What Does a General Counsel Do (and Is It the Right Role for You)?

Most lawyers consider ascending to the role of general counsel at one point or another, but most of us don’t have a solid understanding of what the role entails.

For many of us, general counsel appears to be the top rank that an in-house lawyer can achieve, much like the designation of partner in a law firm.

But just as in-house counsel jobs differ across organizations, so also do general counsel positions vary depending on the company.

So it’s not simply a matter of general counsel being the in-house corollary to a law firm partner—not even close.

Keep reading to learn all about the lifestyle, skill set, and mindset required for any lawyer who takes on a general counsel role.

If you’d rather watch or listen, you can view the video “Want to Be General Counsel? Traits Lawyers Need to Succeed as GC” by clicking here.

THE ROLE OF GENERAL COUNSEL IMPACTS YOUR LIFESTYLE

I’m not going to mince words here: general counsel is a demanding role.

It’s not for everyone, and for some lawyers it’s only for them during a select season in their lives.

As a career coach, part of my job is helping you to understand if and when you would best fit into a GC position.

My tried and true framework for guiding you through this inquiry involves identifying your core values and evaluating their priority at this point in your life.

If any of the following (or some iteration thereof) are included among your core values, you’ll need to carefully consider whether GC is a good fit for you now, later, or not at all.

GENERAL COUNSEL AND FAMILY LIFE

Presumably if family is a core value of yours that would mean you want to spend quality time with your family. In reality, a general counsel role is going to make that extremely difficult.?

A GC is on-call for any and all emergencies (real or perceived) that involve the company. It’s a 24/7 kind of gig.

GENERAL COUNSEL AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Because of the on-call nature of the job and the vast responsibilities involved, general counsel roles tend to be heavy on the work end of the scale.?

This (im)balance may not be an issue for you at certain times in your life, but you’ll want to be mindful of that timing when you’re signing up for this kind of arrangement.

GENERAL COUNSEL AND AUTONOMY

At first it would seem that being the top legal officer in an organization would translate into loads of autonomy. And in many ways the GC role does have a fair amount of autonomy in terms of management style.

But ultimately, the general counsel is very much tied to the schedules and agendas of the C-suite executives. The GC may be the visionary strategist of the legal department, but the C-suite holds the vision and strategy for the organization as a whole—and the general counsel helps them to implement.

THE SKILL SET NEEDED FOR GENERAL COUNSEL DUTIES

When we’re talking about skill sets, we’re going to distinguish between hard skills and soft skills.

Generally speaking, hard skills are the easily quantifiable skills you’ve gained through education, training and experience (i.e., your law degree, years you’ve been practicing, types of matters you’ve worked on).

Hard skills every GC needs:

• Legal Expertise
• Financial Management
• Business Acumen
• Industry Experience
• Cultural Sensitivity

I go into more detail about each of these skills here.

Soft skills, on the other hand, describe how you use your hard skills.?

(Being the grammar nerd that I am, I like to think of soft skills as the adverbs of the career world.)

Soft skills every GC needs:

• Good judgment
• Management
• Communication
• Leadership
• Collaboration
• Relationship development
• Resilience + Adaptability
• Focus + Prioritize
• Problem-solving
• Self-starter
• Accountability

As lawyers, we tend to undervalue our soft skills.?

Yet they’re the skills that are not only most transferable to other jobs, but are also most valued by employers.

CURATING THE GENERAL COUNSEL MINDSET

The mindset of a general counsel is very different from that of a law firm lawyer, in general.

Big Picture Strategy

Unlike the silos that dominate law firm life, legal departments are involved in the broader legal and business issues of the organization.

Businesses want their general counsel to be a trusted advisor who can anticipate issues that may arise in the future and then plan for how to address those issues if and when they present themselves.

A good example of this is when a regulation that could impact the organization is proposed. As general counsel, you need to not only be aware of the legal landscape, but also go a step further and ask, “Okay, once this is implemented and it affects our company, how are we going to implement necessary changes?”

Come From a Place of “Yes”

You’re likely aware of the negative stereotype that lawyers are naysayers, deal blockers, and the top reason why anything moves more slowly than people would like.

Regardless of the accuracy of that stereotype, it exists. And as general counsel you will need to counter those perceptions by coming from a place of “yes” rather than “absolutely not”.

To be clear, this isn’t about becoming a “yes” person who rubber stamps everything. It’s about checking your lawyerly instinct to respond to a request with “OMG, you cannot do that,” and instead saying, “Hmm. Yes, I think we could figure something out.”

You’re not agreeing to proceed with their proposal, but you’re also not dismissing it outright.

Executive Presence

Admittedly, executive presence is an abstract and amorphous concept. It’s one of those things where you know it when you see it.

Someone with executive presence exudes an aura of confidence, but is noticeably lacking in arrogance.

Because they are confident—but not a jackass know-it-all—they’re able to communicate with any audience. And as a GC, you need to be able to communicate with people at all levels within the organization.

Another important element of executive presence is being viewed as a trusted advisor.

When you’re able to communicate confidently but not condescendingly, your audience is far more likely to trust you. You want people at all levels of the organization to feel like they can come to you with their questions, problems, and issues and have you provide them with a solution (minus any judgment or attitude).

HOW TO UNCOVER YOUR GENERAL COUNSEL SKILL SET

Whew! That was a lot of information on which traits help a lawyer to succeed as a GC.

Even if you don’t yet have the complete skill set that a successful general counsel needs, you probably have a lot of those skills already.

If you’d rather not take my word for it, then you should definitely watch my free masterclass: 3 Simple Strategies for Uncovering Any Lawyer’s Transferable Skills. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by just how many of your existing skills are transferable to a GC position!

Now that you’ve learned about the skill set needed to succeed as a GC, you can continue developing your transferable skills as you prepare yourself to take on the general counsel role.

Feel free to send me a DM to learn more about ways we can work together to help you target and land a GC role.

Annie

P.S. You can access the original article and accompanying video at https://thejdnation.com/blog/general-counsel.