I'm at a big law firm in NYC. I'd love an in house position at a tech company, but I've heard Apple, Google, and Facebook only hire from the West Coast law firms. The only lawyer from my firm at those companies went through a coding bootcamp and is now a Google engineer. Amazon is the exception and seems to hire from a variety of firms. Can anyone confirm this? Is it even worth applying?
Why not other tech companies? My mom works on the legal team at Honeywell (not as a lawyer)
I posted this for my brother. I should have said so in the post. I forgot it would have the Facebook badge on it.
You got a message
Maybe start checking with West Coast start ups for in house positions. Some companies will hire contract positions for counsel which eventually turn to FTE. Also depends on his area of Law... I.e Employment, IP, Contract/Transactional, Gov't Relations.
Dude/dudette: just apply if you think you are a good fit! Don't let hearsay influence like precedent. Go for it! I have been in-house corporate counsel for 20 years and overall it has been a good trip. I have a dear friend in private practice and I don't envy her...
Those companies like to hire local unless you have some very specialized expertise. Its not about West Coast firms--its location. There are plenty of attorneys here so why recruit from out of town? Amazon is the only major outlier--they hire from outside Seattle because not many locals want to work for that culture. Also most hire only from the internal recommendations pool. As a new Yorker you're just at a huge disadvantage.
New York often isn't practical in legal approach and not typically sensitive to culture; that's the reason
Can anyone speak to the decrease in pay from firm to tech? And whether it's good to wait until a particular level before changing?
Always a decrease. That's just something you live with. I'd say a solid 4-5 years in private practice at least. Otherwise you just won't have your skills down and itll show.
How do you have a Facebook login ?