Like all practicing lawyers, in-house counsel have a lot on their plates and are constantly juggling to to meet their clients’ needs, deadlines and emergencies. Unlike law firm lawyers, however, mastery of business skills is critical for an in-house lawyer to be effective. All lawyers can write a 50 page memo that concludes with an unequivocal “maybe”, but is that serving the greater organization and its goals and objectives? Certainly not, and in-house counsel must be pragmatic, practical and business-savvy. Sterling Miller’s recent post illustrates the importance of business skills and his own experience in learning them:
“To be successful, to be viewed as a partner to the business, and to get your seat at the big kids’ table with the filet mignon, you must also possess a set of key business skills. How do I know this? Well, I fumbled and bumbled my way through the process the hard way, i.e., I had to figure it out mostly on my own (but certainly – and thankfully – with the help of some key mentors along the way). But I did figure it out and had a seat at the table as general counsel three times where I learned that the business had its own language (numbers) and way of doing things (business school) that were foreign to me given my legal background. After thinking about it a bit, I realized that almost everyone at the table had a background in certain business skills that I did not possess. Moreover, while everyone was more than happy to explain things if you asked; if you didn’t ask, they just assumed you were playing the same game they were playing, and it was on you to keep up with the class.”
Read: TEN THINGS: BUSINESS SKILLS ALL IN-HOUSE LAWYERS SHOULD MASTER at Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel