Want to become a general counsel? How about taking advice directly from four highly successful general counsel? BarkerGilmore reached out to these top legal executives to unveil seven secrets to becoming a general counsel.
1. Do Your Job Well
Strong analytical skills, excellent writing and communication abilities, delivering high-quality work product, understanding the law—this is doing your job well as a lawyer. And these are the skills required of anyone aspiring to become a general counsel.
“If you do your work well, believe me, when someone needs something done, they are going to come ask you to help. That opportunity to add value is the key to your success and your company’s.”
–Arnold Pinkston, EVP, GC and assistant secretary, Allergan Inc.
“Everyone in your legal department has to be a good lawyer. To be a good lawyer is not enough to succeed as a good general counsel.”
–Marla Persky, CEO and president, WOMN LLC; former SVP, GC and secretary, Boehringer Ingelheim USA Corporation
2. Be Flexible in the Work You Are Willing to Do
“I was an M&A lawyer, but when the opportunity came to go work as a health-care generalist, I was willing to do that. As a generalist, I handled a variety of issues, including regulatory and supply-chain matters. I remember spending several weeks of a year training our international offices on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Advising our offices in Beijing, Shanghai, India and across Europe was very far afield from fast-paced M&A work. But I decided to own it, and really do it well. In the end, I had a diversity of experiences that proved important to the people who were considering me for the job that I have now.”
–Michael-Bryant Hicks, SVP, GC, secretary and CCO, Providence Service Corporation
