Five Things You Can Start Doing Today to Become a Stronger General Counsel Candidate

When we launched the Ready Set GC | Ascend program in February 2025, our goal was simple: to create a community specifically for women in-house lawyers who are considering the General Counsel role. Since then, we have hosted three sessions with nearly 100 participants from across industries and are preparing for our fourth gathering this September in New York. 

One of the primary topics we discuss is what aspiring General Counsel should be doing now to prepare for their first GC role. It's a great question because preparing to become a General Counsel doesn't begin when a recruiter calls or when you see a post for a role that interests you. The lawyers who successfully make the transition have usually been preparing for years by intentionally building the experiences, relationships, and leadership skills that the role requires.

There are countless ways to prepare for a General Counsel role, and no two career paths look exactly alike. However, after listening to aspiring General Counsel, experienced GCs, executive recruiters, and board members, five themes consistently rise to the top. If becoming a General Counsel is one of your career goals, these are five things you can start doing today, or, if you're already doing them, areas where you should consider leaning in even more.

These five actions build on one another: first by sharpening your leadership awareness, then by broadening your business exposure, and finally by preparing you to operate as an enterprise-level advisor.

1. Hire a Coach – invest in yourself.

2. Seek Out Stretch Assignments – broaden your experience.

3. Become Financially Fluent – understand the business.

4. Build Relationships Beyond Legal – establish yourself as an enterprise leader.

5. Learn Board Governance – prepare for the responsibilities of the role.

Hire a Coach 

One of the best investments an aspiring General Counsel can make is finding a coach. We don't think twice about hiring coaches for athletes, musicians, or performers because we recognize that talent alone is rarely enough to reach the highest levels. The same is true in leadership. An executive coach can help you identify the areas where you should be investing your time and energy, challenge your thinking, and provide objective feedback that you may not receive inside your own organization.

While some organizations will invest in executive coaching as part of a leadership development program, many will not. If hiring a coach isn't financially feasible at this stage of your career, don't let that stop you from finding people who can coach you. A trusted General Counsel, a retired executive, a former manager, or even a respected colleague can provide an invaluable perspective. What matters most is finding someone who will ask difficult questions, offer honest feedback, and hold you accountable for your development. The title matters far less than the quality of the relationship.

Many lawyers seek feedback only when preparing for an annual review or interviewing for a promotion. By then, it is often too late to address the leadership gaps that have been developing over several years. A coach helps shorten your learning curve by helping you recognize blind spots before they become barriers. They can help you think differently about executive communication, navigating organizational politics, leading teams, and influencing without authority. These are the critical skills that become increasingly important as you move toward the General Counsel role.

If you already have a coach, ask yourself whether you are fully leveraging that relationship. Are you discussing more than legal issues? Are you asking for candid feedback about your leadership style, executive presence, and readiness for broader responsibility? The lawyers who develop into strong General Counsel intentionally seek feedback long before they need it. 

In addition, we have explored executive coaching in several previous blogs because we believe so strongly in its value. If coaching is something you're considering, I encourage you to read those articles for additional perspectives on choosing the right coach and maximizing the relationship. They are linked here and here. 

Seek Out Stretch Assignments

One of the biggest mistakes aspiring General Counsel make is becoming exceptionally good within a narrow area of practice while missing opportunities to understand the broader business. General Counsel are expected to lead across the entire organization, not simply oversee a legal specialty. That broader perspective develops through experience, not observation. One constant reminder is right there in the title, the word “general,” a signal that you are not expected to know everything, and a reminder that your role extends across the entire enterprise.

Volunteer for projects that expose you to different parts of the company. Get outside your comfort zone. If those opportunities aren’t offered to you, ask for them. And they don’t need to be legal in nature, in fact, they should not be. Ask to participate in an acquisition integration team, a technology implementation, a compliance initiative, or a cross-functional task force. Offer to help with strategic planning or enterprise risk management. These assignments may not appear to have an obvious legal connection, but they provide something far more valuable: an understanding of how different functions work together to achieve the organization's objectives.

The goal is not simply to increase your visibility. It is to learn to think and act strategically, developing a broader business perspective while demonstrating that you can contribute well beyond your legal expertise.  

