General Counsel handles court negotiations, conveys legal advice to the executives, manages the legal team and oversees compliance regulations. The CLO is a C-Suite position that acts as a linchpin between the business and legal teams.
Associate or Assistant General Counsel These roles may lead teams of attorneys or paralegals, or function as individual contributors. The title of "Associate General Counsel" often implies a slightly higher level of seniority and responsibility compared to "Assistant General Counsel."
Typical ones in-house are (from junior to senior): Associate Counsel (rare), Counsel, Senior Counsel, Assistant General Counsel (rare), Associate General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel, General Counsel, and Chief Legal Officer.
In his book Law Department Benchmarks: Myths, Metrics and Management, Rees Morison states that, based on compensation surveys and extensive analysis of legal titles, the title “Associate General Counsel” appears to bespeak more authority than “Assistant General Counsel.”
The Assistant General Counsel usually reports directly into the GC and is a lawyer with around 3-5 years post-qualification experience in commercial law.
The Assistant General Counsel (AGC) is responsible for providing legal advice and counsel to senior management and other departments within the organization.
An aspiring general counsel must have extensive education to qualify for a general counsel role. You will need to pursue and complete a bachelor's degree from a four-year college. You will also need to complete a Juris Doctor degree from law school.
How To Become An Assistant General Counsel? To become an Assistant General Counsel, one typically needs a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school, and must be licensed to practice law in the state where they will be working.
An assistant attorney general supports an attorney general with state or federal legal cases. Qualifications for this career include a law degree, admission to the state bar, and previous legal experience as a public defender or district attorney.
Ruben Segovia is the Chief Criminal Investigator of the Bexar County District Attorney's Office.