In-house lawyers need and want to develop their professional and management skills. But unlike lawyers practising in law firms, there may not be dedicated resources designed to support them. It will often be a case of DIY.
Managing and Developing Your Career as an In-house Lawyer by Ian White and Simon McCall is a companion to their report Your Role as General Counsel: How to Survive and Thrive in Your Role as GC. It seeks to provide practical ideas and tips on how a busy in-house lawyer can actively manage their own development. The aim is to help them perform more effectively in their current role and also prepare them for promotion or a move elsewhere.
It covers:
Taking responsibility for your own development;
Being a businessperson as well as a lawyer;
Doing an MBA – or recreating the MBA experience by learning from other people in the business;
Moving into a leadership role;
Honing key personal skills – delegating, giving feedback, listening, motivating;
Becoming a coach or mentor to your team;
Developing your career beyond the GC role – within or outside your organisation; and
Taking on a non-executive director role.
This Special Report is essential reading for any in-house lawyer wanting to continue learning and developing and enhance their career prospects. It is relevant for recently appointed in-house lawyers all the way up to more established GCs.
I. Introduction 5
1. How it all came about 5
2. Who has this Special Report been written for? 5
3. Why you need this Special Report 6
4. How this Special Report is set out 7
5. A way of looking at development 9
II. Moving in-house 11
1. Why? And is it for you? 11
2. What makes working in-house different? 12
3. No longer a one-way street 14
III. Learning about other functions – business and management skills 15
1. What skills are needed and where can you acquire them? 15
IV. Skills for the in-house lawyer 19
1. Developing your team 19
2. Moving upwards 32
V. The lawyer as coach and mentor 35
1. Coaching 35
2. Mentoring 42
VI. Developing your career away from law (but in a legal environment) 45
1. What does the new organisation need from you? 45
2. What will you be doing? 46
3. Conclusion 48
VII. Developing your career in-house (but not as a lawyer) 49
1. Getting to be GC or a similar role 49
2. The options when you become GC or a senior lawyer 50
VIII.Developing your career after law 59
1. The importance of managing your career life 59
2. One reason to develop a post-law career: you may be working at 103! 60
3. Or is it just luck? 62
4. Developing a different type of CV 62
5. Where to get help 63
6. Becoming a non-executive director 65
IX. Some final words of wisdom 67
1. Advice and tips 67
2. Concluding thoughts 72
Endnotes 74
About the authors 76
About Globe Law and Business 78
Notes and ideas 79
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