Corporate attorneys offer protection and informed decisions to their clients’ businesses, helping to safeguard them and keep them running smoothly.
Corporate law involves business transactions like raising capital, forming companies, merging and dissolving them apart, buying/selling assets etc. Transactional work tends to be more collaborative than litigation and often provides different timelines on many projects attorneys might handle.
Corporate Law Firms
Corporate law practice often necessitates developing strong research, writing and communication skills gained during law school and refined through internships. Depending on where corporate lawyers work they may also require developing interpersonal and managerial capabilities.
Corporate lawyers often must address regulatory matters. This is particularly relevant to lawyers specializing in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), securities, or financing transactions; in such cases it often necessitates working closely with other attorneys and paralegals in an organized team-oriented environment.
Corporate attorneys need a deep knowledge of business transactions and how they impact on local, state and federal laws. They must also have the ability to formulate long-term strategies and know who should be called upon when complex issues arise. In private practice settings they can expect to spend much of their time networking and marketing themselves to clients as well as other legal professionals; some firms will even pay for associates to attend legal seminars and conferences.
In-House Counsel
Most large corporations and some smaller ones employ in-house lawyers to oversee various legal issues pertaining to the company, from regulatory meetings and contract drafting, to complying with trade laws and compliance issues.
In-house counsel are often sought out by non-profit organizations for legal advice tailored specifically to their activities and goals. Additionally, these professionals may find work with government agencies at local, state, or national levels developing and upholding business laws and regulations.
In-house counsel often lack the opportunity to develop expertise in one specific practice area due to dealing with multiple corporate law topics every day and typically earning less money than their counterparts in BigLaw firms.
Public Corporations
The government owns and controls public corporations that provide essential services and manage public assets. These corporations have national reach, offer service-oriented products at lower prices than competitors using economies of scale; report to their parent government regularly for auditing purposes, such as Indian Railways, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) or State Bank of India – to name just some examples.
Corporate lawyers may find employment with government agencies and departments at the federal, state or local levels. While most are part of the executive branch, attorneys may also be hired by individual senators and representatives as staff members or legislative offices – for example New York City’s Law Department offers Assistant Corporation Counsel positions within its Tort Division for cases in which plaintiffs allege their constitutional rights were violated during protests or by police actions during arrests and prosecutions.
Private Corporations
Since both private and public corporations face many of the same legal issues, corporate lawyers may work at various firms. Unlike in-house counsel, these attorneys typically do not specialize in one specific area but instead provide general advice and direction for companies.
As a result, lawyers spend more time on business generation and less time conducting in-depth legal research or drafting contracts or documents. Furthermore, their risk of replacement by non-lawyers increases considerably.
Mid-size firms can make it more challenging for non-equity partners to advance, with some firms even requiring non-equity partners to generate business. For those who would rather focus on legal work rather than business development, this can be particularly daunting.
