(Author) Corporate Counsel

I’ve been in my position coming up on 3 months, completely new to in-house. Logically, I know that I can’t know everything but I can’t help but to be a little frustrated with myself. Everyone on the team is great but I just want to be able to add real value. How long did it take you to grasp things coming in to your position?

Counsel Responses:

• I’ve no advice, but I’m in the exact same situation at 4 months in.

• Same! I started in October.

• When I started in-house I was told it’ll take a minimum of 6 months to feel like I’m not drowning and a year plus to really find my feet. Just learn as much as you can and build those connections.

• A while. You want to have meets and greets with all the pertinent stakeholders in various areas so that you’ll either be able to get input or can get pointed in the right direction.

• Adding to what others have said: I find that it comes in waves. I have been in my role since late 2020, and I still have days where I find myself totally lost on something, and it knocks my ego back down. It doesn’t help being relatively the most junior person in my department. We’re not superhuman, and I think it’s unrealistic to expect absolute competence in 6 months/1 year/whatever arbitrary timeframe you want to impose, especially in a generalist role. I think we tend to hold ourselves to unrealistic standards in our profession at times. What’s important is that you’re making progress and having more productive days/fewer frustrated days over time, getting good feedback from your boss, and building good relationships with your internal clients.

• So much of in-house is institutional knowledge. When you start at a new company that all gets wiped out and suddenly your legal knowledge doesn’t give you the answer anymore, because you don’t know enough about company risk tolerances, project history, and key stakeholders and priorities. I’m on my 3rd in-house job and much less surprised about this at this point, but it’s a huge learning curve no matter how senior.

Attorney and Associate Responses:

• Same here! Four months in and feeling useless.

• I had the same feeling when I started in-house, and about 6 months in I started to feel a little bit more confident. Only after one year did I really feel like I was adding real value.

• I agree. This is normal. I’m about eight months in feeling like I’m drowning. I was told 6-9 months before I’ll start to feel like I’m not. - Hang in there!

• I started last February, and felt the same way three months in. By six months in I was starting to feel more comfortable. Now I feel like a pretty good member of the team.

• Join the New To In House vertical as part of ACC, In-House Connect, Contract Nerds and Laura Frederick (on LinkedIn) are also great. You will learn a lot from the ACC.

• I don't want to scare you but I'm 18 months in and I feel exactly the same.

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