Career Management, Inhouse, Move

How risky is it to join a startup?

  • On March 7, 2026
Lawyers are risk-averse by nature; our job is to minimize risk. But the good news is if you join a startup that fails, “your career should be fine” per WSJ. A recent Yale and Cornell study of 2.2 million workers shows that while executives may be “tainted” by working at a company that failed, rank-and-file […]
Read More
Market

How hard is it to land a remote job?

  • On March 1, 2026
How hard is it to land a remote job?  Not impossible, but it’s getting harder, especially in law. WSJ reports the “remote work dream isn’t dead” but is “slipping away.” Why is it so difficult? The total job market is shrinking, and the portion of remote jobs has dropped to around 8% from a high […]
Read More
LinkedIn

Is your Linkedin profile helping you? An easy way to tell

  • On February 17, 2026
Because our job is to minimize risk and avoid notice by regulators, lawyers generally have unmemorable LinkedIn profiles. But did you know that prospective employers check out your profile? To increase your odds of landing the job you want, your profile should lay out your top skills and make clear your career trajectory. But this […]
Read More
Market

Making sense of mixed signals of the job market & California economy

  • On February 13, 2026
US January job numbers were surprisingly positive: unemployment remains low, and 131,000 jobs were added tothe market. But the New York Times explains these gains are mostly in healthcare and largely offset the previous year’s job cuts. In California, the Mercury News reported on mixed signals: On the plus side, California’s economy is valued at […]
Read More
Compensation, GC

How and why do GCs get raises? Two case studies

  • On January 31, 2026
How and why do GCs get raises? Two case studies: 1. Qualcomm GC Ann Chaplin’s comp has increased the last 3 years per Corporate Counsel. In 2025 she made $9M, up from $6.9M in 2024. Of her 2025 pay, the large majority was stock (78% of total pay at $7.1M), and her base rose from […]
Read More
Compensation, GC

GC Pay: A Case Study

  • On January 18, 2026
GC pay and raises are often a black box, so I thought it’d be helpful to look at a case study. Pay is usually a mix of base + bonus + equity (the largest component). This scenario was the case with Jennifer Salinas, GC of Cerence, a small public technology company that does AI-powered voice […]
Read More
GC, Market

GC musical chairs

  • On January 10, 2026
Big GC moves this winter: Apple CLO Kate Adams announced she was retiring in December. Apple is replacing its CLO with Jennifer Newstead from Meta. Meta is replacing its CLO with CJ Mahoney, a VP from Microsoft. Former Microsoft CLO Hossein Nowbar, who left the company in the fall, joined ServiceNow this past week. Current […]
Read More
Compensation, Market

Who is paying extraordinary comp in 2026?

  • On January 4, 2026
No surprise, it’s AI and OpenAI in particular. WSJ reports the company is “paying employees more than any tech startup in recent history” at $1.5M each in stock-based pay on average, which is 7x higher Google’s pre-IPO levels and 34x the average for 18 large tech companies over the last 25 years. It makes up […]
Read More