Updated October 2026.
Our in-house counsel guides are complete, current resources on the topics that matter most to corporate counsel, updated as things change. Start with the core guides below.
Want to add your guide here? Email info@inhouseblog.com with the details!
1. Core In-House Counsel Guides
1.1 Getting the Job
- How to Get an In-House Counsel Job: moving in-house, from first search to first day
- The In-House Counsel Resume: what hiring managers look for, and how to fix rough spots
- Legal Interview Questions: The In-House Counsel Guide: the questions you will face and the ones to ask
- Negotiating the In-House Job Offer: salary, bonus, equity and the terms that matter
- In-House Counsel Salaries Guide: current pay by title and market
1.2 Building Your Career
- How to Manage Your In-House Career: when to move up, sideways or on
- How to Become a General Counsel: paths, skills and your first 90 days in the top job
- How to Be a Good In-House Lawyer: A Practical Guide: working with the business and earning trust
- Managing Outside Counsel: choosing firms, RFPs, guidelines, fees and when to move on
- Office Politics for Lawyers: bosses, coworkers and getting ahead without getting burned
- Future-Proofing the In-House Counsel: staying valuable as AI and the business change
- Lawyer Burnout: how to avoid it, recover and be happier in law
1.3 The Lighter Side
- The Weird, Wacky and Funny: the strangest, funniest stories from the legal world, newest first
2. Jobs and Recruiters
- In-House Counsel Jobs
- General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer Jobs
- Deputy General Counsel Jobs
- Legal Recruiter Directory
3. More In-House Reading
3.1 On the Job
- Top 10 Tips for In-House Counsel During the First 90 Days
- The General Counsel ROI: The Value of the GC to the Company
- In-House Counsel Need to Carry a Quota and Sell
- Guide: Structuring Your In-House Legal Team
- Performance Reviews 101 for In-House Counsel
- Managing Litigation as In-House Counsel
- Mergers and Acquisitions Guide for In-House Counsel
- A Guide for Government Attorneys Transitioning In-House
- Association of Corporate Counsel: A Guide for In-House Counsel
- Was Law School Worth It?
- How to Manage People… and Lawyers
- Succession Planning for the In-House Team
- Personal Development Plans for In-House Counsel
- Law Departments and the On-Boarding Process
- 35 Cities With the Most Job Opportunities
3.2 Working With Outside Counsel
- Guide: Managing Outside Counsel
- 14 Outside Counsel Rules by In-House Counsel
- 10 Commandments for External Counsel
- What In-House Attorneys Want From Outside Counsel
- How Law Firms Want You to Select a New Firm, and How You Should
- Selecting Law Firms to Propose on Your Work
- How Law Firms Exert Control Over the Legal Vendor Selection Process
- The RFP for Outside Counsel
- What In-House Counsel Look For in Outside Counsel
- Your Outside Counsel Needs Professional Telepathy
- 7 Ways to Make In-House Lawyers Happy
- Pick Lawyers Based on Win Rates With Justice Toolbox
- Biglaw Billing Bonanza: Partners at $3,000 an Hour
3.3 Working With Legal Recruiters
- Legal Recruiter Directory
- Supercharge Your Career With a Legal Recruiter
- A Legal Recruiter: Your Secret Weapon for a Lateral Move
- 6 Things You Should Always Tell Your Legal Recruiter
- What Legal Recruiters Need to Know About You
- Be Honest With Your Legal Recruiter
- How to Make Yourself Desirable to Recruiters
- What to Say When a Recruiter Calls
- Questions Recruiters Ask That Are None of Their Business
- The 4 Signs You’re Working With a Good Recruiter
- How to Work With an In-House Legal Recruiter
- What to Learn From Recruiters Who Don’t Call Back
- Five Good Reasons to Fire Your Recruiter
4. Ten Things® by Sterling Miller, Esq.
Sterling Miller, Esq., a former general counsel, is one of the leading voices for in-house lawyers. His blog, Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel®, has hundreds of practical posts. Here are some of our favorites.
