CORPORATE ATTORNEYS CHALLENGES IN 2023.

It is important to understand what a corporate lawyer is and which are their functions in a Company, but also, which are their clients and which are these last ones needs.

Corporate Law is a particular discipline in the Law practice dedicated to protect, keep safe and look for the compliance of any company, enterprise or business, from their labor rights, to their commercial acts, It’s Intellectual Property and even litigation to enforce different rights.

In this regard, a Corporate Lawyer will walk together with the business – side by side – but only hopefully, because reality is that corporate lawyers have to catch up the business activities such as negotiations, advertisements, or any other with different legal tools, such as drafting agreements, ensure the compliance of the business daily basis activities, but specially preventing any other coworker or in-house workers to fail into a crime or infringement that will have as an output: liability for the company.

So, preventing risks and solving current problems are basically the Corporate Attorneys tasks. However, there are different skills that any Corporate Lawyer should have and/or develop, like being business oriented, fluent in a foreign language useful for the company, written and spoken abilities, analysis driven mindset or drafting down different situations.

But wait, that’s not enough! Now a days, after a world wide pandemia, making fast forward businesses, multidisciplinary knowledge, not only related to the Law disciplines, but also to tech, Artificial Intelligence, Block chain, the internet of things, negotiation, leadership… and many many other disciplines or skills that are new in the moment you read this.

Let’s make a recap: being a corporate Lawyer not only requires to be an advocate, or an attorney, but you need to comply (and acquire) with different skills and knowledge. Lets focus in some of them called: Future Skills.

Now, these “new” “Future Skills”, are meant to be used as competences or abilities to successfully complete our duties or tasks in this complex and rushing world. But not only for our homework or to do lists, specially complex problems in different and highly emergent contexts by our selfs and on behalf the Company we represent.

These “Future Skills” are more than 340 skills, divided in 9 categories. Here you can find some of these categories and skills themselves:

1. Dialogue Skills. Collaboration, communication, empathy, listening.
2. Digital and STEM literacy. Digital literacy, Digital Citizenship, online safety.
3. Self -management. Self awareness, resilience, emotional intelligence, confidence.
4. Enterprise skills. Creativity, initiative, entrepreneurship, curiosity.

… And many many others.

However, these were studied and analyzed skills for the future, but wait! We are now in the future. As you may remember, after COVID 19 pandemia, our life was accelerated in every way, such as the way we work, the way we study, the way we shop and the way we have fun, just for say something.

In this regard, starting to learn these “Future Skills” now, will help everybody, specially Corporate Counsels, to reach and achieve different goals, specially their in-house clients’s and the ones of the Company.

Among these skills to be learned, we still have to read and study every Law update, get informed of new technologies and financial news in our industry to know and be aware of the insights of the core business of our companies.

Should you need some research information on this topic, you can read the following documents:

“A scoping review of Future Skills frameworks”

“Office Shock. Creating better futures for working and living”.

Please contact with me for any doubt or inquiries you may have.

Email:?[email protected]

Armando Flores?