Tag: business partner

Four Leadership Traits of High-Performing General Counsel (Women GC’s Speak)

This week I attended “Women GC’s Speak,” a New York City Bar Association panel moderated by Debbie Epstein Henry. Among the four General Counsel panelists, the leadership message was exceedingly clear:

Take on challenges,

find opportunities,

push yourself to be a little uncomfortable,

fill leadership gaps, and

figure it out.

 

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Panelists and moderator, from left to right: Ayssa Harvey Dawson, Cari Robinson, Debbie Epstein Henry (moderator), Romy Horn and Sonia Low. Photograph copyright 2019 Anne Marie Segal. All rights reserved.

Here are four specific insights the panelists shared that echo and underscore the coaching work I do with my General Counsel clients:

Romy Horn, General Counsel of the W2O Group, suggested that among the business aspects a law firm attorney (for example) needs to learn to transition into a GC role, there is one key aspect that many would-be General Counsel fail to grasp:

“Finance. [To be a trusted advisor and excel in a GC role], lawyers in companies need to understand the financial aspects of what they are doing.”

Sonia Low, VP, General Counsel and Secretary of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, reminded the audience that GCs are valued not for reciting the law but for helping senior leaders and others meet their business goals. To be a problem solver and transcend the legal function, don’t be afraid to ask:

“Can I come with you to these conventions? I’d like to meet more CEOs and CFOs, so I can better understand what drives them.”

Ayssa Harvey Dawson, General Counsel, Head of Legal, Privacy and Data Governance of Sidewalk Labs, shared that too many attorneys are caught in the “qualifications” trap and talk themselves out of opportunities as a result.

“Qualifications are subjective. When my last company was bought, I thought to myself, what do I want to do next? What I have learned from that is to never be afraid to embrace change.”

Cari Robinson, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Revlon, echoed that advice, adding that you are never going to know everything about a business, especially if you change industries, so:

“You can’t be bashful about asking people to slow down and explain things to you.”

Robinson also shared two essential factors that have helped her succeed as a GC:

first, her global litigation background, which showed her “a little piece of a lot of things” that collectively taught her “how to think about business” and made her a very nimble attorney, ready to face any opportunity, challenge or crisis situation; and

second, her evolution from a focus on building her own career to supporting and building out her team.

For more information about this panel and the sponsoring committees, click here.

Anne Marie Segal is a career and leadership coach, writer and resume writer for attorneys, executives and entrepreneurs. In her practice serving lawyers, she coaches General Counsels, law firm partners, counsel and associates, as well as government, academic and non-profit attorneys.

 

General Counsel and Other Lawyers as Business Partners – Building Vision, Capacity, Judgment and Leadership

To succeed as General Counsel, you need not only to build relationships and move outside of what may be your comfort zone – a lawyer with excellent substantive legal skills – but also position yourself as a strategic member of the leadership team. Enclosed is a list of articles to help you explore and master the expanded General Counsel relationship.

Eight Core Qualities of General Counsel and How to Achieve Them is my most-read article on this blog, receiving many hits per day and more than 2,500 views since it was published in the late summer of 2016. (Click here to access the article.)

As a coach, I often receive requests from General Counsel, Assistant General Counsel and other in-house attorneys – as well as law firm partners and others who wish to obtain those roles – to coach them on building their capacity and visibility as a business partner within an organization.  Both of these aspects are important – exercising the right proactivity, judgment and skills and being recognized and rewarded by the Board and senior management for such contributions. This involves not only building relationships and moving outside of what is commonly called one’s comfort zone – a lawyer with excellent substantive legal skills – but also learning how to position oneself as a strategic member of the leadership team.

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To succeed as General Counsel, you need not only to build relationships and move outside of what may be your comfort zone – a lawyer with excellent substantive legal skills – but also position yourself as a strategic member of the leadership team.

I intend further explore the expanded General Counsel role in the coming months, so please subscribe to my blog or sign up for my mailing list if this is a topic that moves you. In the meantime, I have started to compile a list of articles around the web from recent years that have addressed the evolving General Counsel role, which I am posting below to help you explore and master the expanded General Counsel relationship.

If you hold a CEO, CIO, CFO, COO, CTO, General Counsel, law firm or other role and would like to post another resource in the comments or join the conversation, I appreciate your input.

I may update this list from time to time. Thanks in advance!

Attorneys – General Counsel and In-House
Vision, Judgment, Capacity Building and Leadership

“Eight Core Qualities of Successful General Counsel and How to Achieve Them,” Segal Coaching Blog, Anne Marie Segal.

“So You Want to Be General Counsel? How to Maximize Your Chances,” ACC Docket, David M. Love III, Mark Roellig.

“Do Lawyers Make Better CEO’s than MBAs?,” Harvard Business Review, by M. Todd Henderson. 

