If you are a law school student or a even a lawyer who is relatively new to the practice of law, you may be surprised to know you have choices.
Lots of them.
When I went to law school, I thought I had a limited set of options when I graduated.
I thought I could either enter private practice with a firm or I could work as a public defender or a prosecutor. The thought of working at a company as an in-house lawyer never even crossed my mind.
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Pablo Picasso once said: “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” As a junior lawyer in private practice, I was most comfortable when I could say firmly and with confidence, “This is the law, these are the facts, and, therefore, this is how I recommend that we proceed.” As a senior in-house lawyer, I learned very quickly that I did not have that luxury. I learned that I had to be flexible in my mindset.
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The General Counsel position comes not only with great responsibility, but it also comes with great opportunity. As a General Counsel, you have an opportunity to impact your company in a way other executive-level leaders can’t because of the unique nature of your position.
Because you work closely with everyone in the company, you are often in a position where you can often bridge the gap between the managers and the managed.
How do you bridge that gap?
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Taking the time to develop a personal professional brand is something all professionals should consider doing and lawyers should be no different. In my experience, lawyers who work in private practice generally understand the importance of building a personal professional brand because it is so closely tied to business development and growing a successful law practice. Lawyers who work in-house, however, generally do not spend much time building a personal professional brand because they do not feel the same pressure as those lawyers in private practice. To the extent in-house lawyers put any energy into developing a brand, they often focus that energy on building the company brand. In-house lawyers who take this approach do so at their own peril. When the in-house employment ends, the in-house lawyer who has not taken the time to build a personal professional brand may struggle to find a new role because their identity has been tied only to a company for which they no longer work.
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On March 11, 2020, I was on Spring Break preparing to return to campus when the President of my University issued the first of what would be many Coronavirus (COVID-19) updates to our campus community. In that announcement, the President informed the campus community that the Governor for the Commonwealth of Kentucky had just confirmed the existence of the Coronavirus in the Commonwealth and that the University was “closely monitoring the recent Coronavirus (COVID-19) news and its proximity and effects in the Commonwealth.” The President emphasized that the University’s top priority was now, and would continue to be, the health, safety and well-being of the campus community.
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A few years ago, I asked a client about what he looked for in an in-house counsel and his answer changed how I thought about my job. He told me that he wanted more from his in-house counsel than just legal analysis. To my surprise, he wanted his in-house to provide him with a recommendation as to how the organization should proceed. When I heard this, it dawned on me that if I ever wanted to serve as an in-house counsel, I would have to change the mindset I had developed while serving as an outside counsel. I would need to transition from a role as a legal advisor and become a strategic business partner.
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