Getting Started As General Counsel
- 1. Getting Started as General Counsel The First Three Months
- 2. Goal: Contribute to the Bottom Line
- 3. Three Key Things to Understand: Individuals Culture History
- 4. The First Month “The beginning is a very delicate time.” - Dune , by Frank Herbert
- 5. Establish Positive Relationships Internal Executives
- 7. Staff External Outside Counsel
- 10. Customers
- 11. Internal Relationships Communicate “open door” policy
- 13. Promise timely response to inquiries
- 14. State commitment to positive solutions
- 15. Learning from Leaders Major customers/competitors
- 16. Benefits company delivers to customers
- 17. Technical advantages/gaps of competitors
- 18. Business model, gross margins
- 19. Acceptable risks
- 21. Concerns on the horizon
- 22. Review Key Documents Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws
- 23. Most recent annual report
- 24. Last four sets of board minutes
- 25. Last year of press releases
- 26. Auditor's notes on legal matters
- 28. More Key Documents Existing major contracts – risk review
- 29. SWOT analysis
- 30. Contracts/other internal process controls
- 31. Corporate policies and procedures
- 32. Finish Getting on Board Learn the IT systems
- 35. Identify personal training needs
- 36. Link with useful trade/networking/ educational groups
- 37. Don't Forget Address immediate legal needs
- 38. Support current business initiatives
- 40. The Second Month
- 41. Things to Analyze Prior/current legal budgets
- 42. Contract templates – fit with risk appetite
- 46. Existence/protection of intellectual property
- 47. History of corporate training on policies
- 48. People to Meet Corporate Secretary's office How are business licenses obtained, managed, renewed? Insurance claims office What processes govern coverage decisions, policy renewals, claims? HR department What support can legal give for training and policy development?
- 49. Places to Go Job sites with project managers
- 50. Customer meetings with sales teams
- 53. Leading and Managing Communicate mission, values, vision for legal to staff
- 54. Assess staff capabilities, training needs
- 55. Develop performance metrics, obtain staff buy-in
- 56. Identify opportunities to improve efficiency
- 57. Decide which legal matters are core and which should be sent to outside counsel
- 58. Don't Forget Address immediate legal needs
- 59. Support current business initiatives
- 61. The Third Month
- 62. Assess Key Programs Employment/benefits law compliance
- 63. EHS
- 64. Ethics
- 69. Legal Department Draft strategic plan aligned with company long-term plans
- 70. Develop/implement electronic filing system
- 71. Partner with IT to leverage intranet and make available to all: Legal FAQ, corporate data
- 72. Contract/other templates, training Align GC performance metrics to business
- 73. Demonstrate Initiative Negotiate outside counsel relationships Project management approach to divide legal between inside/outside resources
- 74. Cost certainty, periodic budget/performance reviews Propose new policy/legal training; work with HR/IT to implement
- 75. Maintain communication with executives, business leaders, staff – avoid surprises
- 76. Don't Forget Offer Solutions
- 77. Creatively Balance Risk and Reward
- 78. Show Impact on Bottom Line
- 79. The foregoing is intended to prompt thinking about how to create a new legal function for a company or how to assume the leadership of an existing legal department. It cannot be used exactly as is but needs to be adapted to the specifics of the actual business. The author is happy to discuss the details of any particular case, and suggestions for improvements are also welcome.