Geneva Campbell Brown, left, and Laura Bautista, right.

Working as an in-house attorney can provide a rewarding career, but it is essential to understand what success looks like in a corporate environment. The role as an in-house lawyer presents unique challenges, and being successful may require developing in ways that are different from what makes a lawyer successful in private practice. Knowing what professional skills are prioritized in-house can help you to thrive in a corporate role.

The first key to being successful in an in-house setting is to understand your role. This understanding begins with knowing your company's corporate structure. How a company has decided to structure itself tells you how that company's management believes roles and responsibilities should be assigned within the organization. It lets you know where your job starts and where someone else's job takes over or who to seek out with a particular question.  It also gives you a sense of culture. For example, a hierarchical company suggests a desire for a clear separation of roles, while a company with a flat structure may suggest that it encourages collaboration all on topics, regardless of your title.

Understanding your role also means knowing who relies on you—whether that is your manager, any reports, and, of course, your clients—and learning what each of those individuals expects from you. Often there is a stark difference between how you advise your internal clients in an in-house setting and how you may have advised clients while working at a law firm.  In-house, you may frequently blur the line between providing strict legal advice and helping to strategize on the appropriate business decision while simultaneously considering the legal risks.

Additionally, you should be comfortable knowing whether you are entitled to make decisions and run with them, or whether you need to secure buy-in from certain groups or individuals before proceeding with a decision. Depending on the level of buy-in required and the size of your organization, you may also need to balance expectations between getting tasks accomplished quickly and the time required to obtain support for your proposed approach. In any scenario, however, you must ensure that you are providing clear and consistent messages to everyone involved. Having superior written and oral communication skills are essential to effectively fulfilling your role.

Finally, it should go without saying that to provide valuable legal advice, you need to understand the industry in which your organization operates and how your company's mission guides or tailors that advice. Considering each of these factors will help you display your value to the company, perfect your legal advice, and secure faster and more comprehensive support for your decisions.

The second key to being successful in an in-house setting is building strong relationships. The following individuals are important players in an in-house attorney's success, and relationships with these individuals should be carefully and strategically established and nurtured.

Formal Manager: Your assigned manager is responsible for managing your professional development. Your manager can provide access to resources and opportunities to work on new assignments. Additionally, your manager will monitor and critique your ability to deliver high quality work to your clients. Plus, your manager's input will be essential for determining compensation and promotions.

Clients: It is critical that you earn your clients' trust. Your clients should believe that you want them to be successful and are willing to support their objectives. Building strong relationships with your clients will make it easier for you to deliver advice that they may not want to hear when necessary. Additionally, clients are often willing to share feedback on your performance with your manager, and can serve as a powerful advocate if you are seeking new assignments, a promoted position or an increase in compensation.

Mentors: You should identify mentors who will be generous with their time and their praise, and who are committed to working with you to develop personally and professionally. A mentor should have a position that you admire, and should be poised to offer strategic advice on career moves to make as you rise in the organization. The best mentor relationship will morph into sponsorship, whereby the mentor eventually sponsors you as a protégé and is willing to use his or her influence and network on your behalf.

Peers: Your peers are essential allies. These people can boost your reputation and share valuable information with you about the company. To build a rapport with your peers, it can be helpful to connect over personal things like family or sports (although you should be mindful not to engage in potentially divisive conversations around issues such as politics). Also, a rapport with peers can be built when you acknowledge their contributions and brag about their accomplishments, which will encourage them to reciprocate when opportunities arise for your profile to be raised.

The third key to being successful in an in-house setting is being an engaged corporate citizen. This involves being visibly active in the causes that are important to your company. Lending your talents and experiences to support your corporation's community engagement initiatives can help you build your skills, establish new relationships with colleagues and gain exposure outside of your immediate practice area. It is important to note that not every corporation has developed a pro bono program for free legal services, but most corporations have a corporate responsibility program that provides opportunities for volunteering.

Committees can be a great way to remain engaged. Committees can be within your department, such as a practice area steering committee, or can be enterprise-wide, such as an employee resource group. Committee work will fine-tune soft skills such as teamwork, leadership, decision-making and communication. In-house lawyers who carve out the time to lead, support and motivate others become known as employees who are willing to make long-term investments in the company in which they work.

An in-house lawyer can stand out by volunteering for one-off tasks beyond their substantive legal area. Stretch assignments give you exposure to new areas of the law, and this passion for continued education can enhance a lawyer's internal resume. Stretch assignments also allow you to expand your knowledge about the business and show that you are willing to put forth the effort to understand your company's needs and goals. Lastly, stretch assignments help you to hone your ability to communicate complicated legal matters to various types of non-lawyers.

The fourth key to being successful within your organization starts with identifying your career goals. Whether you are successful depends, in large part, on how you define that term. You should regularly, whether on an annual or more frequent basis, review and assess your career aspirations. These aspirations could include striving to be promoted within the legal department or determining that you are happy and want to stay in your current role. You could also decide that you would like to stay with your organization but that you are interested in pursuing roles outside of the legal department. Whatever you have set your sights on, make sure it is what you actually want, even if that means adjusting these goals over time.

Once you have decided on your goals, vocalize them and identify the people or programs that can help you reach them. If you are looking for a promotion, you need to know who is at the table making those decisions and get to know those individuals. If you need to increase your visibility within the organization, consider raising your hand for or seeking out a high-profile opportunity. If you are looking to transition out of the legal department, consider what programs your company may offer to help you identify your interests. For example, ask whether there a rotational opportunity available or a tuition assistance program to help finance an additional degree, such as an MBA.

Finally, for any change that you are looking to pursue, you should understand whether there is a formal process in place that requires you to meet set criteria or whether those decisions are based off of an informal process that relies solely on self-advocacy. Once you know the environment in which you are operating, you can tailor your approach and better gauge your overall career expectations.

In sum, knowing what professional skills are rewarded in an in-house legal department is foundational in establishing a gratifying career as an in-house attorney. By focusing on understanding your role, building strong relationships, being an engaged corporate citizen and identifying your career goals, you will be well-suited to handle legal questions and any other issues that come your way. While there will always be certain skills and capabilities that some organizations may value more than others, focusing on these four key items will set you up for a successful future within any organization.

Geneva Campbell Brown is a part of the in-house counsel team at Cigna in Philadelphia. She focuses her practice on corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, venture capital investments, joint ventures, procurement deals and general corporate and regulatory advising within the healthcare industry.

Laura Bautista works in the office of general counsel at the Vanguard Group in Valley Forge.