Law Department Management Blog
Based on over 600 responses to a survey, and as reported in InsideCounsel, March 2007 at 59, law departments would prefer to hire lawyers from another legal department 50 percent more than than they would prefer to hire from a law firm. Specifically, 34 percent of the respondents like to hire from another department, whereas 20 percent like to hire from law firms. Almost half of the respondents (45%) have no preference (See my post of Oct. 26, 2005 with its fabricated data on sources of hires.).
Not surprisingly, the two categories of lawyers sought most frequently are generalists and contract specialists. Surveys and consulting experience show that about half of all in-house lawyers are commercial generalists who spend much of their time on contracts.