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?
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.
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.
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.
So, you work in the company’s legal department. You do not have direct contact with the company’s customers. Customer service is not an issue you have to be concerned about, right? Wrong.
Providing top-notch, first-class customer service should matter to everyone regardless of direct customer contact. Even if you don’t work directly with customers, you work with employees who do. It’s your job as in-house counsel to assist and support these employees, so it only makes sense for you to consider them as your customers.