Compared to private practice where, in many ways, the route to and function of a solicitor is often consistent, structured and predictable, the equivalent for a GC is much less so.
Many in-house counsel, me included, had no intention at the outset of becoming one – and it’s often only due to experiences such as secondments, word-of-mouth and leaps-of-faith that we do enter the profession.
Whilst the organisation I work for is large, the Legal and Compliance Team is small (made up of two lawyers, a Compliance Officer and an assistant). Because of that, I have no doubt that my experience in becoming and working as an in-house counsel differs significantly to, say, a national bank with an established team of tens-upon-tens of lawyers at hand (each, for example, with a potential specialism under their belt).
Because smaller teams often need to be more “generalist” in nature, it means that we need to wear many hats and flex accordingly – which can be exciting given the variety in and strategic impact of your work, but also daunting when everyone expects you to be an expert in any and every piece of law!
To that end, I often mention to those who are considering becoming a GC, or are at the start of their journey, to not compare their route and experience directly with their peers. Each business is different and so too, in turn, are their legal teams.
Above all, whatever size your team/ organisation, I think the magic formula for us is legal expertise + strategic / business-minded acumen + adaptability and proactivity = successful GC.
Gethin Bennett - Assistant Legal Counsel - The Royal Mint
Develop your legal technical, budgeting, legal ops, people management and other related skills first so that you can become a rounded and established Head of Legal delivering a competent, reliable, in budget, on plan and KPI and within business risk appetite legal support service to the business. In other words, read the rest of the CLL website and act on it!
Once you are accomplished at this then, if the CEO and other Board members have the appetite and if you have demonstrated to them that you can manage the Head of Legal role then you can also start to offer strategic legal and wider business advice - the "General" in "General Counsel", and you can start to develop into the GC role.
The size of the organisation does not impact on the previous points - however being in an organisation with good leadership and a lot of change going on, regardless of size, will greatly affect whether you can be a good Head of Legal and then develop into being a good GC - so pick your employer well!
Bruce Macmillan – General Counsel
Best to have done in-house work first as a lawyer. Function is very generalist.
Ian White and Simon McCall – Dec 24 - In-house legal consultants
I am not a GC but I am one level down from that role, so it’s a question that occupies some thought for me when I think about career management. My overall view is that no one can expect to get to GC without earning it.
Even if you find yourself in a situation working for an outgoing GC, the CEO and Board will want to interview outside candidates, many of whom will already have GC experience and will be offering to bring an outside skill-set into the organisation, which can often be attractive.
I think ultimately if you really want to be GC, you have to be prepared to move to a smaller organisation that is growing. That means, very likely, being sole counsel for a period. In that case, adaptability, a tolerance for risk, a broad skill-set built around a strong core specialism, and a very strong sense of commerciality are likely going to be key. But ask me again if I manage to make the jump. I might know more about it then!
My other view though is that there are more paths out there than just the GC path. There are lots of ex-lawyers working in senior commercial and risk roles in my sector, doing interesting work. We don’t have to be lawyers forever!