Networking
Database Management
Applications Development
Project Management
Technical Support

Seekers Submit Resume

Employers Request

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.

General Counsel

The general counsel (GC) is the head of the corporate legal department and is responsible for the legal affairs of the entire corporation. The GC provides legal counsel to the board of directors, chairman of the board, chief executive officer and other senior management. The GC typically holds additional positions and responsibilities within the corporate structure, such as chief legal officer, vice president or corporate secretary. Since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the general counsel is expanding his or her role to include greater risk management tasks, such as identifying potential areas of weakness and making recommendations for improvement. In many corporate legal departments, and especially smaller ones, the GC is often responsible for duties typically performed by chief compliance, privacy and security officers if these positions have not yet been created.

General Counsel must possess strong initiative as well as excellent management, teamwork, delegation and problem-solving skills. A juris doctorate (JD) is required. The amount of experience required for the position may vary depending on company size. Large legal departments of public companies (those employing 50 or more legal professionals) prefer candidates with 15 to 20 years of experience, while small startup companies may find that five or more years of relevant experience is adequate. Companies seek candidates who also possess experience in a major law firm or corporate legal department where they have held positions of advancing responsibility, such as associate general counsel or partner. Many employers want candidates with experience representing public companies, including familiarity with periodic reporting, Sarbanes-Oxley and corporate governance mandates.

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 $200,000 and $300,000. Yet, the longer these GCs 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 General Counsel include:

Advising the company and senior management on a broad range of federal and

State regulatory and compliance matters, including identifying areas of risk and making suggestions for improvement

Managing outside counsel and developing strategy for litigation and regulatory proceedings
Developing an in-house organization of legal professionals to provide legal assistance to the company
Negotiating and drafting transactional documents for the company
Planning the company’s strategy for handling government affairs and lobbying efforts