Become Financially Fluent 

As an experienced in-house counsel, you likely already understand that nearly every legal decision has a business impact. And GCs are expected to help drive business strategy, not simply identify legal risks. That means understanding how the organization makes money, what drives profitability, and the financial implications of business decisions. 

You do not need to become an accountant or a finance expert, but you do need to become financially fluent. Make it a goal to understand your company's financial statements, key performance indicators, budgeting process, and earnings reports.

One of the best pieces of advice I received early in my career was to ask the CFO, or someone on the financial team if you are not comfortable going to the CFO, to explain the financial statements as if I were a new member of the finance team. That conversation changed how I viewed the business. And it was so impactful I asked him to come work with my team on the fundamentals of financial fluency, how to read financial statements and what kept him up at night. 

Financial fluency isn't about learning accounting. It's about understanding the language your executive team speaks every day. Read investor presentations and listen to quarterly earnings calls, If your company is privately held, be sure to understand the regular financial updates that are given to your organization and ask your GC to walk you through the financial reports given to the Board. If you are in the non-profit space, understand a Form 990. The more you understand the financial drivers of your organization, the more valuable your legal advice becomes because it is grounded in the realities of the business.

Build Relationships Beyond Legal

One of the biggest shifts in the General Counsel role over the past decade is that today's GC is expected to be an enterprise leader, not simply the head of the legal department. Success depends as much on trusted relationships across the business as it does on legal expertise.

Start building those relationships now. Schedule time with your peers in Finance, Human Resources, Sales, Operations, Information Technology, and Internal Audit—not because you need something from them, but because you want to better understand their priorities, challenges, and measures of success. Ask thoughtful questions about what keeps them awake at night and where they see opportunities for Legal to add value. Those conversations will deepen your understanding of the business, expand your perspective, and establish you as someone who thinks beyond the practice of law. Over time, those relationships become the foundation of trust and influence every successful General Counsel needs.

Learn Board Governance

For many lawyers, the first meaningful exposure to a board of directors comes after they become General Counsel. By then, they are expected to advise directors on governance, oversee board meetings, prepare materials, and understand the respective roles of management and the board. Those skills need to be developed well before you assume the role. We covered how to manage board relationships in an earlier post which you can view here.

Look for opportunities to become involved in board and committee preparation, even if your role is limited. Ask to observe a board meeting if appropriate or volunteer to help prepare board books and minutes. Familiarize yourself with your organization's articles, bylaws, committee charters, governance guidelines, fiduciary duties, and the annual board calendar. If your company is public, read the proxy statement and pay attention to how governance is described. If it is private or non-profit, ask your General Counsel to explain how the board functions and where Legal plays its most important role. Developing an understanding of governance now will make you far more confident and effective when board responsibilities eventually become yours.

One of the most important things you'll learn is that governance is about people as much as process. Every board has a different culture, different personalities, and different expectations. Understanding those dynamics is just as important as understanding fiduciary duties. Understand the different models, the ways in which boards operate and the role the board plays. Remember that your CEO is hired (and fired) by the board. The board is his or her boss. Understanding the dynamics of this relationship is critical and when you take your first GC role, make sure to spend time understanding these interrelationships.  

One of the best ways to understand board dynamics is to serve on a board yourself. Consider joining the board of a nonprofit or community organization whose mission genuinely resonates with you or another organization where you can gain meaningful governance experience.  If you decide to pursue board service, be intentional about where you serve. Don't join a board simply because you think it will strengthen your résumé. Join because you care about the organization's mission. The best board experiences come when you're genuinely invested in the work. You'll be more engaged, you'll contribute more meaningfully, and the governance lessons you learn will be far richer than if you're simply checking another career development box.

Becoming General Counsel isn't about checking boxes. It's about intentionally building the experiences, perspective, and leadership capabilities that the role demands. The earlier you begin making that investment, the more prepared you'll be when the opportunity presents itself. And when it does, you won't be scrambling to become General Counsel, you'll already be thinking and leading like one.

Deborah Solmor

Founder, Ready Set GC

General Counsel, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF)