Huron Legal Q&A: Preparing for the Pressures and Opportunities Facing General Counsel

Former General Counsel and Huron Legal Managing Director Julia Chain Talks Roles and Responsibilities of Today’s GC

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today’s general counsel is increasingly part of the top management team – which means new responsibilities, but also new opportunities to lead and grow their organizations. Often, general counsel (GC) are required to understand project management, risk assessment and business strategy in addition to law. In this Q&A, Julia Chain, managing director at Huron Legal, shares her insights on the evolving role of GC and the new business-centric skills necessary to reach the top.

Q:	Recently, the general counsel of a high-profile UK bank was encouraged to resign along with the CEO and CFO. What does that indicate about the pressures facing GCs today?
Chain:	On the one hand, it will considerably alarm the in-house community that the GC is being held accountable along with senior management for failings within the bank. In this case it was considered necessary to have a total sweep at the top allowing new blood to come in and take the bank to the next stage. The GC was considered part of the top management team that needed to go and was held accountable along with others in the C Suite. I think this shows that perhaps attitudes toward the role of GC are shifting so that now, more than ever, the GC has a role at the executive table. That’s scary, but it’s also very encouraging and represents a great opportunity.
Q:	How can a general counsel prepare to meet that opportunity?
Chain:	In the past, the general counsel wasn’t skilled up to take a seat at the executive board; those GCs that made it were in the minority and developed the necessary skills on their own. The skills they’re going to need – in addition to being good lawyers – are in management, project management, having the ability to evaluate risk and take a commercial view. The new GC needs to understand the business very well in order to enable him or her to really discern and evaluate risk. Having a commercial view means understanding basic financing, as well as the HR environment and culture in which the company exists. Legal skills are certainly important but can be delegated to a good team provided that the management piece is in place. In fact, law schools are beginning to reconsider the training for lawyers, particularly for those going in-house. Should they be getting an MBA or training beyond legal? In my opinion, they need MBA-type skills just as much, if not more, than legal ones once they get to the top of the legal profession.
Q:	What kind of training can be provided to other in-house lawyers to help them prepare to be GCs in the future and to support the current GC?
Chain:	Many in-house departments are looking at what can be done – for example, some kind of internal MBA that can be done part-time on the job, but they’re also making sure the lawyers are plugged into the general management training that happens in a large corporation. A few years ago, lawyers weren’t really included in those training programs to the extent they should have been. Now senior lawyers are considered like any member of the senior management team and other high potentials, and they really need to take advantage of the internal training that’s provided. The skills they will need – doing legal work in-house, managing external legal spend, identifying and managing risk, managing people, managing the business upward and downward, a whole host of things – all make it a great job, but to do that job they are going to need classic management skills, and in some ways the legal skills become less important as time goes on.

Listen to the full podcast with Huron Legal’s Julia Chain at: http://www.huronconsultinggroup.com/Insights/Perspective/Legal/Preparing_for_the_Pressures_and_Opportunities_Facing_General_Counsel.aspx.

If you are interested in speaking with Julia Chain or another one of Huron Legal’s experts on general counsel trends or other issues impacting law departments and law firms, please contact:

Jennifer Frost Hennagir
312-880-3260
[e-mail]

Jenna Nichols
312-880-5693
[e-mail]

About Huron Legal

Huron Legal provides advisory and business services to assist law departments and law firms to enhance organizational effectiveness and reduce legal spend. Huron Legal advises on and implements strategy, organizational design and development, outside counsel management, operational efficiency, and discovery solutions, and provides services relating to the management of matters, contracts, documents, records, digital evidence and e-discovery. Huron Legal is not a law firm; it does not offer, and is not authorized to provide, legal advice or counseling in any jurisdiction. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com/legal or follow us on Twitter: @HuronLegal.

About Huron Consulting Group

Huron Consulting Group helps clients in diverse industries improve performance, comply with complex regulations, reduce costs, recover from distress, leverage technology, and stimulate growth. The Company teams with its clients to deliver sustainable and measurable results. Huron provides services to a wide variety of both financially sound and distressed organizations, including healthcare organizations, Fortune 500 companies, leading academic institutions, medium-sized businesses, and the law firms that represent these various organizations. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com.