Although Tim Phillips is a former Navy SEAL and one of Atlanta's top in-house lawyers, his advice to young attorneys about how to succeed is less about the legal and more about the spiritual.

In fact, when specifically asked during a recent event for tips on getting everything done with just so many hours in the day, Phillips' response centered on prayer, not the billable hour.

“If you're willing to recognize that there's a power greater than you … that you're not actually running the show, your time becomes more manageable,” said Phillips, general counsel at the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society Inc.

“Identify the most important thing for today [and then] take a minute to say, 'I hope today's a good day. I hope I have the opportunity to change someone's life.'”

Phillips was speaking to about a dozen members of the State Bar of Georgia's Young Lawyers Division's Community Service Projects Committee during a roundtable discussion at the bar on Tuesday. And his answer about time management is not surprising, given that Phillips' work at the Cancer Society and his extensive pro bono efforts helped land him the prestigious American Bar Association's Legends in Law award from the Burton Foundation in 2016.

In recounting a volunteer experience at a facility that provides food to homeless people, Phillips said: “I didn't come in as a lawyer or as a former Navy SEAL. I checked that at the door and rolled up my sleeves and got to work washing dishes, getting coffee ready and taking a tray of food to a mother with three kids.

“You're setting your legacy now, whether you know it or not, by the lives that you touch in the workplace and in the community at large, so act, do something.”

When it comes to checking your law degree at the door, however, that tip doesn't necessarily apply in a young attorney's job, Phillips said. He encouraged current or aspiring in-house lawyers to pursue the business side of the company, if they're interested.

“If you're educated, skilled and trained as a lawyer, there's no reason not to go into the business side,” he said. “It's important for lawyers to integrate into the business. It's a value-add.”

Other pointers Phillips said he picked up along his route and shared with some of those coming behind include:

• Find a mentor who can guide you. “You should look to [someone] in your workplace or outside whose path you think would be good to emulate,” he said. “I had a mentor in [the military] part of my life, and thank God for me, and really the country, that I did.”
• Be solution-oriented with your client, whether that's in private practice or in-house. “We have a bad reputation as professionals of being the party of 'no,'” Phillips said. “But solutions are really valuable to your client, and there is a way—and it takes practice—of being able to know in your mind that what [the client is] proposing is risky but you've thought enough about it to be in a position to provide an alternative course of action.”
• Take a hard look periodically at what is ahead of you and whether that is the career path you want—much like Phillips, who was already heavily engaged in pro bono work at the time, was doing in 2005 when he received a phone call from a former colleague who told him about a job opening at the Cancer Society.

“If there's something out there that you think you want, put it out there in the universe,” he said. “You cannot be complacent about what you want to happen. In your position as a young leader, you can look upon opportunities as they are presented, or you can create opportunities and present them to others.”