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If it were up to David Lebor, new law graduates interested in pursuing corporate law would have to work in-house first to get a better sense of how an organization is run.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea if they would start off as a trainee and watch how companies operate," says Lebor, chief administrative officer and general counsel for Philadelphia-based multifamily developer, Dranoff Properties. "I think that would help them in rendering advice inside law firms."

Lebor, a native of London, came over to the United States in 1973 to pursue his education. After achieving his undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh and his graduate degree in criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, Lebor earned his law degree at Georgetown University Law Center.

He began his career as a real estate lawyer at Blank Rome. His 25 years of real estate legal experience includes work in investment and financing, sales, acquisitions and equity investment, community development, leasing, and property management. One of his clients at Blank Rome was Dranoff Properties, for which he served as outside counsel since the company's founding.

While he made a seamless transition from a law firm to working in-house, there are some challenges he wants others following in his footsteps to be aware of.

"In a law firm, you're dealing with just law and looking out for the client and have their business interests at heart," he says. "But you have blinders on cause you don't have a real understanding of how a client's company works. One thing you see in-house is a much larger and broader picture of how the company is put together and functions on a daily basis. Although that doesn't mean you substantially change the advice you give, it does help temper it."

Another challenge is learning to manage more tasks on your own.

"Large law firms coddle their lawyers to make them more efficient," Lebor says. "Anything you need is provided to you. When you go in-house you have to do many of those things yourself because you're more part of the company."

Additionally, the issues a GC sees on a daily basis are more varied than inside a law firm.

"I get to see many different issues, such as personnel, and it's a larger plate with many more things that need to be addressed," Lebor says. "Knowing what needs to be a priority is a challenge, but I'm able to meet that and I enjoy the variety."

In his position at Dranoff, Lebor, who is the only attorney in the company's legal department, provides in-house legal services to Dranoff Properties and its affiliates, including overseeing and advising all legal administrative functions, evaluating new projects and negotiating transactions. He's also responsible for selecting and supervising outside counsel.

"We use different firms for outside counsel like Blank Rome," says Lebor. "We look for firms that provide services in an efficient and timely fashion but which still offers good advice and has our best interests at heart."

Lebor was hired by Dranoff Properties in October 2008.

"I essentially represented the company and its founder, Carl Dranoff, since the inception and we always got along very well," says Lebor. "We had a very good relationship and it was a wonderful opportunity for me to move in-house. People are generally very friendly here. One of the nice things about coming here is that people are more integrated with each other and it's easy to talk about the company with everyone. I'm honored to be here."

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