Your Career
- Building Your Executive Presence In-House
- How to Market Yourself (and Build Your Brand)
- Managing Up: What All General Counsel Want From Their Team
- In-House Lawyers and Imposter Syndrome
- How to Develop “Good Judgment”
Working With the Business
- How to Be a Practical In-House Lawyer
- Business Skills All In-House Lawyers Should Master
- Solving Problems (It’s Different In-House)
- Dealing With Business Executives
- The Art of Delivering Bad News
- Presenting to the Board of Directors
Running the Legal Department
- How to Create a Strategic Plan for the Legal Department
- Asking for More Legal Department Resources
- Creating Standard Operating Procedures for the Legal Department
- How to Manage People… and Lawyers
- Delivering Results That Matter
- When to Send Work to Outside Counsel (and When to Bring It In-House)
- Alternative Fee Arrangements: What In-House Lawyers Need to Know
AI, Tech and Productivity
- 100 Practical Generative AI Prompts for In-House Lawyers
- Cool Tech for In-House Counsel (2026 Edition)
- How to Prioritize Your Work
- Creating a “Not-to-Do” List (Learning How to Say No)
- What to Do When You Are Feeling Overwhelmed at Work
Browse everything in his index to all the Ten Things® posts.
5. Business, Transactional and Litigation Resources
5.1 AI Governance
- Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0) (National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2023)
- How to Set Standards So AI Tools Don’t Replace Human Legal Judgment (Today’s General Counsel, 2026)
- AI Laws of the World (DLA Piper, 2026)
- The EU AI Act: Guide for In-House Lawyers (Hunton Andrews Kurth, 2025)
- AI Law & Regulation Tracker (Akin, 2026)
- Board Oversight of AI Transformation (Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 2026)
- Artificial Intelligence Toolkit for In-house Lawyers, Second Edition (Association of Corporate Counsel, 2026)
- AI Watch: Global Regulatory Tracker (White & Case, 2026)
- Director Essentials: Implementing AI Governance (National Association of Corporate Directors, 2025)
- AI Risk Management Framework: Generative AI Profile (NIST AI 600-1) (National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2024)
- Building a Defensible AI Governance Program (Robins Kaplan, 2026)
5.2 Antitrust and Competition
- 2023 Merger Guidelines (U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, 2023)
- Antitrust Compliance: What to Know for 2025 (WilmerHale, 2025)
- The Intersection of Antitrust and Intellectual Property: A Practitioner’s Handbook (Willkie Farr & Gallagher, 2026)
- DAMITT 2025 Review: Merger Investigations Neared Record Lows (Dechert, 2026)
5.3 Contracts
- You’ve received a force majeure notice. What now? A practical guide for businesses on the receiving end of force majeure claims (Ashurst Perkins Coie, 2026)
- Key Cybersecurity Contract Provisions for Securing Agentic AI (Mayer Brown, 2026)
- 2026 Contracting Benchmark Report: Your Roadmap to Contracting Excellence (Ironclad, 2026)
- Master Service Agreement Checklist – MSA Guide
- Statement of Work Checklist
- Professional Services Agreement Guide
- Software License Agreements Checklist
- Website Development Agreement Checklist
- The Force Majeure Provision
- Confidentiality Agreements Guide
- Business Contract Provisions Guide
- 3 Key Risk Clauses in a Professional Services Agreement
- “For the Avoidance of Doubt”
5.4 Corporate Law
- Thoughts for Boards: Key Issues in Corporate Governance for 2026 (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, 2026)
- Dealing with Activist Hedge Funds and Other Activist Investors (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, 2025)
- Board Leader Succession Planning: 4 Essential Steps for Chair and Lead Director Transitions (Spencer Stuart, 2026)
- Risk Management and the Board of Directors (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz via Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 2025)
- Piercing The Corporate Veil Prevention
- Requirements for Public Company Boards (Including IPO Transition Rules) (Weil, Gotshal & Manges, 2025)
- Audit Committee Guide 2026 (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, 2026)
- Board Evaluation Best Practices: From Insight to Impact (Spencer Stuart, 2026)
- 2026 U.S. Spencer Stuart Board Index (Spencer Stuart, 2026)
- Best Practices Calendar for Corporate Boards and Committees (2026) (Sidley Austin, 2026)
- Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2026 (Cleary Gottlieb, 2026)
- Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Guide (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, 2026)
- Corporate Governance Practices and Trends in Silicon Valley and at Large Companies Nationwide (Fenwick, 2025)
5.5 Compliance
- An Anti-Corruption Ethics and Compliance Programme for Business: A Practical Guide (Second Edition) (UN Global Compact / UNODC, 2026)
- Annual Filing, Notice and Reporting Requirements for Private Fund Sponsors (Debevoise & Plimpton, 2026)
- Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (U.S. Department of Justice, 2024)
- What Every Multinational Should Know About Conducting an Economic Sanctions Self-Check (Foley & Lardner, 2026)
- China’s Draft Anti-Corruption Law: A Practical Guide for Multinational Companies (DLA Piper, 2026)
- EU AI Act Readiness: A Practitioner’s Guide for Corporate Leaders (National Law Review, 2026)
- 2025 Year-End FCPA Update (Gibson Dunn, 2026)
- FTC’s Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking (Federal Trade Commission, 2025)
- International Trade 2025 Year-End Update (Gibson Dunn, 2026)
5.6 Data Privacy and Security
- What In-House Counsel Should Know About Quantum Risk: What To Do Now (BakerHostetler, 2026)
- US State Comprehensive Privacy Laws Report (IAPP, 2025)
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 (NIST, 2024)
- Cybersecurity Toolkit for In-house Lawyers, Second Edition (Association of Corporate Counsel, 2025)
- Data Protection Laws of the World Handbook (15th update) (DLA Piper, 2026)
- US Data Privacy Guide (White & Case, 2026)
5.7 Employment
- The Littler Annual Employer Survey Report 2026 (Littler, 2026)
- 2026 Labor Survey Report (Littler, 2026)
- 50-State Non-Compete Desktop Reference (2026 Edition) (Seyfarth Shaw, 2026)
- Cal-Peculiarities: How California Employment Law Is Different (2026 Edition) (Seyfarth Shaw, 2026)
- 50 State Equal Pay Reference Guide (2026) (Seyfarth Shaw, 2026)
5.8 Ethics
- Who Is the Client? The Ethics Rule Implications for In-House Counsel and Outside Counsel (ABA Business Law Today, 2022)
5.9 Insurance
- Insurance for In-House Counsel: Understanding Employed Lawyer Policies (Gallagher, 2025)
- Insurance Recovery Litigation: Key Topics and Considerations (Willkie Farr & Gallagher, 2026)
5.10 Intellectual Property
- Trade Secret Intellectual Property Toolkit (USPTO, 2023)
- IP Litigation Report (Miller Johnson, 2026; free download with a short form)
- Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability (U.S. Copyright Office, 2025)
5.11 IPOs and Going Public
- US IPO Guide (Latham & Watkins, 2026)
- Going Public (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission)
- Desktop Guide to Initial Public Offerings (5th Edition) (Ropes & Gray, 2026)
5.12 Litigation and Class Actions
- Liabilities Under the Federal Securities Laws (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, 2025)
- Class Action Review 2026 (Duane Morris)
- Global Privilege and Professional Secrecy Guide (5th Edition) (Baker McKenzie, 2025)
- Securities Litigation 2026 Mid-Year Update (Gibson Dunn, 2026)
- 2026 Annual Litigation Trends Survey (Norton Rose Fulbright, 2026)
- Class Action Survey 2026 (Carlton Fields, 2026)
- Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (Department-wide) (U.S. Department of Justice, 2026)
5.13 Mergers and Acquisitions
- Takeover Response Checklist (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, 2025)
- Going Private Guide (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, 2024)
- Dual-Track Processes: How to Turbocharge Your Exit (Cooley LLP, 2026)
- In-House Counsel’s Guide to the M&A Sale Process and Deal Terms
- Cross-Border M&A Guide (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, 2026)
- Takeover Law and Practice 2026 (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, 2026)
- Buying a Sanctions Violation, Part 3: A Deal Playbook (Volkov Law Group, 2026)
- M&A/PE Quarterly, Q3 2026 (Fried Frank, 2026)
- Spin-Off Guide 2026 (Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, 2026)
5.14 Venture Capital
- Private Funds: Key Business, Legal and Tax Issues (Debevoise & Plimpton, 2025)
- Model Legal Documents (National Venture Capital Association)
- Cooley GO Docs: Free Startup Legal Document Generators (Cooley, 2026)
Want to add your guide here? Email info@inhouseblog.com with the details!