Has anyone worked at a start up?

[examin]

I'm going to qualify as a lawyer in a couple of months. I'm already pretty disillusioned with private practice, mainly because a lot of people are unhappy and unpleasant.

I was thinking of moving over into some sort of start up role. Naive, yes, I know. But I was wondering if anyone had worked in that kind of role successfully?

My view is that it will be easier to get out of law now than a few years down the line when I've got used to earning £200k+

Is it worth the risk? Very much aware it will take years to get that kind of salary

What sort of law? I would have thought most sole counsel positions would want some in-house experience but I may be wrong.

My best friend has worked in start ups on and off for the last 20 years and she’s great at it. It’s basically the equivalent of working in the Wild West and the sheriff is on vacation. You need to be very flexible, very thick skinned, an eternal optimist, a massive people person and very very hard working because you’re putting in crazy hours and the payout is unclear- you may sell and get some amazing equity buy out or it may flop and you spent 3 years working 60 hour weeks for no reason.

Do you mean work as a lawyer? Start-ups don’t have internal lawyers. Or do you mean “do anything”:?

I have worked at start ups. Lawyering is generally done by anyone who is sensible and can read. So accountants usually! Kicked over to externals when needed.

They don't tend to have lawyers just doing law stuff.

I wouldn't worry about "getting used to a salary", instead what I've done is taken the money whilst I can, with the idea of leaving when I've got enough (preset amount). Then have financial freedom to choose what I do

Hello! In-house lawyer at start up here.

If you want to stay as a lawyer but move in-house, then sign up with recruiters like Heriot Brown, Taylor Root, Montresor and others. Also Welcome to the Jungle website and turn on the secret "Open to Work" badge on LinkedIn.

You may need to take a pay cut and also demonstrate that you can deal with the generalities that come from in-house life. The smaller the company, the more generalist you will need to be, but if you are at a massive company there can be specialism. If you are getting stuck, you could do an interim post somewhere to get in-house experience before converting to a permanent.

Personally, I love in-house, but I love the variety and I was +10 PQE when i moved so could handle a lot. Some people never get IH life - you can't have an ego as you are very definitely NOT the main attraction, unlike private practice.

If you are bored of law, then Escape the City is a good website for alternative positions and career paths predominantly in early-stage companies.

Finally, if you like tech and process, there is the developing field of Legal Ops to explore.