That’s the last word on a panel discussion entitled, “The role of the corporate attorney: Going in-house and finding your niche in the corporate world” at the  Leadership Institute for Women of Color Attorneys in Law & Business last week at the Atlanta Ritz-Carlton.

On the panel:

Moderator:  Horace G. Dawson III, VP, Div. GC Darden Restaurants
Jocelyn Janine Hunter, VP, Legal– Labor Law at The Home Depot
Noni Ellison-Southall, Sr. Counsel Turner Broadcasting System Inc.
Timothy G. Johnson, Gen. Atty.-Labor for AT&T Mobility

From Fulton County Daily Reprt:

“In private practice, the in-house jobs are considered more lifestyle friendly and 9-to-5,” said Johnson. “That is absolutely the opposite of the truth. The in-house environment is very fast-paced.”

He noted some differences. One is a heightened level of expectation. Knowledge of the law is presumed. On-the-spot answers are expected. “The opportunity that you have in a law firm to say, ‘Let me research that and write you a memo’ is not there,” he said.

Another option that ends when an attorney leaves the firm and goes in-house is the ability to “just say no” to a legal question. “You have to give an alternative,” said Johnson. “Your client really expects you to be a partner.”

And because in-house lawyers are really partners in the business, they are much more invested in and affected by the fortunes of the company, according to Johnson. “When you are outside, you move away from losses very quickly,” he said. “When you’re in-house, they stay with you.”

The business nature of in-house work poses challenges for lawyers coming from firms. “How do you become a business partner when you have no business background?” asked Mulrain, who noted that those who had a background in economics or finance might have an advantage, but those subjects are not covered in a typical legal education. “It’s a level of lawyering that we are not taught,” she said. “The lawyers who are the most successful are the ones who do that best.”

She noted that both general counsel and successful law firm senior partners have an intimate knowledge of their clients’ business decisions. “You have to get that through years of experience,” she said.

Corporate legal departments don’t have the resources to train young attorneys the way law firms do, and those who succeed have to find their own way to learn, according to Mulrain. “Let’s not be fooled into thinking that in-house departments are training grounds. They are not,” Mulrain said. “But in a way it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I had to learn how to teach myself, and I’ve never stopped. There’s nothing you can throw at me that I can’t figure out.”

The group also talked about networking and mentoring — part of the purpose of the event. “I think it’s very, very, very helpful to have a mentor,” Hunter said. “Seek them in all facets of your life.”

Ellison-Southall said she had kept in touch with some mentors and professional friends and had benefited from it — including contact with a former professor at Howard University who was the father of Dawson, the moderator. But she had not stayed in touch with all of them, to her regret: “I guess I should have kept in touch with my law school professor Barack Obama.”

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