Ever feel like you’re stuck in place? You have excellent technical skills, get the job done and do excellent work. So why aren’t you progressing? In this Goal Getter episode, executive coach and former GC Sheila Murphy is in The Legal Department to show you how to get noticed as “high potential.” Spoiler alert: no one hands you a promotion, you have to raise your hand. Sheila shares how stepping forward, seeking out feedback and adopting clear, business-focused communication style can help you level up.

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In this Office Hours episode, Deborah Solmor, founder of GC development program "Ready Set GC" is in The Legal Department to answer questions from aspiring general counsel.

Tough questions include:

• How to show that you're a "strategic advisor"
• How your organizational skills change when you become general counsel
• How to keep your confidence up when you don't get a job you really want
• How and why you need to dedicate time to "extracurriculars"

Stacy and Deborah also chat about the Ready Set GC Ascend program, which helps deputy GCs and other aspiring legal leaders get ready for their next big role.

Have you ever thought about a career in academics? You've learned a lot from practicing law in the "real world," but do these skills translate into the classroom? And without an academic pedigree, can a practicing lawyer even break into the ivory tower?

Dean Parrish believes that lawyers (especially in-house counsel) can be great teachers. Parrish says that legal skills are academic skills--writing, public speaking and the ability to distill complex topics make lawyers the best teachers.

In this episode, Parrish shares how he pivoted from a career in Big Law into academics, eventually landing leadership positions in top law schools including serving as dean of three different law schools. He says that teaching can be a natural progression for practicing lawyers.

He believes this so strongly that he invited Stacy and other in-house lawyers to develop a certificate program for aspiring general counsel at UCI School of Law. Learn more about the program called, "From Lawyer to Leader, the Road to the General Counsel Seat," in this episode.

Are the bots coming for our jobs? Will law firms crate when AI erodes the leverage model? Law professor Jonah Perlin advises us to keep calm and bill hours: AI is but another technology to add to the legal toolbox. In this episode, Perlin explains that time is but one element of the billing ecosystem. In this episode, we talk about the value of legal services and how lawyers and law firms can demonstrate value (and adjust fee models) in the AI age. Perlin also hosts the incredibly popular How I Lawyer podcast and supports law students and early career lawyers to find career fulfillment.

Ever wonder why people aren't performing the way you want them to, why your team hasn't gelled, why the project is delayed, or why or your boss never seems to be happy?

There's a way to avoid all this frustration; start with expectations. Rarely do we take the time to think about what we really expect from others at work or communicate those expectations.

Stop suffering in silence! Executive coach Hanna Hart is back in The Legal Department with specific tips on how to talk about expectations. She explains the three different kinds of expectations we need to address and shares tips for communicating them to our teams and our bosses. From on-boarding to performance management, expectations are key to harmony at work. Bonus: we talk about how to bridge generational differences about work.

This is a great companion episode to Hanna's debut on the show, Episode 63: "The 'F' Word: Feedback in The Legal Department."

In this Goal Getter episode, Janet Thompson Jackson, executive coach and founder of attorney wellness platform "Well-Law" shares a three-part strategy she calls "ABS" to help you set and achieve goals that really matter. By Anchoring in what you really want, setting Boundaries to help you stick to it, and identifying the Steps needed to get there.

Janet challenges us to ask ourselves how we are defining success--what does it mean to us to be a good professional? and whether those standards are realistic (and necessary) to succeed at work. She encourages setting boundaries to hold ourselves accountable so we can make progress toward living the life we want.

In this Goal Getter episode, Stacy's executive coach, Charles Holmes, is in The Legal Department to explore how asking the right questions can lead you to the career you really want. He shares the three questions that can help you identify what you want and how to get there. Stacy and Charles also explore how "tolerable conflict" keeps us stuck between what we want and where we are today.

In this Office Hours episode, Stacy answers listener questions about: (1) how to get up to speed in your first General Counsel job – including tips for holding successful meetings with your CEO; (2) whether you can switch industries and how to do so; and (3) in-house fundamentals on how to deliver a winning board presentation.

Thanks to Filejet for supporting the Office Hours series!

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