Executive Advisory

Learning the answer to a legal question is just the beginning for an in-house counsel needing to solve a problem. Once the rules are clear, the in-house team has to figure out how to implement them in the context of their business and corporate structure. Brett spent 17 years doing this with a global team in a rapidly growing company. He can help advise in-house counsel wrestling with similar challenges.

New General Counsel are typically highly accomplished attorneys who have a lot to learn about the areas of law and the personal and operational demands they are expected to manage in their role. In addition to addressing a torrent of new legal issues, these GCs have to learn what is expected of them as General Counsel and how to be effective with the CEO, their C-Suite colleagues, the Board and the many people across the organization who now rely on their legal stewardship. Brett has been there. He can help new General Counsel move up the learning curve by being that person they can call for advice on what’s expected of them, ideas on how to tackle their new role and suggestions for approaching all the unfamiliar development, operational and legal issues coming their way. Brett can help new GC’s quickly focus on the critical issues and develop strategies for quickly, effectively and economically addressing them.

Brett also serves as a thought partner to new and experienced CEOs and General Counsel. Sometimes CEOs need advice from an experienced in-house legal executive on how to approach difficult legal and strategic questions that exceed the sophistication of their existing legal team (if they even have one).

Brett also provides experienced General Counsel with the ability to “walk down the hall” and talk to someone with many years of experience addressing in-house legal and strategic business challenges.

Below are examples of the types of questions our Executive Advisor has been called on to help clients work through:

Managing the Legal Department

• Establishing and strategically growing the legal department
• Building credibility for the General Counsel and the legal team
• Engaging the C-suite and the board
• Establishing the legal team in the organization
• Developing scalable teams and departments
• Preparing for and managing through crises
• Developing the careers of in-house legal professionals

Operational Challenges

• Establishing and evolving intellectual property strategies
• Addressing the torrent of day-to-day contracts
• Establishing and managing international teams
• Developing a stage-appropriate compliance program
• Identifying and managing outside counsel and other service providers
• Preparing for and living with the complexities of being a public company, such as:
  • developing discipline around communicating the company’s strategy, quarterly results and other material information
  • planning the board’s composition and governance
  • living with all the newly adopted governance policies
  • managing the insider trading program
  • communicating with institutional stockholders
  • solving difficult governance challenges