Centre for Legal Leadership to boost career development of in-house lawyers
A new service aimed at supporting general counsel and in-house lawyers in all aspects of career development has been launched.
The Centre for Legal Leadership is spearheaded by Bruce Macmillan, the former Executive Director Commercial Law of Visa Europe and ex-general counsel to the Legal Services Board.
The Centre is comprised of four streams to be rolled out in phases over the coming months:
- Knowledge: thought leadership, guidance and discussion groups about career development, being a GC and running a high performing legal team. See: www.legalleadership.co.uk.
- Education: web based content and accredited external learning.
- People support (both for law departments and for individual in-house lawyers) and recruitment services.
- Community and networking activity.
Macmillan said: "This is all about responding to demand. Our research identified a significant appetite from within the in-house community for more guidance and support both on delivering greater value to the business through the role of the GC, and on personal career development.
"We're helping people to help themselves, as opposed to carrying out big change projects on their behalf."
As well as Macmillan, the Centre for Legal Leadership team includes:
- Paul Bentall, formerly GC at the Financial Ombudsman Service;
- Peter Giblin, a specialist consultant with extensive experience in a large number of areas ranging from headhunting and recruitment, via executive management, to legal education and mentoring.
The Centre for Legal Leadership is part of the RPC group of professional services, covering legal, actuarial and consultancy.
Macmillan said: "The Centre for Legal Leadership is a very comprehensive offering. At its heart is an understanding of all the different levels of support we know in-house legal leaders are crying out for and aren't always able to access right now in their own organisations."