It has been a truism that partners can and do leave private practice to become general counsel but there’s no or limited traffic the other way. Why? The GC has no book of business to port to a firm; perhaps surprisingly, there’s often a yawning gap between the GC’s remuneration and what a firm is willing to pay; and who wants to go back to timesheets and six-minute intervals?
Pleasingly, several recent moves suggest it is a truism no more. Law firms – from mid-tier and boutiques to the top eight – are recruiting general counsel to their partner ranks. What has changed? On the law firm side, there is intense competition for talent in areas of need and a new appreciation that general counsel are no less talented – and in some respects, more business focused and attuned to client needs – than their partner colleagues. On the GC side, the move is typically more opportunistic. The firm comes knocking with a proposition sufficiently compelling (despite the time sheets) to create an appetite for something new. It likely helps that the in-house environment is again in a tightening cycle, with GCs expected to do more with less despite, in some cases, greater risk and scrutiny.
There is a spectrum of risk in any lateral move. On its face, GC to partner might be considered riskier than most.
So, what is the secret sauce for it to be mutually attractive and successful?
On the law firm side:
- A compelling need the firm cannot readily fill from its own ranks – typically, an in-demand area of practice benefiting from specialist expertise learned in the trenches (e.g., labour and employment, energy, superannuation) or broad and deep connections with a high priority target client.
- Willingness at practice group and management levels to treat the GC as a long-term play, supporting them with a deliberate integration plan, and a stable platform (i.e., no downward rem review) with realistic KPI’s during an agreed period while they build.
- A remuneration structure that strikes a sensible balance, allowing the GC comfortably to move; and respecting relativities among partners while acknowledging the GC’s contribution may not initially be measured in introduced fees.
On the GC side:
- The courage to back yourself – take the leap trusting you will grow your wings on the way down!
- Importantly, the appetite to get fully back on the tools and do the work needed to keep them sharp (acknowledging that general counsel now, rightly, spend more time in the stands as coach than on the field as player).
- A plan to build and nourish your networks within the firm and, working with those networks, to build and nourish your practice, bringing to the task all the transportable skills you learned as a GC – including, to name but a few, stakeholder management, pragmatism, getting to yes, and knowing which balls are glass when you’re juggling!
- No doubt it helps if the client is fully on board with your move and will let the firm know that you will have some of their future business in your new firm.
Its pleasing to see another career pathway for general counsel and talent pool for law firms. Long may the two-way traffic continue.
