By 1988, after James McIlwain had been out of law school for about 12 years working at a 10-person firm in Shreveport, he started asking himself a fundamental question: Is this what I really want to do?
“I was tired of the practice where I was,” he says. “I was fighting the billable hours routine that lawyers have to go through.” He also was sick of the firm’s politics and pressures from various clients.
McIlwain was doing a lot of work related to banking at the time, which could be what drew the attention of New Orleans-based Hibernia National Bank. Hibernia was going through a growth spurt, and the bank brought McIlwain to Baton Rouge to head its first legal department to be based here.
From Hibernia, McIlwain went on to become the first general counsel for Gulfport, Miss.-based Hancock Bank. He moved in 1997 to Lamar, where he serves in the same capacity. For him, working as an in-house counsel is the only way to go.
“To me, it’s more enjoyable to be part of a business team effort to grow the company,” he says. “Sometimes in a law firm you don’t have that interaction.”
McIlwain also reports an improved quality of life since making the move in-house, a sentiment echoed by other corporate lawyers. While attorneys at big firms are grinding out as many billable hours as possible, many corporate lawyers are working mostly eight hours a day, five days a week.
“I love it,” McIlwain says. “I would not be inclined to go back into private practice.”
Once, the model was simple: A company needs an attorney, so it hires one. But in recent years, more large companies have started to keep an in-house counsel, says Steve Boutwell, the director of client services for Kean Miller, Baton Rouge’s largest firm.
“They’re really a corporate executive that handles the legal function for the company,” Boutwell says. Hiring someone in-house gives a business someone who knows the company inside and out and ultimately has the company’s best interests at heart. Companies typically still hire outside lawyers for large cases or cases in other cities; Boutwell says Kean Miller does a lot of work with in-house legal departments.
“As companies get larger and more complex, and their [legal] needs become more broad-based, they need someone to manage that function in-house,” he says.
Joni Johnson, president of the Louisiana chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, handles legal matters for SmartDog Services, a computer software consultant firm in New Orleans. She describes herself as a generalist who takes care of whatever comes up. Larger companies than hers often have attorneys dedicated to specific areas, like employee relations or environmental issues.
Johnson has been off the billable-hour treadmill for almost eight years now. “You work basically 40 hours a week instead of 60, which is good,” she says. “Although I’ve heard some in-house now are working just as hard, it depends on what company you’re with.”
Johnson’s chapter only has about 108 members, but she says the New Orleans-centric organization is starting to grow with more members from Baton Rouge and Lafayette. The chapter held its first Baton Rouge meeting June 19, hosted by Kean Miller.
While there hasn’t always been a strong network here, Johnson is working to build those connections with more social events and more continuing education seminars geared to issues facing her in-house colleagues. Networking gives in-house attorneys a chance to compare notes about outside firms they’ve worked with, and it becomes vital in an economy when no one is immune from getting downsized.
“In the past year, I’m seeing more turnover than usual,” Johnson says.
Attorney Robert Preston Brown wasn’t looking for a change when his phone rang about four years ago. But the headhunter on the other end of that call convinced him to at least look at The Shaw Group’s opening, and Brown was intrigued by the “leadership position” Shaw was offering.
Today, Brown is a vice president with the company and deputy general counsel for litigation, part of a legal staff of about 36 attorneys, and he describes the move inside as like going from player to coach.
“I solve problems,” he says. “I’m more of the person who sets the strategy, but I don’t actually carry out the plan.” He oversees litigation, farming out the majority of the work to outside counsel, although occasionally he does need to be in the room.
“There are times when I’ll sit there and feel like I want to be back in the action,” he says. But he doesn’t miss working every day of the week for months at a time.
“In-house counsel is a different life,” he says. “We still work hard here and there’s still pressure, but there really is a sense that you’re entitled to your own life. When I leave on Friday, I’m done.” He could probably make more money in private practice, but says he’s more than happy to make that trade.
“I’ll talk to some of my former partners and they’ll say, ‘All right, Robert, we’ve got a place waiting for you,’” Brown says. “I tell them, ‘That’s OK. I’ve crossed a line now, and I don’t think I’m going back.’”
