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CGI stock is at it's all time high. Join the dream team. My friend is referring for remote openings at CGI
Tagging Tata Consultancy EY Deloitte PwC Infosys IBM KPMG Amazon . If you eligible in terms of YOE, feel free to drop your resume at bikash.jena@cgi.com Please share this with people in need.
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Awful. You’ll be expected to act like a GC without GC pay. But might set you up to be the natural fit for GC/Head of Legal as they grow. If it’s your first IHC job, DONT do it. You need to learn the ropes under someone in a real department first.
It can be terrible bc they effectively look to you as GC but don’t to give you the formal recognition. You have to clearly set boundaries and say xyz is out of your area of expertise but that’s obvs tough.
Pros: opportunity to learn about many different practice areas; become a generalist that is useful for future senior positions; opportunity to grow into the GC role as company matures; more independence because there's no direct oversight of your work; more trust in your opinion as "the" lawyer in the company; being able to build processes and systems from the ground up.
Cons: leadership may not bring you into high-level, strategic discussions because you don't have GC track record; others may not appreciate the work you put in because they don't understand how legal works (e.g., can I have an agreement pulled together in an hour? How hard can it be?); being de facto GC while being underpaid for all the work you're doing; lonely and no support as a team of one; company may treat you as a checklist rather than strategic partner.
Suggestion: negotiate title/pay upgrade into Head/VP of Legal, with pathway to GC.
Extremely stressful
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If it’s your first IHC don’t do it. And don’t do it if you are early in your career.
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no, for the reasons below, and you only worked six years (albeit in biglaw) biglaw gives you alot of training wheels via resources and lawyer manpower so your level of expertise may be inflated. instead work at a pub co
As someone who has done this and grew with the company for 10 years, I have a different POV. Other’s comments are valid, though they skew negative. This could be a great opportunity for the right person. Yes, it’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of bouncing between topics, and a lot of pressure. But you don’t need to become an expert GC overnight. If you have a good base set of skills and the company has the resources to retain outside counsel, then you become the legal hub and you outsource what you need to. You don’t need to know everything. Over time, you can rely less on outside counsel as you learn more in each field. Outside counsel doesn’t have to break the bank, there are plenty of small firms or solos you can rely on if funds are tight. Build your portfolio of experts and build your skills along side them.
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The issue to me is less about knowing the substantive areas of the law than knowing what matters. I’m constantly dealing with issues Im not an expert in, but you need experience to understand what’s an issue worth flagging and what is just the risks of doing business. If you don’t have much experience and it’s just you, you likely also don’t have a large outside counsel budget. That can be a great learning experience but it can also be the definition of being thrown in the deep end.
Echo others: if this will be your first in-house role, you are signing up for an extremely stressful experience. You do not know what you do not know at this stage, but you’ll be expected to reduce outside counsel expense
Thanks for all of the input. For context, 6th year in BigLaw. Will continue to proceed with the process but with the concern of being the sole in-house.
Don’t do this. Since this is your diet in-house role it will be a struggle.
F
What difference does it make?
Unless they're a truly extraordinary personality, they will get eaten alive while being compensated poorly.
Ain’t easy
It’s also that you don’t know what you don’t know; you could be royally and spectacularly screwing up the company yet there’s no one overseeing you. You need to manage many things and manage efficiently; perfect is the enemy of good enough. You need to know about scaling and creating policies, corporate law, IP, employment law, privacy, AI tools, and everything specific to your biz. You also need gravitas to be able to command other ppl’s (esp execs) respect and know how to set boundaries. Very easy to burn out and be set up for failure. Good luck getting any real work done until 3 pm because people are pinging you about a “quick” legal question or how to launch an NDA through the contract management system.