The prolific “lawfluencer” Emma Lilley tells The Brief about her latest initiative: Inhoco, a comprehensive online hub for in-house legal careers.

Emma Lilley is a prominent “lawfluencer” whose In-house Potter website and Instagram account have been providing inspiration and advice to would-be in-house lawyers since 2019.

The proudly working-class Stoke-born (hence “Potter”) lawyer, to whom The Brief first spoke in 2023, is a prominent advocate for social mobility in the law and an evangelist for the benefits of training and working in-house. Earlier this year she launched the online in-house careers resource Inhoco, and has recently stepped away from the role of UK & Ireland Head of Legal at the global HR, pay and time solutions provider SD Worx, which she held for more than five years, to focus on this venture full-time.

“It’s something that has been needed for a very long time,” she says. “There’s nothing else out there providing one version of the truth to help aspiring in-house lawyers to understand the career path.

“There’s a lot of information out there but the majority of it is either incorrect or from people who haven’t actually done what they’re advising on. In-house qualification hasn’t been that popular a route into the law, and not many people have done it the way I have, so I’m using my personal brand and credibility to launch Inhoco as a single place for people to go to for all in-house careers advice.”

Working the rooms

Riffing on the “house” element of the term “in-house”, Inhoco is divided into four “rooms” aimed at different career stages: undergraduate, postgraduate & trainee, qualified and senior.

“A junior lawyer or someone who is getting their first in-house role, for example, requires completely different advice from someone who is just starting to manage a team, or from someone who is looking for an NQ role in-house,” Lilley explains.

“For so long, in-house lawyers have been put in a corner and told, ‘There you go, there’s your advice.’ It’s not tailored – it’s been regurgitated from traditional private practice.”

Much of the careers advice around private practice is not only useless when translated to an in-house scenario but, according to Lilley, can be actively harmful.

There’s a lot of information out there but the majority of it is either incorrect or from people who haven’t actually done what they’re advising on.

She says, “If you do a training contract in a law firm, it's likely to be quite technically based. It'll be based upon set policies.

“There will be a house style in terms of the way they do things, the way they want legal services delivered, succession planning, the way that they want individuals to be moulded.

“By contrast, if someone is looking for an in-house job, the qualities they are looking for include the ability to communicate well and to be liked – because they will need to get on with people from marketing or sales and be able to speak their language and understand their problems.

“From an in-house hiring manager’s point of view, I want somebody who can take a problem and run with it without expecting to be spoon-fed. We need someone who is able to use their initiative in a way that all the training in private practice doesn’t always provide for.”

Understanding this can, she continues, “set somebody up for an incredible in-house career” but lack of it “can set somebody back – and sadly that’s what’s been happening.”

Back to school

University law courses have also tended to be focused on private practice, Lilley says. However, “For an in-house career they need to focus on commercial skills and stakeholder management rather than knowing how to give their advice in a certain way to a partner for them to review, or knowing how to act on instructions.

“In a lot of ways it’s a completely different skill set and a lot of people are finding they are missing out on opportunities because they didn’t know about it early enough.”

From an in-house hiring manager’s point of view, I want somebody who can take a problem and run with it without expecting to be spoon-fed.

To address this, Inhoco has launched an education partner programme, and The University of Law is the website’s launch sponsor. Lilley plans, she tells The Brief, not just to provide advice to aspiring in-house lawyers but also to work with a range of organisations to open up access to in-house careers – and that begins with the education sector.

“Everyone’s looking at expanding their offering to make sure they cover their gaps relating to in-house careers, so we will be looking to work with universities’ employability teams.”

Lilley is open to approaches from education providers, employers and in-house teams looking to build in-house content into what they already offer. Enquiries go through Lilley directly.

Beautiful, messy, crazy in-house world

In addition to information, the Inhoco website also features interactive tools – with more on the way.

Although she is a passionate advocate for in-house careers, Lilley recognises that not everyone is suited to these roles. To help students decide whether it is something they should pursue, Inhoco features a careers quiz.

She says, “There will obviously be a bit of nuance to this but if somebody answers that they like to work on one project and single aspect of law, to know where they are at all times and to work in quite a structured environment then they’re probably not going to get a very high score.

“In the beautiful, messy, crazy in-house world you’re not likely to get the kind of structure you want.”

Our covering letter tool will help people to create their own covering letters specifically for in-house roles.

Another feature under development is an AI-enabled covering letter builder. Lilley says, “We’re finding that, even if people can find in-house jobs, they stumble when they apply for them because they have been given strict advice, based on private practice, about how to construct a CV and covering letter.

“But if you put a covering letter and CV based on the traditional route to an in-house hiring manager, they aren’t going to look at it favourably compared to one from somebody who can speak in-house.

“Our covering letter tool will help people to create their own covering letters specifically for in-house roles, designed to help bring out and emphasise the commercial assets that candidates have.”

Alongside tools, Inhoco publishes a guide to in-house interviews and a Sunday newsletter featuring insights from those in the industry.

Promoting social mobility

Inhoco is a commercial business, funded by sponsorship and, it is envisaged, advertising by legal tech companies, recruiters and beyond. It will not, however, seek to charge end users.

“I have an overriding belief in social mobility so we won’t be charging for access to information that I think should be freely available to everybody who needs it,” she explains.

In-house careers can be an important driver of social mobility in the law, she says, because they offer a route to qualification that can place more emphasis on commercial ability than A Level grades or which university a candidate attended.

We won’t be charging for access to information that I think should be freely available to everybody who needs it.

“I was told I would never be a lawyer because of my A Level grades and the fact I went to Staffordshire University after doing a foundation year,” she says. “What they should have said was that I would never get a training contract in private practice because I would have been filtered out.

“But to say I would never be a lawyer based on that is wildly incorrect, and if I had believed it we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I’m a head of legal, I’ve got a team globally and I’ve made a pretty successful career out of it!”

Combatting outdated advice

In recent years, she continues, awareness of in-house careers has grown “hugely” and talent is being retained in the law because private practice solicitors who might previously have abandoned the profession altogether are moving to in-house roles that better suit their priorities and skill sets.

However, she says, “Unfortunately they are still getting the advice that you have to wait two-to-five years before you go in-house – that you have to get a traditional training contract first to be respected.

“That’s why it’s perfect timing for us to launch Inhoco, so we can catch all of those people and say, ‘Actually, that’s not true. You can train in-house, via the SQE and QWE which allow people to work and qualify in businesses at the same time.’”

Increasing employer awareness

Although Lilley believes the opportunities to qualify in-house aren’t well known enough by candidates, she also believes that many more such opportunities could open up if more employers were more aware.

I think some businesses think it is more complicated to offer opportunities for qualifying work experience than it is.

She concludes, “I think some businesses think it is more complicated to offer opportunities for qualifying work experience than it is, and so they shy away from it. But the new regime is really flexible.

“I think if more in-house legal teams understood just how easy it was to onboard somebody and offer them training in-house, more would be doing it because it’s a massive benefit to have somebody to help you do the work, even if it’s only on a temporary contract while they’re training.

“Although, of course, if you bring someone through the business from the start of their career, so they know it inside out, retaining them will be invaluable from a succession planning perspective.

“I don’t want us to lose sight of that because otherwise we’re going to get this huge, and growing, uptick in people wanting to be in-house and then no opportunities for them. We need to make sure that talent is directed in the right way, and that the right opportunities are there for them.”

Visit

Inhoco

The University of Law

Connect with Emma Lilley via LinkedIn