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International Placement

Corporate Legal Counsel

General Counsel
Deputy General Counsel
Chief Compliance Officer / Chief Governance Officer
Associate General Counsel
Assistant General Counsel
VP or Senior Counsel for Intellectual Property
Patent Counsel

About Job Titles and the hierarchy within corporate structures and in the respective IT Departments.
Each company will call the various IT positions by other names since each company’s structure will be different from one another. This will partially depend on the size of each company, the job descriptions and who the IT professionals work for and under.

Chief Compliance Officer / Chief Governance Officer

The chief compliance officer (CCO), also known as chief governance officer (CGO), is responsible for the company’s compliance with government regulations. In the wake of Sarbanes-Oxley, many companies have added this position to their organizations. Public companies are much more likely to include a CCO within their legal departments, but this title may appear more frequently within private companies as they face greater ethics and corporate governance concerns. A chief compliance officer also is generally responsible for developing a code of ethics and serving as ethics officer to the organization. The CCO works closely with the general counsel. In heavily regulated industries, the chief compliance officer may also report to the chief executive officer or chief operations officer.

Corporations require a strong knowledge of federal and state government regulatory, ethics and compliance-related issues. Candidates should have strong communication, collaborative, analytical and strategic skills. Depending on company size, CCOs typically have at least 10 years of experience in either a major law firm or corporate law department. Public companies may require experience with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting. Many organizations also prefer applicants with demonstrated experience in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. Candidates should have held positions of progressive responsibility within a law firm or corporate legal department, such as law firm partner or associate general counsel.

Highly skilled attorneys are in demand and employment opportunities should remain strong for the coming year. Salary increases have been on average about 4.6%. Attorneys who have five-plus years of experience in areas such as: corporate transactional law and who have technical backgrounds can expect to receive salaries from a range between $150,000 and $190,000. Yet, the longer these compliance officers are with a company providing excellent guidance resulting in corporate growth, bigger raises will continue to be given out along with incentive bonuses that can substantially increase the compensation package.

Some responsibilities for the Chief Compliance Officer / Chief Governance Officer include:

Developing and communicating policies and procedures for the company’s standard of legal and ethical conduct
Providing reports on a regular basis to keep the board and senior management informed of the progress and status of the compliance program, and advising them of new developments in ethics and regulatory compliance
Coordinating with the human resources department to develop an effective compliance training program, including appropriate introductory training for new employees and ongoing training for existing staff
Instituting reporting mechanism within the company for the reporting f compliance issues for investigation and resolution, including confidentiality measures for reporting employees and reporting of violations to outside authorities as appropriate or required
Monitoring possible areas of compliance risk and implementing corrective action plans for the resolution of current and potential problems