Thinking about taking the next step in your career? It needs the right combination of skills and strategies. It’s a complicated topic with several nuances. To put things into perspective, we invited legal experts to share their viewpoints on this topic in our last webinar, Elevate Your Legal Career. They shared practical tactics to transition into senior roles.

Read this post to learn strategies from:

• Jennifer T. Miller, General Counsel, Grammarly
• Danielle Coleman, Product and Risk Counsel, Stripe
• Sumeet Chugani, General Counsel, CCO, Cloaked

Before delving into strategies, let’s discuss the top skills and challenges required to move up the corporate ladder. 

Top 6 skills to succeed in the legal career

Source: LinkedIn

Grant Sanders, Partner and the Compliance Officer for Legal Practice at Stephen Rimmer LLP, shared the top six skills to succeed at a career in law:

#1 Commercial awareness

Businesses want lawyers to move from traditional legal advisor roles alone and wear the business hat. Legal professionals are now expected to understand the political, economic, social, and technological conditions that directly impact business. They should be able to assist leaders in making business decisions or even drive them.

How to develop this skill?

Regularly read about market trends, competitors, and economic conditions to develop business acumen over time. You can subscribe to industry publications or attend conferences to gain this knowledge. 

#2 Attention to detail

Every second word a lawyer writes has a potential to attract legal battles or hefty fines. Accuracy or attention to detail is non-negotiable when you move up the corporate ladder, work on critical documents, and make more key decisions.  

How to develop this skill?

Craft a thorough review process to develop attention to detail. Also, take advantage of technology tools like AI contract review software to assist with reviews. 

#3 Effective communication

Senior roles like General Counsel often lead negotiations, explain vision to team members, and cross-collaborate with other departments. All of it requires excellent communication skills.

How to develop this skill?

Practice active listening by paying close attention to details and asking clarifying questions. Also, work on public speaking skills. Start with leading communication in smaller groups to slowly build the confidence and authority to present to clients, courts, or boards.

#4 Teamwork

As you move up the ladder, bringing the team together to achieve the goal is essential for increased efficiency and productivity. For instance, leadership and team-building are essential skills for general counsels. 

How to develop this skill?

Start delegating small or low-priority tasks to the team and take constructive feedback on delegated tasks. 

#5 Organization

Organization or project management skills are crucial as you move to strategic roles. You'll be juggling multiple tasks and deadlines, so you need to stay organized and efficient. It is the backbone of your new role, helping you keep everything on track and within budget.

How to develop this skill?

Start by breaking down big projects into small and more achievable tasks. Then, take advantage of project management tools like Trello, Asana, or ClickUp to organize these tasks. You have advanced tech tools to also organize all legal documents like SpotDraft and define document workflows

#6 Problem-solving

Analytical thinking and good problem-solving skills are key to making data-driven decisions. Senior team members often need to look at numbers and trends to forecast needs, identify risks, predict issues, and determine growth opportunities. 

How to develop this skill?

Learn basic data visualization. Creating charts and graphs in a simple Excel sheet can help make sense of your data. For advanced analytics, there are legal tech tools available to track key performance indicators. Explore trending tools in the legal tech space that can be used to draw insights and make decisions. For instance, the SpotDraft analytics module tracks all key insights from contracts, such as the number of contracts executed over time, revenue, and more. 

Top 3 challenges lawyers face in making the big move

These are the top obstructions holding lawyers back from placing themselves as a strong candidate or a strategic role:

#1 Insufficient business exposure

Not being involved in any internal key decisions doesn't give the full picture to many legal professionals. This lack of proper exposure doesn't give the hiring team the confidence that these candidates are the right fit for the role. 

#2 Limited cross-functional collaboration

Collaborating with diverse teams across your company is key to learning the ropes of business operations and leading important projects. However, there are fewer roles that give you a chance to do that, and the hiring team is not convinced that you can do it.

#3 Excessive risk aversion

Any strategic business leader takes many calculated risks. However, learning to take calculated risks comes with experience and the ability to understand data and make data-driven decisions. Candidates lacking such problem-solving skills and risk-taking abilities are not considered fit for leadership roles. 

Top 9 strategies to excel in a legal career

Moving to strategies shared by legal experts on acquiring the required skills and overcoming all challenges.

#1 Plan for roles at least six months in advance

"You should be looking about 6 months to 9 months out from your current position. The market is really tough right now, so even six months can prove to be challenging. You really want to be thinking about how much longer I want to be here in this role and what the exact skills I can gain while I am here and leverage in the next role. You build a roadmap over time with your next steps for six to nine months."

~ Danielle Coleman, Product and Risk Counsel, Stripe

There is a difference between just looking and actually setting yourself up for a role. Starting months in advance helps you to be ready for a role by:

• Understanding the requirements for the next role
• Acquiring the required skills
• Learning industry trends
• Positioning yourself as fit for the role
• Networking with the right people. 

