General counsel: Difference between revisions
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A handsome silvered fifty five year-old midwesterner with the bearing, and legal acumen, of a 747 pilot. If you encounter him in the lift he won’t have a clue who you are, even though you have worked in his department since 1998. | A handsome silvered fifty five year-old midwesterner with the bearing, and legal acumen, of a 747 pilot. If you encounter him in the lift he won’t have a clue who you are, even though you have worked in his department since 1998. | ||
General counsel habitually float above the messy tedium of actual legal work. They owe their elevated position to a knack for side-stepping difficult decisions — something which, in a large organization during peacetime, it is easy to do, especially one with well-functioning [[escalation circle]]s. Being commander-in-chief of the armed forces is a cinch when the nation is not at war | General counsel habitually float above the messy tedium of actual legal work. They owe their elevated position to a knack for side-stepping difficult decisions — something which, in a large organization during peacetime, it is easy to do, especially one with well-functioning [[escalation circle]]s. Being commander-in-chief of the armed forces is a cinch when the nation is not at war. | ||
But no-one likes to admit they simply tinned it. Thus, most [[general counsel]] are [[inclined to]] attribute their success to their own extraordinary judgment, commercial nous and deep client relationships rather than having happened to have been mucking about in a dinghy on the tidal flats when the rising tide came in which floats all boats. General counsel will even, occasionally but without irony, accept [[industry awards]] for their talents. Those with an ounce of self-awareness will loudly attribute the gong to the relentless hard work and unique skill mix of their team, without which none of their ''legerdemain'' would have been possible. But egotists won’t. | |||
The main challenge for a modern-day [[general counsel]] is justifying {{sex|his}} position at all. He likes to be seen as a visionary, an agent for change, a revolutioniser — when of course no experienced lawyer is anything of the sort: that behaviour is systematically beaten out of a profession based on something called the [[doctrine of precedent]]. A GC will therefore speak frequently of his grand strategic vision. When not consenting to video-interviews for the intranet, a good GC will be advocating resource fluidity or commission a detailed, multi-dimensional [[risk taxonomy]]. management of this task will be in the hands of his [[COO]], and the hard-yards saddled on jobbing lawyers whom, you’d think, would be better spending their time actually managing risk, rather than inspecting ones navel looking for it. | |||
{{dramatis personae}} | {{dramatis personae}} | ||
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Revision as of 13:21, 9 August 2017
A handsome silvered fifty five year-old midwesterner with the bearing, and legal acumen, of a 747 pilot. If you encounter him in the lift he won’t have a clue who you are, even though you have worked in his department since 1998.
General counsel habitually float above the messy tedium of actual legal work. They owe their elevated position to a knack for side-stepping difficult decisions — something which, in a large organization during peacetime, it is easy to do, especially one with well-functioning escalation circles. Being commander-in-chief of the armed forces is a cinch when the nation is not at war.
But no-one likes to admit they simply tinned it. Thus, most general counsel are inclined to attribute their success to their own extraordinary judgment, commercial nous and deep client relationships rather than having happened to have been mucking about in a dinghy on the tidal flats when the rising tide came in which floats all boats. General counsel will even, occasionally but without irony, accept industry awards for their talents. Those with an ounce of self-awareness will loudly attribute the gong to the relentless hard work and unique skill mix of their team, without which none of their legerdemain would have been possible. But egotists won’t.
The main challenge for a modern-day general counsel is justifying his position at all. He likes to be seen as a visionary, an agent for change, a revolutioniser — when of course no experienced lawyer is anything of the sort: that behaviour is systematically beaten out of a profession based on something called the doctrine of precedent. A GC will therefore speak frequently of his grand strategic vision. When not consenting to video-interviews for the intranet, a good GC will be advocating resource fluidity or commission a detailed, multi-dimensional risk taxonomy. management of this task will be in the hands of his COO, and the hard-yards saddled on jobbing lawyers whom, you’d think, would be better spending their time actually managing risk, rather than inspecting ones navel looking for it.
Dramatis personae: CEO | CFO | Client | Employees: Divers · Excuse pre-loaders · Survivors · Contractors · The Muppet Show | Middle management: COO · Consultant · MBA | Controllers: Financial reporting | Risk | Credit | Operations | IT | Legal: GC · Inhouse counsel · Docs unit · Litigator · Tax lawyer · US attorney Lawyer | Front office: Trading | Structuring | Sales |