Advice on How to Land the GC Role, From Companies' Legal Leaders
GCs shared their career advice with Corporate Counsel this year. Here are some key tips on how to land and succeed in the top legal spot.
December 21, 2018 at 03:43 PM
3 minute read
With 2019 around the corner, in-house counsel are drafting New Years' resolutions for their legal careers.
For lawyers with dreams of landing and succeeding in the top legal spot at their company—or moving in-house from a firm—here's a collection of career advice general counsel shared this year:
- Keep the Focus on Clients: The Golden State Warriors' chief legal officer David Kelly said it's important for in-house counsel to put their client's needs front and center, above lawyers' personal interests. “Lawyers, we aren't the show. Clients are the show,” he said.
- Embrace Unique Skill Sets: Salesforce.com, Inc. general counsel Amy Weaver said she was told early in her career that lawyers should pound the table and yell demands—but that style didn't work for her, and she didn't feel comfortable adopting it. “To be effective, [lawyers] need to figure out what their own skills are and embrace those, and don't be too quick to change to match what someone else's definition of power is,” Weaver said.
- Learn Outside of Law School: Leading an in-house team requires more than legal knowledge, PayPal CLO Louise Pentland said. “You need to be really good with people, you need to be really good with collaboration, and you need to be really good with leadership,” she said. “And they're not phrases you hear too often in a law school. And so if you're really interested in getting into business, really learn about those skills and develop those skills from an early stage in your career.”
- Service Provider Mentality: OpenTable GC Connie Chen said law firm training before moving in-house “ingrains the service provider mentality, responding quickly [and] getting back to people.”
- Play the Long Game: Most GCs don't land the top legal job overnight. Twitch GC Elizabeth “Boo” Baker said she mapped out her legal career to develop the skills she'd need in-house, starting as a corporate lawyer doing M&A work, then technology transactions. “[Think] of your career more like steps or a chess game, where you're going to have to take different moves to get to that end game,” she said.
- Make a Good Impression: Corporate clients can offer an entry into the in-house world for firm lawyers. Airbus Silicon Valley's general counsel Robert Keele said he landed his role after working for the company as outside counsel. “The easiest way most people I know have gone in-house, including me, is to have a client,” Keele said. “You get to know them through your work at the firm and they get to know you and trust you and presumably like you if they're considering hiring you. That's the easiest way to get your foot in the door.”
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Trending Stories
- 1BD Settles Thousands of Bard Hernia Mesh Lawsuits
- 2The Law Firm Disrupted: For Big Law Names, Shorter is Sweeter
- 3First Lawsuit Filed Alleging Contraceptive Depo-Provera Caused Brain Tumor
- 4The 'Biden Effect' on Senior Attorneys: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
- 5Elder Litigators Confront Tough Questions in Last Act of Careers
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250