Pioneering law firm, Mishcon de Reya, has launched a ‘GC Academy’ aimed at supporting those taking on the top inhouse legal role, in particular at fast-growth companies. The programme includes a module on buying and implementing legal tech. Both the firm’s MDR Lab and the Flex Legal group, which it acquired, will help.
So, what does it do?
The firm said that it is a ‘practical learning programme designed to equip [GCs] with the tools, skills and network to manage a legal function’ and will run across four months with a half-day learning hosted in London each month.
Areas it covers include:
- ‘Financial literacy and the key metrics to measure success
- The role of legal ops to improve the delivery of legal services
- Legal Tech for strategic impact
- Becoming a leader.’
And in terms of the reasons for these areas, they explained:
1. ‘Financial literacy and the key metrics to measure success – This module enhances your financial literacy and ensures that you can demonstrate how the legal team adds value to the company.
2. The role of legal ops to improve the delivery of legal services – This module explores how to implement and develop your legal ops strategy to enhance the delivery of legal services.
3. Legal Tech for strategic impact – This module helps you identify where technology can drive strategic impact and gives the confidence to select and implement new technology in your organisation.
4. Becoming a leader – This module supports you in shaping your leadership style as you transition into a senior leadership role.’
In short, much of what you may need to get up to speed with in a GC role, and often at companies where there may not be a large legal team already to help with such things.
Dan Sinclair, (above), Head of Early-Stage Strategy at Mishcon, said: ‘The launch of the GC Academy signals the next chapter in the MDR Lab story. In addition to driving tech transformation at Mishcon, we now see an opportunity to help GCs and Heads of Legal to develop new skills, better-manage the legal function and harness technology for strategic impact. Together with Flex, we are excited to support the current and future cohorts on their journeys.’
And, Mary Bonsor, (main picture), Founder, Flex Legal at Mishcon de Reya, concluded: ‘It has been incredibly exciting to launch the GC Academy with MDR Labs and the MDR Academy. Together, we wanted to create a course that helped General Counsel feel equipped for the role in terms of financial literacy, leadership, technology and legal operations as well as creating a fantastic network of people in a similar position. When I stepped up to be a founder, it was a huge learning curve but I did a similar course run by Goldman Sachs, which was invaluable.’
Overall, this looks like a smart move. If you want to build lasting bridges with potential clients then why not help their GCs develop the skills they need? And while this is aimed at fast-growth, often tech-related companies, one can imagine there are some GCs of giant corporations out there that would like this kind of support as well.
You can find more about the initiative here.