Source: LinkedIn

#2 Hone in what skills you have are transferable

"I think the most important thing is really to hone in what skills you have that are transferable. I often talk to folks who say I have always been a tech transaction lawyer doing inbound licensing, but I would like to switch to revenue sales. They say I don't have any experience. There, I say you actually do. Every inbound transaction is an outbound transaction on the other side."

~ Jennifer T. Miller, General Counsel, Grammarly

Every role you do provides a combination of fundamental legal skills like research, client communication, attention to detail, and specific skills that set a foundation for your success in future roles. Identify skills you already have and which ones you can use in the next role and hone them. 

Source: LinkedIn

#3 Take on more responsibilities at your current role

“Take on additional responsibilities that show you can connect the dots more than just being in a silo.”

‍~ Sumeet Chugani, General Counsel, CCO, Cloaked

Proactively taking on additional responsibilities that align with the requirements of the role you want is one of the simplest ways to prepare for the role. Pick more tasks that involve cross-collaboration and give you visibility into product, revenue, and sales teams. Do enough preparation in your current role so that you are deemed ready for the next promotion. 

Source: LinkedIn

#4 Start networking

"I cannot overstate the importance of networking. Since I moved in-house, almost all roles I have had came to me via networking. "

~ Jennifer T. Miller, General Counsel, Grammarly

The benefits of networking are two-fold. Firstly, reaching out to people ahead of you in the game can help you get the information to excel in the role. Secondly, you also spread the word that you are looking for a certain role, and that could result in landing introductions to hiring managers. LinkedIn and events are a great place to start networking.

Source: LinkedIn

#5 Give your best at current role

“It’s the people you work with who understand your work ethic, and they end up sprouting to other places, becoming your network. It’s a lot of time that the people working next to you say I know a person that would be right for this role.”

‍~ Sumeet Chugani, General Counsel, CCO, Cloaked

Networking doesn’t always require attending events or being active on social media. People around you who have seen your work are more likely to recommend you. Giving the best at your current role positions you as a trustworthy candidate who your colleagues can recommend wherever they see an interesting opportunity. 

Source: LinkedIn

#6 Do cold outreach

"I am a huge proponent of cold outreach via LinkedIn. Every single interview request I have received is via a LinkedIn cold outreach. So I think they can be very effective. What I include in my outreach is my name, where I am working, how I learned about the post, and one to two sentences about why my experiences matched the role, and why that company. I always attach not just a resume but also a deal sheet. It shows the type of deals you are part of. I never ask the hiring manager to do anything. My goal is to elevate my profile. I want to show, and I am ready and excited for the role."

~ Danielle Coleman, Product and Risk Counsel, Stripe

Cold outreach is important as there would be many recruiters or hiring managers who would not be in your current network. And you might not want to lose that opportunity. In that case, you can develop your own cold outreach strategy. Danielle has already shared the key pointers of what to include in a cold outreach above.

Source: LinkedIn

#7 Develop business acumen

"If you are interviewing for a senior position like General Counsel, you would be talking to the CEO. The critical component is not to just go there and just talk about law. But having them understand that you are here for business and that you can understand the business side of things."

‍~ Sumeet Chugani, General Counsel, CCO, Cloaked

With senior roles, legal professionals are not limited to providing legal advice. Leadership is looking for professionals who understand business goals, identify risks, and capitalize on new business opportunities. 67% of GCs sit in board meetings, where they contribute to strategic business decisions.

Hiring managers are looking for candidates who understand and care about their business. You can develop business acumen by talking to product, sales, and finance teams in your current company or researching more about the company you are applying for. Reading leading industry publications that cover market trends also helps to understand the domain.

Source: LinkedIn

#8 Build a personal brand

"You need to find your edge. If there are 500 people applying for the role, what is your edge? How you can leverage that in the interview process."

~ Danielle Coleman, Product and Risk Counsel, Stripe

The market is getting crowded, and having a personal brand helps you stand out. You can position yourself as the right choice for a project by showcasing your unique skills and experience. A strong profile can not only help in the next promotion but even contribute in the long run and land you a seat on the board. 

Some good ways to build a personal brand are:

• Maintain a presence on LinkedIn
• Take up speaking opportunities
• Publish articles, blog posts, or white papers on relevant legal topics in leading publications
• Build a personal website or online portfolio 

Source: Linkedin

Also read: Get a game plan for becoming a legal operations manager, General Counsel, COO, and even CEO in our detailed guides

Stay ahead in the game with SpotDraft Counsel Corner

All the best for your next move! At SpotDraft’s Counsel Corner, we regularly invite industry experts to share tips on how to grow careers, optimize in-house legal functions, and speak of legal tech trends. If you want to stay updated on everything that’s hot and new in the legal world, check Counsel Corner now.