What are the opportunities for career development in-house?
If your aspiration is to become a General Counsel, you will need to be proactive in managing your career to ensure that you are developing new skills each time you take on a new role (whether internally or externally).
For example, the next step for a junior lawyer already working in a team might entail gaining broader technical experience, taking on responsibility for supporting a particular area of the business, or perhaps gaining people management experience. In contrast, a sole lawyer, once established within the business, might consider growing the legal function, which could well involve putting a business case to the employer. In either case, if such opportunities are not available within the organisation, a change of employer might be required in order to progress. It is not uncommon for a General Counsel to have made a number of moves (often within different sectors) prior to securing his or her role.
Generally speaking, adding new areas of expertise will always improve your prospects. Whether that involves gaining international experience, exposure to a different sector or taking on responsibility for ad hoc projects, demonstrating an appetite for new challenges will be important. Gaining experience in other areas such as company secretarial, HR, finance will also help to make you a more attractive candidate.
Another career option for in-house lawyers is to veer towards the commercial side of the business with a view to ultimately adopting a non-legal role. Whether this is possible will depend on the culture of the organisation and its legal function, the economic climate and your own ambitions and motivations.