(Author) Counsel

Do your “years of experience” reset when you go in-house? I was job-classed based only on my in-house years of experience for compensation at my company.

General Counsel Responses:

• They shouldn't reset, assuming your previous experience is in the law and ideally in the speciality/group you're in.

• I’d still count my experience, but I’d do so understanding that I have very limited in-house experience. So overall years of experience would be the same, but you’ll still feel like a baby lawyer again in your first in-house role.

• It depends on whether you hit a save point or not. If you didn’t, your experience resets but you get to keep all the side quests you’ve already completed.

Counsel Responses:

• Sorry to hear that, OP. My experience wasn’t the same. My compensation is based on years of experience which includes private practice and previous in-house work.

• Your job is trying to screw you, likely some evil HR drone.

• It is a different ball game. You are learning a whole new way to communicate risk. Your years of experience don’t “reset”, but you are green.

• Years of experience only reset when you first get barred.

• If you didn’t rest at a bonfire, it resets from scratch.

• You’d be surprised just how effective you can be when you don’t need to bill by the hour.

Attorney and Associate Responses:

• Yes, every lawyer got together and decided that, as a body, they would not consider in-house as years of experience. There are conventions for these sort of things. Individual experience will vary and I certainly don't think being in-house will not give you a great experience.

• I went from being a rising mid-level lawyer supervising juniors, to the bottom in terms of seniority, so it feels that way sometimes.

• I mean, in-house is more law practice-adjacent than actually practicing law. I wouldn’t count it as years of experience either.

• I’ve had friends tell me a few years in private practice is valued (I don’t know what a “few” is, maybe 3–5?). But after that, it doesn’t matter how many law firm years you have. It’s the number of in-house years of experience. I don’t know if this is true but I’ve had a couple friends say this.

In-house? Be a part of the conversation on Fishbowl (anonymous).