“The General Counsel as Senior Leader: More than “Just a Lawyer,” Korn Ferry Institute, John Amer.

“What GCs and CCOs Can Learn from Each Other,” Thomson Reuters, Thomas Kim.

“An Open Letter to GCs and Law Firms,” ACC Docket, Daniel Desjardins.

“General Counsel: Guardian and Conscience of the Company,” Forbes, Mark A. Cohen.

“The Rise of the General Counsel,” Harvard Business Review, Ben W. Heineman, Jr.

“General Counsel’s New Role: Business Strategist,” Forbes, Brian Jones.

Anne Marie Segal is an executive coach, writer, resume strategist and former practicing attorney (including as a law firm partner and Deputy General Counsel of a private equity and hedge fund). The majority of her clients are senior attorneys, and she has coached hundreds of professionals across law, finance, engineering, technology, marketing, non-profits, government and other fields.

Anne Marie is also author of Master the Interview and the newly published Know Yourself, Grow Your Career: The Personal Value Proposition Workbook, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other retailers. 

Click on a sharing option below to share this post on LinkedIn, Twitter or other social media sites. Please leave a comment if you want to join the conversation or share an article, video or other resource for the list.

Image credit: Adobe Stock.

Five Scary Legal Blowups You Can Avoid in Your Business

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It’s Halloween. Kids get scared by monsters and spooky Jack O’Lanterns. Adults may relive pent-up fears from the rest of the year or (hopefully) get a playful reprieve.

Here are five scary legal blowups you can avoid in your business by careful, timely planning. Start tomorrow, after resting up from the Tricks and Treats.

[Note: This post was written while I was a practicing attorney running a diverse solo law practice, and it is one of a small number of “legacy posts” that I have retained on the site. When published, this was one of my most popular posts. Since April 2015, I have been working as an executive coach and writer, and I am not currently available for legal engagements.]

1) You have an unstable or otherwise difficult business partner and do not have proper agreements. This seems like an obvious point, but unfortunately it is often overlooked. Document your rights and obligations with your business partners before disputes arise. If you visit Avvo.com or one of the other sites at which “real people” can post questions anonymously to attorneys, a topic you will see over and over again is how to dissolve a business relationship in which there are no legal agreements governing the relationship of the parties. A little investment upfront to work out what happens in a dispute will not only save you stress if there’s a meltdown or bombshell, or your business partner suddenly disappears or dies (which does happen), but it also will contribute to amicable relations in the good times.

2) You don’t know what your lease says. I am continuously surprised at how many friends and clients come to me with questions like – can I get out of my lease early without penalty? how do I do it? Your lease may be one of your biggest expenditures as a business. You should know what it says before you sign it, and you should write it down in a memo (or at least handwritten notes) that you file with the lease, so you remember later what it says. This goes for all big ticket contracts, in fact. Know not only how much they cost to stay in, but how much it would cost you to get out of them if needed.

5) Your address is wrong with the Secretary of State or contract counterparties  and you do not receive notice of fines or litigation. If you do not update your address, you will not be notified, and this is to your detriment. Fines and penalties can pile up, and if you do not receive notice of a litigation a default judgment can be entered against you without your knowledge or ability to defend yourself. Have an individual in your organization (and a backup) who is charged with reviewing key matters if your contact information changes temporarily or permanently.

4) You do not have a federal registration for your trademark or service mark, and someone applies for it first. If you have already invested considerable time in creating and advertising your business name and are operating in multiple states, or you have a serious intent to do so, it is worth the small investment to hire an attorney and, if he or she advises, file a federal trademark application. In the long run, it is more economical – and causes less headaches and heartaches – to either (1) have your registration completed first, without the need to try to cancel a competitor’s application on grounds that you are the prior, senior user, or (2) know before expending even further time and funds in a mark that registration may not be available. (See my prior post about choosing a mark and make sure that, if your attorney advises, you complete a trademark search as well.)

5) You have “independent contractors” on the books who are really employees. Businesses often hire individuals as independent contractors or consultants without considering the serious downside if they are reclassified as employees. Take a look at the Department of Labor’s press releases about employee misclassification for some of the enforcement activity in this area. There is no single standard to distinguish between employee or independent contractor (e.g., click here re: the FLSA or here for the NY DOL). What is clear is that simply calling someone a consultant does not mean he or she is not an employee. And the penalties can haunt you longer than any ghost on Halloween.

Law Office of Anne Marie Segal is located in Stamford, Connecticut, provides legal counsel to businesses and individuals in Connecticut and New York and advises select national and international clients. Please visit www.amscounsel.com for more information.

None of the information posted on this site constitutes legal advice or forms an attorney-client relationship, and there may be facts not discussed here that are relevant to your situation. This is a public forum. Please do not post confidential or fact-specific information regarding your legal questions on this site.

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