Deep Dive
Shifting to grow . . .
Early in my in-house career, a new Massachusetts law came into effect that impacted part of our business. I did what I'd been trained to do: read the statute, worked through the potentially relevant case law, and wrote a two-page memo laying out exactly how it applied to us. I covered every angle and footnoted every exception.
My GC forwarded it to the CEO with a two-sentence summary of his own. In retrospect, I’m pretty sure the GC was the last person ever to read my memo.
I'd covered the law completely. He'd covered what the CEO actually needed.
That memo happened somewhere in the stretch where I went from Legal Counsel to Assistant General Counsel to Deputy General Counsel in four years. The GC never sat me down and explained why he copied me on his version instead of just sending it along. He didn't have to. Watching what actually landed with the CEO showed me.
And next time, and the time after that, I was more intentional about creating output that made the most sense for a specific audience. The approach helped me move up quickly.
It can help you get promoted too.
This issue is for you if your next professional move is to an Assistant General Counsel or Deputy General Counsel role. What got you here isn't what's going to get you there; that's not a criticism of the work, and you should keep doing it. But more of the same is exactly what stalls people at this level. Being a safe pair of hands can get you stuck at your current level.
Because getting the number 2 spot requires showing you can think like a leader, while continuing to execute at a high level. Read on to learn about the shifts you'll need to make.
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You got promoted to your current role because you gave business-minded reactive legal advice, but now you’re going to have to be proactive.
As a Senior Legal Counsel (or some other similar role), you built your reputation by giving great advice when someone brought you a problem or task. Colleagues reach out through the same channels with the same kinds of questions and requests, and you answer them well. You are essential.
But your GC and the leaders around you can't ask for what they don't know they need. To show you're ready for a DGC-type role, start spotting risk and opportunity before anyone flags the need to look for it; then help shape the decision on what to do about it, rather than just responding to it once it's made.
This isn't about parachuting into meetings you weren't invited to (though there is a time and place for finding a way in). It's about noticing what's coming in your area of the business and getting ahead of it, before it lands on your desk as an emergency.
A Senior Legal Counsel operates in a set lane, with colleagues reaching out through set channels. To move up, you need to show an ability to proactively contribute.
You’ll need to start to give advice that takes into account industry trends, best practices, and your educated view of where things are headed.
Previously, you were rewarded for answering the question in front of you well, with an answer grounded in current law, current precedent, and current practice. Being able to do that is obviously an important skill for any in-house lawyer.
But a DGC-type role asks for something more forward-looking. Your GC and the business want to know you have a point of view on where your industry is headed; they want to see you are tracking new regulation working its way through the pipeline, how peer companies are handling a similar risk, or where the market is likely to be in eighteen months.
Don’t become a walking industry newsletter or have an opinion on every trend piece that crosses your feed. But do stay close enough to your industry that when a decision comes up, your answer goes beyond what’s allowed today, to reflecting an understanding of where the issue is headed and how you’d recommend positioning the company.
That shift from interpreting the present to anticipating the future is part of what makes a GC trust you as a partner.
