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Understand more about the General Counsel career path
How can I become a General Counsel
- The most common career steps to get to General Counsel are Associate, Corporate Counsel and Deputy General Counsel based on actual career paths reported to Jobtrees.
- Associate, the most common step before General Counsel, is a more senior role which is common to see in career paths. This is a natural and common career progression as titles aren't synonymous across companies so a more senior title doesn't always mean higher pay and larger scope. For General Counsel, this is an indication that you should focus more on the scope of the role than the specific title when thinking about building a path to General Counsel.
- While Associate is the most common, there is no specific role leading to General Counsel that is an overwhelmingly common path.
- Another characteristic of the General Counsel career path is that experience within the same job family as this role isn't common and as a result likely not necessary.
- This shows there are many potential paths to becoming a General Counsel so focusing on translatable skills is likely more important than a specific role.
- This is a Senior role meaning if you don’t have significant work experience and likely also experience in a closely related field, you need to start more than one or two steps away from this role in planning your path. Consider associate or corporate counsel as these are the most popular career starting points for Jobtrees users that led to general counsel. For a quicker path to this senior role title, consider looking at smaller companies as they have less layers to get to these more senior titles. The scope of the role and likely the pay though will still likely compare more similarly to a less experienced role title at a larger company. This is partly why you see some unexpected experience level titles leading to this role.
- While Associate isn't from the same job family as General Counsel, Legal, it can help to have direct experience in this discipline shown by Corporate Counsel also being a common career path to General Counsel.
- If you are looking for more potential career paths to General Counsel, you should also consider Associate General Counsel, Senior Counsel and Attorney as they commonly lead to General Counsel as well.
What should I know about the General Counsel career path
- The most common degrees or certifications earned by Jobtrees users on the path to become General Counsel are Doctoral degree In Juris Doctor, Bachelor Of Arts (b.a.) In Economics, and Bachelor Of Arts (b.a.) In Political Science. There may be other specific certification requirements to land a job with this role, so please make sure to check local regulations as well.
- Career paths aren't linear with people often returning to a prior role which is what you see with Associate being on the path to and from General Counsel. This is common when people move companies where the title is the same as a past one but the scope may be different but also is commonly driven by them choosing to return to a function they fit well with.
- General Counsel is part of the Legal job family which has a limited number of unique role types (53) within that discipline. Choosing to pursue a role within this family likely will mean that you will need to look outside of your discipline to find new roles and so should focus on related skills as part of that search.
- Other common titles that have similar job requirements and career paths as General Counsel are General Counsel And Corporate Secretary, Of Counsel, Senior Vice President And General Counsel, Svp & General Counsel.