawyer's practice is the opportunity to become intimately involved in the daily life of a single business entity. In-house lawyers usually play an indispensable part in the decision-making process at their companies.

The actual title of these in-house positions differs from company to company but it is usually some form of "assistant general counsel" position stationed in the legal or human resource department of large corporations. The nature of an in-house position will vary with the size of the company and the industry in which it operates. For example, an in-house employment lawyer working at a heavily unionized grocery store chain will spend much more time on labor relations issues like collective bargaining agreement administration than would an in-house employment lawyer at a software company that has very few, if any, unionized employees. While the actual substance of the work may differ, the practice of in-house employment lawyers tends to fall into one of two general categories: (1) day-to-day counseling, and (2) managing labor or employment cases that are actually litigated by outside counsel.

Day-to-day counseling

On the day-to-day counseling matters, in-house employment lawyers essentially take the counseling aspects of firm practice and turn it into a full-time endeavor. Counseling usually takes up only a small percentage of an employment lawyer's time at a traditional firm, whereas counseling clients on the labor and employment issues that arise in the workplace makes up the vast majority of an in-house lawyer's workload. In-house attorneys are constantly on the phone or sending e-mails back and forth to their "clients," who are usually company executives, managers or human resources professionals. The substantive labor or employment issues that in-house lawyers encounter are the same ones faced by law firm attorneys. On larger scale matters, in-house lawyers might advise high-level executives on the legal issues associated with a mass layoff or a merger. Smaller employment matters might include investigating sexual harassment charges, advising human resources professionals on appropriate forms of discipline for a certain employee and evaluating the type of accommodations or leave an employee is entitled to under the ADA or FMLA.

In-house attorneys also conduct training sessions for employees and human resources professionals on discrimination, harassment and employee benefit issues. If the company an in-house lawyer works for has large segments of its workforce unionized the lawyer might help negotiate collective bargaining agreements, which usually expire every three to four years. They would also advise their clients on the day-to-day administration of the CBA by answering questions such as whether changes in the company's policies need to be discussed with the union. Despite their best efforts to avoid litigation, however, in-house employment lawyers often become intimately involved in actual labor and employment litigation.

Overseeing outside litigators

In-house employment lawyers hire outside attorneys to represent the company when it becomes involved in litigation arising out of the employment relationship. These cases can range from Title VII discrimination claims to wage and hour class actions brought under state laws similar to the FLSA. In-house lawyers discuss litigation strategy and settlement options and review motions filed on behalf of the company. They also give outside litigators guidance on where to find important documents or which employees need to be contacted regarding a particular issue in a case. They attend mediations and settlement conferences as well as depositions of important parties or witnesses in some cases. The actual amount of involvement an in-house lawyer has on a given case depends on the nature of the case and how many cases the attorney has active at a given time. If an in-house lawyer's company has 20 different suits pending at the same time, the attorney will probably not be too involved in a small FMLA benefits case but might be intimately involved in a wage and hour class action involving hundreds of plaintiffs and millions of dollars in potential damages. In-house employment lawyers are also responsible for keeping company executives and human resources professionals informed on the status of pending litigation.

Financial Rewards

If, after becoming a proficient employment litigator, you manage to find an in-house position, you will likely be handsomely rewarded. While in-house employment lawyers may not make as much as partners at large management-side law firms, their salaries are usually somewhere in the $100,000 to $200,000 range. According to Altman Weil Publications, Inc.'s 2000 Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey, the 1999 national average salary for regular in-house lawyers was $108,826, while "High-Level Specialist" lawyers raked in an average of $140,566. In addition to regular paychecks, in-house counsel may also be rewarded with stock options that can substantially boost their compensation package depending on the financial health of the company. The risks of a benefit package that is heavy on stock options and light on salary is one aspect of in-house practice that must be weighed before any seasoned litigator decides to leave firm practice and head in-house.

---