In-house counsel career transition stories usually get told as a single jump: law firm out, corporation in. However, the more interesting version is the one with stops along the way that look unrelated until they aren’t: a gas utility, a project finance desk, then a regulator’s office. Each one ends up doing more for a legal career than the obvious next step would have.
Making the in-house counsel career transition
Félix Turgeon’s in-house counsel career transition did not move in a straight line from law firm to corporation. After his legal internship at the International Fund for Agricultural Development, he started in-house at Gaz Métro, Quebec’s largest natural gas distributor, spending three years in litigation.
His career stops since then include:
- SNC-Lavalin (now Atkins Réalis), four years, where he was introduced to public-private partnerships (P3s) in the energy sector across Northern Africa and the Middle East
- A return to Gaz Métro in 2009 in a commercial role, where he applied his P3 experience to the Seigneurie de Beaupré wind farm, a 340-megawatt project financed through a $1-billion special purpose vehicle backed by an international lending syndicate
- The Quebec Energy Board, as general manager from January 2022, a deliberately non-legal role overseeing economic regulation
- Alto, his current position, where he is Chief Legal Officer, and also leads its real property activities
He says the regulatory experience now shapes how he reads Alto’s private partner, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ). “That’s very useful in what I’m doing at Alto because our private partner is led by CDPQ, the Quebec Pension Plan, and CDPQ’s business model is often based on that risk allocation that you see in the regulated asset based model.”
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Balancing the goalie and value-creator roles in-house
Turgeon splits the legal function at Alto into two jobs done by the same team. “I see the role of the legal function within Alto as twofold,” he says. “A role of a goaler and also a role of a value creator.”
- the goalie side: this covers protective work, such as contract negotiation support, compliance with federal obligations, and internal tools (e.g., whistleblowing policy and code of ethics, plus regular staff training)
- the value-creator side: it means legal sits inside the strategy itself, not just checking it afterward; Turgeon points to legal’s role in shaping the impact assessment strategy and the approach to Indigenous communities, framed around reconciliation rather than compliance alone, as well as input into the deal structure being negotiated with CDPQ
His instruction to his own team reflects both halves: advice has to be “succinct” and “business advice,” not just legally sound.
How in-house counsel career transition shapes outside counsel choices
Turgeon’s own moves between law firm work, project finance, and a regulator’s office now shape how he builds Alto’s legal function and decides what to keep in-house versus hand to outside counsel. Alto’s legal team currently has about 15 people, already covering rail industry law, environmental law, Indigenous law, commercial law, and ethics, with more hires planned.
Outside counsel is brought in for specific mandates that mirror the same skill set Turgeon picked up across his own career stops.
An in-house career transition continues
Turgeon’s view is that a lawyer’s career transition does not stop once they land the in-house job. He says it carries into how that lawyer staffs and manages a legal team going forward.
“We’re looking for expertise in the infrastructure industry… DLA Piper is supporting us on this and other firms as well, but it’s mainly led by DLA Piper.” For Turgeon, building a team after an in-house counsel career transition means matching people, internal or external, to the specific gap they fill, rather than retaining generalists.
Advice for lawyers considering their next in-house move
The advice of Turgeon applies equally to in-house counsel and the outside lawyers who support them. He says doing the job well means going beyond the legal framework itself. “You need to understand the political context applicable, the social license context… the technical framework, the schedule, the stakeholders, the commercial.”
Two habits for in-house counsel career transitions
Turgeon’s advice for younger lawyers specifically centres on two habits:
- curiosity: “Be curious, ask all the questions that come to your mind. It’s key.”
- visibility: “Speak out because if you don’t speak out, if you don’t ask questions, provide advice, comment, you cannot bring the value you’re expected to bring.”
For lawyers weighing their own in-house counsel career transition, Turgeon’s path suggests the value is not in following a fixed track, but in collecting experience that turns out to matter later, even when its relevance is not obvious at the time.
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