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Best seats to qualify into if you eventually want to go in-house or to a smaller law firm?

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This is too broad a question unfortunately.

If you were going to work in-house at a Finance company, the answer would be very different if you were with a tech company.

Working for a smaller firm depends on the type of firm. A niche firm will need that niche experience, a full service firm that’s smaller would probably want more core seats (corporate, finance, litigation).
 
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Thank you @Jessica Booker - that makes sense! Are there any areas that are perceived to be especially transferrable/widely recruited for in-house (e.g. commercial contracts, employment, litigation)? Thanks again!

not really - again if would matter what type of company you were working in house for and in particular the nature of the in-house role. Some in-house lawyers working in larger companies are specialists working on a specific topic, while others will be mode generalist working in smaller legal teams. If anything probably having varied seats is more likely to be helpful for the latter, but even then I don’t think this is something where it as clear cut/obvious.

My advice would be to talk to in-house lawyers though if this is something you are certain you want to do and get their advice on this. Think carefully about the size of company and the type of sector you think you might be interested in working for in the future and target those people specifically.
 

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