More and more corporations and entities, both private and public, for-profit or non-profit, have one or more lawyers on staff — some from a very early stage in the entity life cycle. Many, if not most, in-house lawyers receive no real training on the roles or responsibilities of in-house counsel, other than as associates in large law firms or, occasionally, through other in-house legal departments then may have been a part of. This course will appeal to upper level students who may have an interest in working as an in-house counsel in the future. It will also appeal to law-firm oriented students who can gain a perspective on the role of their future most-common client-contact — the General Counsel.
Topics will include: the role of the general counsel and legal department; conflicts and client identification within the entity, managing outside counsel, including litigation, budgeting, staffing, corporate governance and the relationship with a Board of Directors, insurance and risk management, labor and employment issues, Cybersecurity, intellectual property and more.
The General Counsel has many stakeholders and plays a number of roles: trusted C-suite advisor, determined corporate advocate for ethics and culture, among other things, department manager, and primary risk manager name a few. This course will explore the myriad issues that Generals Counsel face. Many legal and legal-adjacent topics will be touched upon, all through the lens of how a General Counsel can effectively navigate a predictably hard-to-predict daily routine.