A pivotal moment in my career occurred many years ago when someone described me as a businessman who decided to practice law. It changed how I saw myself, and it revealed to me the importance of building a personal brand within a company.
Developing a personal brand can be the key for general counsel to shifting perceptions and being considered an essential business leader, not just a legal expert.
Lawyers can face misperceptions that they’re risk-averse or are roadblocks to dealmaking. This can be especially prevalent for in-house counsel, who may find themselves sidelined in key business conversations. Overcoming these stereotypes and positioning yourself as a strategic leader comes down to building a powerful personal brand.
General counsel are just like any other business leader, aspiring to be seen as legal experts—but also as key executives around the table. They can build their personal brands by focusing on several concepts.
Think commercially, not cautiously. Lawyers are trained to ask great questions and think logically, focusing on potential risks. But this training tends to focus on what could go wrong, reinforcing the stereotype of lawyers as blockers. Instead, focus on asking commercial questions that enhance relationships.
A commercial lead at a fast-growing fintech company once approached me with a partnership agreement for 250 leads per month at $10 each. Instead of asking what could go wrong, I focused on questions such as, “What constitutes a lead?” “How do we ensure lead quality?” and “How can we secure the user interface to maintain lead volume?”
This shift in questioning allowed me to focus the conversation on the commercial relationship rather than simply pointing out risks, demonstrating a willingness to prioritize business results over caution. When evaluating contracts and partnerships for a company, learn as much as you can from your internal experts so you can best guide the conversation legally.
Employ empathy as a leadership tool. Lawyers often possess a high level of emotional intelligence, but these qualities frequently are reserved for dealing with third parties in a negotiation rather than used with internal stakeholders.
When delivering status updates to your internal team about contract negotiations, try to explain a potential risk in a way that shows how it could impact the other party. If you’re working with sales on a negotiation and there is a disagreement, focus on how the contract could affect the salesperson, saying something such as, “We’re in a good place overall, but there’s a potential issue with payment figures that could affect your commission.”
Communicating risk in a way that ties back to their interests makes the conversation more relevant and engaging. Show them everyone shares the same challenge and that you’ll approach it from a team point of view. Understanding another party’s perspective and acting accordingly goes a long way in changing how others think of you.
Be your own champion. Many in-house lawyers can relate with my frustration about being called “Tom from legal” by co-workers and colleagues. Sometimes it seemed the only time anyone showed interest in my work was to ask who I was litigating—or to ask every legal question possible, even if it wasn’t work-related.
These discussions felt exciting early in my career, but I realized that the board of directors and C-level decision-makers never asked those types of questions. I was reinforcing stereotypes rather than emphasizing my role in the commercial side of the business.
I changed this perception by talking up my role as a commercial lead in negotiating high-value partnerships. I reinforced the notion that I contributed to significant business objectives, which rose up to the board over time. Eventually, they wanted me in the room to discuss important commercial agreements, because they knew I was responsible for them.
By focusing on the positives and how my work contributed to the company’s key metrics, I aligned my role with larger business goals. I embedded myself within the business and focused on its objectives, and my personal brand evolved naturally.
Learn your company inside and out to better define your role. In my first 90 days as a general counsel, I attended sales meetings and discussions that focused on how we make money and what our biggest costs are. I gained valuable insight into the triggers that could influence revenue and cost profiles.
At the fintech company, we had about two dozen pages of data detailing operational aspects such as call-center staff sick days, conversion rates from calls to conversations, and customer demographics. By immersing myself in the operational side, I learned what made the business tick, allowing me to grasp that year’s business goals so I could show how I helped achieve these objectives.
Most company boards have specific growth targets and a few key metrics—usually three or four—that they truly care about. In-house teams should know them by heart. Everything revolves around them in investor-led or investor-backed businesses, so all legal discussions should be guided by them as well. Obsess over these metrics rather than just discuss potential risks associated with deals, and you will find less interdepartmental friction.
Elevating your role as a strategic business partner. To establish a distinct personal brand, in-house legal teams must move beyond their legal expertise and align their role with the company’s strategic goals. By thinking commercially, leading with empathy, and being their own champions, general counsel can reshape how they’re perceived within the company and in the broader business community.
Reinforcing your business acumen at every opportunity—whether during key meetings, informal conversations, or casual interactions—will build your reputation as an essential part of the leadership team. When general counsel position themselves as business enablers rather than just legal advisers, they become indispensable to conversations about the company’s future.
This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.
Author Information
Tom Dunlop is founder and CEO of Summize, a contract lifecycle management company with headquarters in Boston and Manchester, England.
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