Corporate LawyerOdds of Hanging On

The legal profession is one of those mountains with a really high base camp to screen the haves from the have-nots. But once you establish yourself in your local legal market, you’ll find it can be a very nice base camp, with beach-balling, hot-tubbing, money-suit wearing men and women. Corporate lawyers especially can expect to be retained for the same clients because of their “playbook” knowledge, that is, company procedure know-how. Like Chinese finger traps, companies reel in their favorite corporate lawyers with incentives to stay the more lawyers might want to take on other business. Eventually, the company may make an offer at a prestigious in-house counsel position just to take out the law firm middleman. Then you can tire yourself out in a money fight and try for the corporate summit tomorrow.