Law Department Articles

Success in Hiring In-House Lawyers and Staff

One of the most important challenges faced by general counsel is the hiring of high-quality in-house attorneys and staff.  Market dynamics affect the availability of qualified candidates and alternatives available for them.  The dot.com boom of the late 1990s is a recent example of an extreme situation in which a large number of attorneys were leaving outside firms for in-house positions and start-ups were luring lawyers from traditional in-house jobs.  Over the past ten years or so, general counsel have had some buyers’ markets, but even in the best of times, there have been some specialty areas, e.g., real estate and intellectual property, for which there have been difficulties in filling positions.  The purpose of this article is to address some general principles which should apply in both good times and bad.

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