I interned at an Indian tech giant's subsidiary and this is really not true. My GC was earning close to 2cr exclusive of stock options etc etc. He came in at 11 and left at 4, and also made the entire team leave by 5 max. A few good and bad (subjective, ofc) things I'd like to say:

1) I learnt the business side of things, which was very refreshing. My Legal Head encouraged me to talk with the business team before beginning to draft any contract/agreement.2) The exposure was immense. Legal teams in companies tend to be small. I attended a few meetings with the CEO and CFO. This was also due to the fact that the company I was interning at was a Mahindra subsidiary, and hence every team was small in general. But generally too, legal teams in-house work directly and constantly with the business heads.

3) However, the quality of people who I worked with was...bad. To say the least. Apart from the GC, the Assistant GC, and the Legal Head, the legal managers in the team were subpar at best. They did not have any working knowledge of law, in general. Some of them were put there by their campus recruiters and some had absolutely no experience apart from in-house jobs in their lives which stunts a person's growth. Many a times, the GC would directly assign drafting to me. But this in no way is to say they were bad people, no one had better knowledge of the business than them. My GC told me this is the exact reason why he needed people like the legal managers in his team so that they help him with "business legal" and he does the "contractual legal" stuff. Which is a pattern I have seen in most companies apart from some tier-1s. I personally found no intellectual stimulation there.

4) The starting salary was dehumanising. The place I interned at paid 3.4LPA to freshers. That threw me off. Tech Mahindra pays some 6-9LPA for freshers, Wipro pays 10LPA, my point being, it does not go beyond 10LPA unless you're in ICICI Bank.

That being said, I was the happiest in those months when I interned. After coming from a brutal tier-1 internship where 1am and 2am was the norm, learning about the business, having team lunches, doing impactful work and being involved in substantial stuff was refreshing to say the least. AND I GOT STIPEND MORE THAN ANY LAW FIRM EVER PAID ME!!??? It made me consider whether I should actually fcuk money and live in peace. Yes, it is an average life (compared to a law firm - money wise), but it's not bad!!!! If you stick by the right people and know your stuff, you could get promoted pretty fast. My GC told me that the trick was to jump ships fast and efficiently early in your career and build and expertise slowly. For eg, if you start out at Tech M, you could move on to Infosys and then on and so forth, basically in the IT/Service/Software legal industry.

I believe, the choice is between money and sanity. Choose wisely and never feel inferior for doing in-house. You're doing a job at the end of day ffs, you're employed. what does one even need in this economy?

No. I joined in-house right out of college. Close to two years in the company. The work life balance is great but the knowledge and money is very sub par. The growth in salary is at a snail's pace and the work in itself gets monotonous after a point of time .

If you want a decent work life balance, stability in work and are okay with less pay then you can totally consider. However if you wish to grow as a professional and earn well then stay away.

Bhai I worked in Reliance, aisa toh nahi hota. Khair you must have joined some lala company I believe. My head legal never work on Saturday even if it is marked urgent and he is also an ex-partner of big law firm. Since I have friends in finance department, I can easily tell you that his salary is around 2-3 cr along with other bonuses and stuff. From petrol to everything is covered by the company. You did not negotiate well before joining the company. Its time for you to jump ships.

Agree mostly, but career progression is dependent on multiple factors - internal politics, whether it is an MNC or promoter driven company, sector (infra is generally slow), age and experience (some Indian companies only promote after a particular number of years, which is generally not reasonable, irrespective of how good you are).

Not very happy. I shifted in-house after about a decade at law firms, it was great initially but growth is majorly limited, specially in non-MNCs. Promotions and raises are limited and you really really need to fight for it, no matter how good you are at your job. After a point, specially after reaching legal head position, politics will be off the charts, there will be soo soo many underperformers at top levels who will get jealous of a younger person doing well and will try their best to maintain status quo. Creates unnecessary stress and salaries are nowhere close to your peers in law firms. Also, Indian owned companies are generally understaffed so hours are similar to law firms but remuneration not even close. Then there are unnecessary deductions from CTC like mediclaim (which has barely any coverage but is mandatory). Saturdays are working :( Super strict attendance policies (yes even at head position) which leads to salary deduction if not approved (even for being 1 min late) - lots of seniors use this to trouble juniors.

Enough ranting for today. Thanks for reading!

At fresher level very few in-house jobs can even try to match law firm salaries. Law firm fresher salaries are significantly higher. However at senior levels in house the pay is more 'respectable'. But at the end of the day you have to make a choice between money and 'some' sanity (in-house job is not a cake walk either).

Don't compare law firms salaries with in house. As opposed to multiple client being handled by you in law firms, in in-house your only client is the company. So the pay vary as per the need and budget of the company. At entry level, the pay ranges from 4-5 p.a but with time you can easily match T-1 level (provided you are making decent switches and know about law). And yes it is easy to shift from company to company since companies prefer people who has already worked in such environment. Career progression is solely dependent on you, how good you are and whether you are taking the right decision at the right time. Also, i believe after some time it is better to stick to one industry to maintain specialisation.

Yes, a lot. after having seen all sides of litigation, firm culture and companies. I can fairly say in house offers a lot many opportunities and balance to you than firm in general. But then again, you can also get stuck in companies which have horrible work culture. One of my senior who was part of KPMG contracts team told me that all big 4's have the same firm culture. Ache insan mile toh sab badiya vrna swarg mein bhi dhuki ho jaogey. But all in all, companies do gives you job security and balance. Also, once you have working experience of corporate, then it is easy for you to jump ships.

(P.S.: 4+ PQE, Delhi law faculty. Pretty sure, many people will have different opinion on this.)