In-house 101 — What happens when your colleagues become your clients

Peter Ranscombe discovers why so many of Scotland’s lawyers are choosing to work in-house rather than in private practice.

Scroll down the list of vacancies on the LawScot Jobs website and there are all the roles you might expect – jobs with law firms, jobs with law centres, even jobs with the Law Society of Scotland itself. But then there are also other employers advertising on the site, including companies, charities and public sector bodies.

These employers are hiring lawyers to work for them in-house. What’s the difference between in-house lawyers and those working in private practice?

“The main difference is that an in-house lawyer works directly for their employer and only provides advice to that employer – so their clients are their colleagues,” explains Anne Stewart, head of legal and corporate governance at the Scottish Social Services Council and convener of the Society’s In-house Lawyers Committee (ILC).

“What the role means in reality will depend on the size of the team. You have some in-house lawyers who are very specialised – for example, those within the Procurator Fiscal Service – through to an in-house general counsel who might be the only solicitor in an organisation and effectively must manage a very varied workload covering different areas of law.”

Anne adds: “The key part of working in-house is that you do so much more than providing legal advice. You are the trusted adviser and critical friend to your colleagues.

“The benefit of being in-house is that you understand the organisation and can tailor your legal advice to fit in with the organisation’s strategic aims or commercial goals. Your advice has to be pragmatic and take account of not just the law, but also risk, commercial awareness, ethics and the values of the organisation.”

More than 25% of lawyers work in-house

Beth Anderson, head of member engagement at the Law Society of Scotland and secretary of the ILC, says: “You can more or less find an in-house lawyer in any type of organisation you can imagine, whether it’s financial services, energy, renewables, media, construction, sports clubs, universities, the National Health Service, local government, central government, regulators – it’s almost an endless list. That variety is enormously appealing.

“Around 850 organisations that are not law firms employ Scottish solicitors, not just in Scotland but in places as far afield as London, Dubai and Sydney. Over a quarter of the profession now work in-house, and there’s a steady increase in the number of roles, including traineeships.”

Anne adds: “For me, the attraction of working in the public sector was the sense of purpose. Being an in-house lawyer can tie in with your values or interests – for example, if you’re passionate about tackling climate change then you could work for an energy company to support the drive to renewables.

“When I worked for a local council, I was involved in a school-building project from start to finish, and I enjoyed being part of the project team. Now, when I visit the school that my child attends, I feel proud of the part I played in its development.”

Beth believes the perception of in-house lawyers is changing. “In the past, working in-house was perhaps seen as giving fewer opportunities for progression. While there may not be a single career roadmap, in-house lawyers are exposed to an enormous variety of work, which opens up a range of leadership or specialist roles.”

Anne adds: “An in-house role is what you make of it in a way you perhaps wouldn’t have in private practice. I encourage my team to make themselves known throughout the organisation, and that can lead to opportunities beyond the legal team. Our critical thinking skills are highly valued by our colleagues.”

“No two days are the same”

After gaining her law degree and diploma from the University of Edinburgh, Jamila Archibald-Ramage began training with Shepherd and Wedderburn. The final seat during her traineeship was a six-month secondment to ScottishPower in Glasgow, which whetted her appetite for working in-house.

She completed her traineeship and joined Shepherd and Wedderburn as a solicitor, before moving to Perth-based Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) as a dispute resolution solicitor. Having caught the in-house bug, she joined travel website Trip.com in 2022 and has risen through the ranks from European legal counsel to Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) legal counsel, and then her current role as senior legal counsel for EMEA.

“I really enjoy advising the business directly and seeing my advice being put into practice,” explains Jamila, who won the Rising Star 2025 award at the Law Society of Scotland’s In-house Annual Conference. “The value of an in-house lawyer and a private practice lawyer is slightly different – a lot of my value comes from understanding the business’s personality, risk appetite and strategy, and then tailoring my advice to promote the goals of the business.

“My legal practice is very general – I cover a lot of different areas of law across a lot of different countries. When we seek external advice, we’re looking for that really in-depth legal expertise that comes from practising in one specific area and having that particular market knowledge. My job is to know where those boundaries lie between general and niche and acting as the bridge between the business and external advisers, so that we get the best, tailored advice for each project.”

Jamila’s role spans a wide range of disciplines, from data protection and dispute resolution through to consumer law and employment law. “No two days are the same,” she says. “For me, the best part of working in-house has been the level of responsibility I’ve been given. I’ve been with Trip for three-and-a-half years and manage a team of two.

“I don’t just offer legal advice but also strategic advice, which I really enjoy. The most challenging but rewarding aspect is making sure I tailor my advice so that it translates correctly in different countries and different cultures.”

Using AI to revolutionise in-house work

When it comes to the future of in-house work, Ross McNairn is harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to help teams with tasks such as contract reviews, template drafts and policy guidance. He launched his Wordsmith AI platform in 2024 and raised $25 million of investment in June 2025 from private equity firm Index Ventures. His clients already include Baillie Gifford, Deliveroo and Trustpilot.

Ross studied law in Aberdeen before joining law firm Gillespie Macandrew in Edinburgh, and learned to program. “I liked the idea of scaling the way I could work, so that everything wasn’t just linked to one hour of input getting one hour of output,” he explains.

“I really enjoyed the intellectual challenge. It’s quite similar to the law because you must be analytical and rational. You’re working a lot with a document – it’s just this document is going to a computer rather than to a client.”

Ross sold his first company, Dorsai Travel, to search engine Skyscanner, where he became head of product, before holding senior roles at Letgo and TravelPerk. Now, Wordsmith is bringing together his legal and tech experience.

“I was working as a consumer of in-house legal services and I liked the idea of making that a faster, simpler process,” Ross says. “I saw AI being deployed inside travel products and thought in-house legal work would be a phenomenal area to assign this technology to.

“It’s like giving every in-house lawyer their own paralegal. That speeds up their drafting contracts, which means they can service the rest of the company much, much, much faster.

“I trained as a lawyer and wanted to get back into this space – and I wanted to build something here in Scotland. We’re here for in-house lawyers and that’s what we’re focused on. We have one group that we want to be the best in the world for.”