In this recent webinar, Edina Beasley sat down with Leslie Cleaver, general counsel at Aceable, Inc., and Ilona Levine, general counsel and corporate secretary at Internet Society, to discuss taking on their first general counsel roles. They shared their best advice and lessons learned. Here are a few of their insights:
How did you know, and when did you know, that you were ready?
Leslie Cleaver: I knew that I was ready when my then-GC was letting me fly solo on really high-impact and high-profile matters. He basically gave me the keys to the castle and said, “Just don’t burn it down.” And when it didn’t burn down, I was like, “Maybe I’m ready.” When I continued to fly solo on these matters with very little intervention from my GC and I became more confident and comfortable in my ability to lead, that’s when I knew I was ready.
What are the substantive skills necessary to put in your toolbox in order to be a successful GC?
Ilona Levine: It’s definitely corporate governance, privacy, and cybersecurity. Risks and dispute management, compliance, labor and employment, executive compensation. And I would add, although it’s not a hard skill, global and international experience—anytime you can expand your skills in working with other cultures or working in global companies, it’s huge. You have to be very sensitive to cultural differences in how people work, in order to be effective and efficient. I think the way our world is going, and the more global we become, that’s a key skill to add to your skillset.
Leslie: I’ll add to that list. Commercial transactions and M&A and employment law are big ones. Understand intellectual property and your intellectual property portfolio and, of course, litigation. That’s not to say that you have to be an expert in all of these, because that’s why you have outside counsel to add some depth to your expertise, but you do have to know enough to be dangerous because you’re going to have to guide outside counsel. You’re going to have to develop a strategy with outside counsel, and you’re going to have to advise your business folks, because outside counsel is not always going to be there, and they’re going to look to you to be the first person to guide them on those matters.
What are some of the actions that need to be taken during the first three months or year?
Ilona: I would say that your first month actually begins before your first official day. I spent a lot of time preparing for the first day. I did a very deep dive into materials that I found on the company. I looked at governance documents and at the competitors to see what issues they’re facing and the issues that I needed to focus on first. For a public company, the analysts’ calls are key to becoming aware of what the CFO of your company, or analysts, are focusing on. And that needs to be done in the first 100 days; I consider that period to be the most important in the GC role because you can either earn the reputation that you want or you can earn the reputation you don’t want. And I subscribe to what my mom told me many, many years ago: First you work for the reputation, then the reputation works for you. And I always follow that advice.
But in the first 100 days, I would say, your plan should consist of meetings—the Listening Tour of the C-suite, the board chair, your executive peers, the leader of the product lines. My objectives there were to get an idea of the short term-expectations and objectives and understand the strengths and weaknesses of my team. The result of that is this gap assessment; I built a blueprint or roadmap for all the gaps that I’ve identified in my first 100 days and then prioritized my time and the time of my team on closing the gaps.
What is your best advice for someone who is aspiring to become a general counsel, or is maybe in their first general counsel role?
Ilona: Make sure to figure out why you are aspiring to be a GC. What really attracts you to that role? And what is the type of company/the size of company you’d like to be GC in? Because understanding that is really helpful in building up to that role. Then, once you do have the job, a priority for me was building the right team…and my lens for what the right team is involves staying humble and hungry. Humble, because overconfidence leads to overlooking issues; hungry, because, in our profession, you never stop learning. And being client focused, because we need our business folks, and they need us.
Leslie: Lead with confidence. Once you have made the decision that you want to be GC and somebody whom you trust cosigns that you are ready for the position, stand by that and be confident. When you’re looking for a GC role, you may not get the first one, second one, third one, or fourth one. But you may get the fifth one. If you don’t get some of the first jobs, don’t say, “Oh well, maybe I should go for the associate general counsel position.” No, you go for the GC because that is what you’re ready for and you’re confident in that.
Watch the entire webinar to hear their engaging conversation:
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