Are You General Counsel Ready? Strategies To Land Your First General Counsel Role
Positioning your skills and experience as a current in-house counsel is key.
Ready to transition into the C-suite as a first-time general counsel? As a legal resume writer and coach who works one-to-one with current and aspiring general counsels on their personal branding, I can tell you with complete certainty that Q2 is the most popular season to begin making plans for that big career transition. You’ve collected your annual bonus, you’ve got your most recent performance evaluation in hand, and since Q1 financials are in, you’ve got deep insights into where the company is going over the next few quarters.
But, before you begin submitting for a first-ever general counsel role at a different company, there are important steps to undertake in highlighting the required general counsel skills, improving your online presence on LinkedIn, and growing your network. Note: if you’re an experienced general counsel, refer to my prior article, Ways To Prepare For And Tackle Your Next General Counsel Job Search.
Know The Skills Required Of A General Counsel
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You already know that general counsel roles are heavily competitive and a long-game strategy for acquiring other potential C-suite roles and paid board seat opportunities. As a general counsel, you’ll partner with the business to advise on all aspects of risk, compliance, and operations, as well as guide on pressing legal and business issues the company is facing internally and externally. There are specific hard and soft skills that you’ll be expected to have and market in your general counsel resume as well as to legal recruiters and company executives. These include, but are not limited to, team leadership and employee development, board interaction and advisory, C-suite and overall business communication, strategic planning and execution, outside counsel management, executive gravitas, emotional intelligence, change management, and crisis management. If you’re struggling to cultivate these skill sets, consider working with an executive coach who can help you identify ways to improve and ramp up these skill sets.
Other key subject area competencies are just as important, such as corporate governance and board reporting, legal management, commercial transactions, contract negotiations, and specialized areas of expertise (e.g., cybersecurity, data privacy, etc.). Be sure you can effectively communicate the depths of your experience within these competencies. For example, if you’ve worked in-house at a public company, think about your SEC reporting experience as it is extremely valuable and will be a topic of discussion if you’re applying at another public company. If you’re industry-centric (e.g., healthcare, fintech, or SaaS), make sure you’re prepared to identify and describe your industry knowledge when it comes to trends, insights, and growth patterns.
Don’t forget that positioning your skills and experience as a current in-house counsel is key. Ensure that your job title promotions and expansion of responsibilities are clear in your resume and LinkedIn profile.
Fill In The Missing Gaps Of Required General Counsel Skills
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If you’re lacking in one of the competency areas of a general counsel, consider ramping up your skill sets by registering for executive leadership courses through online programs at Cornell, Harvard Business School, Wharton, or Stanford. There are also various board governance training programs offered by many of these schools that can help increase your knowledge base if you’re seeking more governance training. Consider attending CLE courses or other mini-conferences that can help boost that practice area knowledge (as well as create additional fodder to highlight in your resume). For example, the ACC offers an executive leadership institute for those who are targeting a first-time general counsel role.
If you’re long-term thinking is about obtaining a paid board seat, it’s key that you acquire board governance skill sets through practical experience as well as educational training. Educational training is imperative to show a commitment to ongoing professional development. Consider joining a nonprofit board to increase your experience in connecting with board members. There are many director- and VP-level legal counsels that I’ve worked with who’ve undertaken volunteer board roles to ramp up their board governance skills and gain board relations experience.
As I’ve also mentioned in past articles in my column, joining targeted professional associations are key, and those include groups such as the Association of Corporate Counsel and TechGC.
Network With Current General Counsels
Build relationships with current general counsels. Find out how they have moved through the hierarchy of a legal department over time and increased their leadership cadence outside of the company. You can begin by researching general counsels who are in your local area, industry, and/or alumni of your law school. Find a common thread that you can use as an ice-breaker — read through their entire LinkedIn profile and consider Googling their name to see what else is out there about them. Show that you’ve done your due diligence and research before making outreach. Don’t be afraid to seek out coffee chats and mentorship. I also highly recommend updating your LinkedIn profile to be general counsel ready.
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Network With Legal Recruiters That Specialize In General Counsel Searches
I’ve previously written an in-depth article about how to activate the hidden job market for general counsels by connecting with executive recruiters. Keep in mind, the more coveted general counsel roles with higher compensation packages will be handled by executive search firms that specialize in legal recruitment.
As Deborah Ben-Canaan, partner and senior practice leader for Major, Lindsey and Africa’s In-House Counsel Recruiting Group, advises, “Talk with recruiters about where your interest areas lie and what your career aspirations are. Making a point to have these introductory conversations and periodic check-ins with recruiters allows us to have you on our radar — and inevitably, a good role for you will likely come up at some point in time.” The key here is partaking in the conversations and continuing to follow up. But don’t limit yourself to connecting with just one or two legal recruiters — remember that each recruiter works with different client companies.
Have a question about pursuing your first-ever general counsel role? Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or check out my other ATL articles which cover an array of career, job search, resume, and LinkedIn strategies for general counsels, in-house counsels, and lawyers in general.
Wendi Weiner is an attorney, career expert, and founder of The Writing Guru, an award-winning executive resume writing services company. Wendi creates powerful career and personal brands for attorneys, executives, and C-suite/Board leaders for their job search and digital footprint. She also writes for major publications about alternative careers for lawyers, personal branding, LinkedIn storytelling, career strategy, and the job search process. You can reach her by email at wendi@writingguru.net, connect with her on LinkedIn, and follow her on Twitter @thewritingguru.
