It’s a Tuesday night, and the top floor of a bar in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood is filled with lawyers. Most people are dressed casually in jeans, and there’s a puppy on the couch. It’s a happy hour event hosted by the Bay Area In-House Lawyers group, and while it’s casual and laid back, attendees are exchanging real career advice, discussing job openings and moves and making authentic connections with other corporate counsel.

It’s not an unusual scene in the Bay Area, where in-house attorneys, many of whom work for technology companies, have formed especially tight-knit communities that have helped them share knowledge and grow in their careers. The ability to reach outside the usual realm of their own legal departments to make contacts and exchange best practices has propelled them forward.