Working In-House

bear17

Just wondering...in comparison to obtaining an apprenticeship with a solicitor/firm, what are the chances of obtaining one inhouse with a company legal dept?
I have always much preferred the idea of working inhouse to being a solicitor, as I enjoyed the business aspect to my undergrad law degree. However, I always thought that such legal counsel positions etc were only available to qualified solicitors/barristers.
However, it recently came to my attention that some companies (particularly in the UK) offer training contracts. Does the same apply here in Ireland?

eagle_&_bear

I'm entirely open to being shot down on this, but from what I've seen, of the positions I've seen, its usual that you come to the job qualified (mostly with 3years experience)

but I could be shot down on this

NoQuarter

Some companies have graduate schemes and if you have a law degree and they take you on you could end up in their legal department as far as i know!

Maximilian

I've never heard of in-house trainees. I think the reason being is that in-house legal depts. tend to be specialised in a particular area of law and they don't do the same type of work as solicitors in firms.

You wouldn't get training in all the other areas of law. In-house lawyers don't actually bring cases to Court for example - they appoint external solicitors. It's not a very good idea I'm afraid.

stepinnman

Not entirely true that in-house lawyers don't bring cases to Court - It depends on the particular case usually as to whether or not it can be completely dealt with in-house. In-house Lawyers are employees and can only act for their employer so cases involving numerous Defendants and which may involve providing indemnities etc may need to be farmed out but there are always ways around this.

As an 'in-house' lawyer you will more than likely deal with areas of law that you just wouldn't get exposed to in a private firm as well of course as general law such as employment and P.I. There is of course a downside as well in that you don't have the same relationships with clinets and invariably your 'clients' are employees themselves and so, regardless of how committed to their jobs they are, they won't have the same emotional commitment to a case as a private party who is directly and personally affected.

I know that at present a lot of insurance companies are exploiting the glut of cheap qualified labour out there by taking on newly-qualified solicitors as Claims Handlers/Investigators. In the present climate a job is a job so any place that you can get in to which offers even vaguely legal experience would be worth considering.

Ruby83

I am working inhouse at the moment in a legal department and have done so for about three years. I have a fair bit of responsibility, having worked my way up from a fairly administrative position. I see being qualified as a solicitor as the next logical step in order to progress (though the company does not see this as necessary but for my own personal satisfaction, I want to do this). I am trying to get a qualification at the moment but always envisaged having to leave the company in order to train as a Solicitor (or maybe doing the Kings Inns course part time so I could stay working, without having to do the devilling). My company have always asked if they could help me with training to become qualified (they are not an Irish company and so do not really know our training system here for qualification). I have never heard of training in-house as firstly I'd imagine you would not get enough exposure to different departments (unless the company rotated you in contracts, IP, litigation for example) and also they may not want to give you the time off for PPC1 and 2? I wonder would getting the Kings Inns qualification be better (and more straight forward) for someone who wants to continue working inhouse? Has anyone asked the Law Society about this? It may be a good idea to consider inhouse trainee solicitors given that it is so difficult (and disheartening) to get a qualification in this climate.

Maximilian

Ruby83 wrote: »

Has anyone asked the Law Society about this? It may be a good idea to consider inhouse trainee solicitors given that it is so difficult (and disheartening) to get a qualification in this climate.

I don't believe there are any rules against it per se but if I recall correctly as part of your training you have to get training in certain core areas, litigation, conveyancing and probate are three I think.

I can't imagine you being able to get Probate training for example in an in-house legal dept. unless you could get seconded somewhere appropriate. Having said that, I know of people who for example knew next to nothing about say, conveyancing, having worked in pretty much one dept. in a firm their whole apprenticeship, yet ticked the ticked the "I have spent the requisite time in conveyancing" box on some form or other.

shaneybaby

Maximilian wrote: »

I don't believe there are any rules against it per se but if I recall correctly as part of your training you have to get training in certain core areas, litigation, conveyancing and probate are three I think.

I can't imagine you being able to get Probate training for example in an in-house legal dept. unless you could get seconded somewhere appropriate. Having said that, I know of people who for example knew next to nothing about say, conveyancing, having worked in pretty much one dept. in a firm their whole apprenticeship, yet ticked the ticked the "I have spent the requisite time in conveyancing" box on some form or other.

What i've heard of people doing is going on secondment (which i believe the law society allow), a sort of swopsie between a firm of solicitors who do work with the Company wereby the apprentice swops with someone in the company to get the experience required. It was only for a few weeks and if i remember the one that came into the solicitors firm was only doing it to see how a litigation department ran things but it seemed to work out okay as far as i now.

Victor

Ruby83 wrote: »

I am working inhouse at the moment in a legal department and have done so for about three years.

I assume you have a solicitor or similar supervising you.

Ruby83

Yes...two

Laura79

A friend in Blackhall did his training contract in a solicitor's firm that was technically a stand-alone firm but that worked solely for a semi-state company. There was concerns that he wouldn't get a full training, and he was told that he would have to spend 6 months in another firm (I think the Law Society's main issue was that he wouldn't get to do any probate).