General Counsel - Big Law

JCW Group; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 250,000 - 500,000; Full time

Job summary

JCW Group is assisting a leading international law firm in hiring its first General Counsel to build the GC function from the ground up. The role is hybrid, requiring a minimum of two days in the office per week, and targets a candidate who has served as General Counsel or in senior GC roles within a global law firm.

The successful candidate will define the GC office’s scope, advise governance bodies on legal and reputational matters, manage external counsel and legal spend, and collaborate with

Qualifications

• US-qualified attorney.
• 10+ years experience in a law firm general counsel function.

Responsibilities

• Build the firm’s first General Counsel's Office from a blank page: define its scope, structure, priorities and ways of working, and decide what to handle in-house versus externally.
• Advise leadership and governance bodies on significant legal, ethical, reputational and commercial matters.
• Lead the response to professional liability and malpractice claims, material litigation, investigations and regulatory inquiries, working with insurers and brokers.
• Define the working relationship with the Global Risk & Compliance Director, agreeing where legal and risk responsibilities sit and how the two functions work together.
• Manage external counsel relationships and legal spend.
• Build trust and credibility across a partnership that has not had a general counsel before, positioning the function as a pragmatic, commercially minded partner

Education

US-qualified attorney

Job description

Our client is a leading international law firm with over 1500 employees spread across US, Europe, Asia and other jurisdictions. As the firm evolves, they are looking to hire their first General Counsel to establish and develop the general counsel function. This is a rare chance to build a legal function from the ground up and shape how a global partnership manages legal, reputational and commercial risk.

This is a hybrid role requiring minimum 2 days in office per week. The ideal candidate is either a current General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel or Associate General Counsel in a mid-large size global law firm.

Responsibilities

• Build the firm’s first General Counsel's Office from a blank page: define its scope, structure, priorities and ways of working, and decide what to handle in-house versus externally
• Advise leadership and governance bodies on significant legal, ethical, reputational and commercial matters
• Lead the response to professional liability and malpractice claims, material litigation, investigations and regulatory inquiries, working with insurers and brokers
• Define the working relationship with the Global Risk & Compliance Director, agreeing where legal and risk responsibilities sit and how the two functions work together
• Manage external counsel relationships and legal spend
• Build trust and credibility across a partnership that has not had a general counsel before, positioning the function as a pragmatic, commercially minded partner

Requirements

• US-qualified attorney
• 10+ years experience in a law firm general counsel function
• Comfortable operating without a playbook, setting priorities in ambiguous situations and creating structure and process as you go
• Excellent judgment, integrity and commercial acumen, with the ability to turn complex issues into clear, practical advice
• A global outlook, resilience and adaptability