The path to career advancement is paved with a commitment to personal growth.  Good in-house lawyers are effective advisors.  Great in-house lawyers learn how to lead.

Success as in-house counsel depends just as much on "soft skills" such as effectiveness as a communicator, advocate and coach as it does on the "hard skills" of substantive legal knowledge. Focused leadership development training can be an efficient way to improve areas like these to help position an in-house lawyer for a leadership role.

Generally in-house attorneys know that they need to be highly skilled practitioners and strong individual contributors, but I learned pretty early in my career that lawyers who want to advance to senior leadership roles must also develop leadership skills and competencies to effectively influence people and create positive outcomes.  The good news is that these leadership skills can be learned and they should be an essential component of every attorney’s professional development journey.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in formal leadership training early in my career, and it’s made a huge difference.  The ACC NCR Leadership Academy program is focused on just the right overarching skills, with team-building and communication at the core.