Insurance Company In House Counsel - Lots of Questions

[369WI]

Hi. Are there any active members on this forum that are in-house counsel at places like Aviva, Desjardins, Intact, Definity, etc.?

If yes, may you please share your experience working there? Any general information will be great but I am wondering about the following in particular: 

Do you like it? What is the compensation like? Where were you before (plaintiff, insurance defence firm, nothing at all related)? Do you hope to stay there for the foreseeable future? Do you think there is a "stigma" to the role? Do you think if you wanted to switch to an insurance defence firm after 1-2 in-house years, that you would be a good candidate? Would you even make that switch? What's your work life balance like? Do you have a billable hour and/or docketing requirement? 

If there are any members on this forum that are counsel for banks, like TD Insurance, please feel free to chime in as well. On that note, which other banks have in-house insurance counsel?

I know these are a lot of questions, and of course you don't have to answer them all. I would just like a lot of input on the topic as I am considering a career move. For context, I am right out of articling at a plaintiff personal injury firm. 

Any other thoughts and suggestions are very welcome.

Thank you. 

[369WI]

Hi, just bumping this up. 

[LMP]

There is of course movement between in-house and firms, I know one or two people who've made that move more than once. 

I think the general view, in Ontario at least, is that in-house work provides you with a lot more stability on top of getting the benefits of working for a large corporation. 

In terms of work, I get the sense through conversation that it is a lot of AB stuff, which makes sense. 

I've also been told that a big difference, as you have more years in, is that people management becomes a big part of the job. 

Pay, from what I've seen, is not too far off bigger firms. Lower for sure though, when compared with some of the bigger ID firms.