Career Clinic: How best to handle the politics of an internal move?

Depends on your firm

You need to assess the firm yourself and perhaps speak to some trusted colleagues. You are not going to get any useful advice here.

I transferred internally and it did not appear to be looked kindly upon by my colleagues that I had previously worked with. A lack of commitment to the team and all that. I would say make the application only if you are certain you will get the role.

Best of luck with this.

Me -19 May 2011 | 14:15

Sausage Factory

If you are working in corporate or banking and you are thinking of moving to litigation (or something like that) then I say go for it. Forget everyone else.

It makes me laugh how many "intelligent", "sharp minded", "super intelligent" and "legal thinkers" go into an area of the law which requires you to understand a structure diagram (which a 13-year-old could understand) and working with "precedents" - i.e. changing the words on the one you did a month ago. Corporate is dull as ditch water for people with no personality who think that cutting and pasting is "doing deals" and "being at the cutting-edge of business and commerce".

If you chose to study law at university and enjoyed it then a move into law from glorified accounting (i.e. corporate) makes sense - that is what you trained (and worked so hard) to do. The work in litigation requires you to actually use some of the skills that lawyers claim to have, such as analysis and lateral thinking. A corporate lawyer couldn't think their way out of a paper bag unless the PLC notes, precedent document or bible told them how to do it.

If you are thinking of moving from litigation to corporate or banking then don’t do it - you may as well drink a rat poison and bleach cocktail with a shot of petrol. You won't be doing deals, you wont be using your commercial acumen - you will essentially be entering data onto templates (drafting) and reading mind numbingly boring contracts (due diligence). You wont need to know any actual law, save for banal information such as the fact that a GP needs to sign a document instead of an LP. You will have so much fun that you will want to ask someone to throw darts at you and you will want to head butt a Rottweiler.

Fairly Legal -19 May 2011 | 16:42

Informal approach

If you get on well with the partner in the new team, can you ask to meet him for coffee and a chat. Explain that you see there's a vacancy and you like the area of law, like the idea of working with him, etc. Then ask if it's worth your while applying. If there's someone else in the picture, he may well tell you, and then you won't waste your time applying when the position has really already been filled.

Beth -20 May 2011 | 10:46