Get smart, move in-house

If you fancy working at the heart of business after you qualify, then moving in-house is looking ever-more promising.
The job of an in-house lawyer is changing: chief executives of companies are starting to be alert to the horrible effects of litigation, particularly when it comes to employment or health and safety issues.

This has provided openings for employment specialists at investment banks, but there are lots more opportunities for IP lawyers too. Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has started to recruit litigators to investigate the patents of acquisition targets to find weaknesses in their IP portfolios. So IP lawyers particularly those with a background in patents are now very popular with those companies. And as Lawyer 2B reported in the last issue (December 2006), a small but growing number of major UK companies, such as Reuters, HBOS, HSBC, Persimmon and Barclays, are starting to offer training contracts. You may never have to see the inside of a
law firm.