The long and winding road: an in-house lawyer’s career path

The thrust of several posts is that in-house career path is an oxymoron (See my post of March 28, 2006: ostensible reasons not to go in-house; June 24, 2007: the intractable problem of career paths; April 12, 2006: among least rewarding aspect of practicing in corporation is “career advancement opportunities”; April 13, 2006: advantages of working in-house: “career advancement” rated low; and June 6, 2008: career development is one of the Ten C’s of employee engagement.).

Not everyone agrees that corporate lawyers seek constantly to move up (See my post of Sept. 10, 2005: lawyers hit a plateau – so what?; and July 28, 2008: plateaus for careers.).

Quite a number of posts discuss ways to mitigate the career angst (See my post of Sept. 5, 2005: up-and-coming counsel spotlighted; July 25, 2007: better path in centralized legal departments; Jan. 30, 2006: career development through leading teams; March 6, 2006: dual-track paths; Oct. 12, 2006: low attrition rates belie criticisms; Dec. 28, 2006: few promotions but some choices; Feb. 16, 2007: rotations as a boost to career path; Jan. 8, 2008: 9 ways to minimize angst; and July 28, 2008: not everyone covets the general counsel position.).