How I survived my first 90 days as General Counsel

When I stepped into my first GC role in August 2021, Ireland had five homegrown unicorns and the market was moving at lightning speed.

The company was scaling fast into the US market; every time I blinked, there were six new hires… I knew after about a week that traditional methods of delivering legal services in this environment wouldn’t cut it, and I knew I wouldn’t survive OR thrive if I didn’t approach this opportunity differently than I had in all my previous jobs.

Of course, setting up my own community for in-house lawyers in Ireland, ITGC, was the first thing that sprang to mind in terms of surviving this wild start, but there were other things that came before.

So here’s exactly how I survived - and set myself (and Legal) up to thrive in the scale up chaos.

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Here’s exactly how I survived my first 90 days as GC:

🟪 Innovative mindset
I threw out the rulebook. Law school and private practice taught me a totally different career. But at a fast-growth tech company, I knew I was there to support business growth first - not to slow it down.

🟪 Embraced uniqueness
I’ve always felt like the “in-between” one - too barrister-y for firms, too Irish to be English. But in-house is exactly where non-linear careers thrive. I built a team culture where people could show up fully as themselves, too.

🟪 Built community
There was no space for in-house lawyers in Ireland who wanted to challenge outdated norms - so I built one. ITGC was born from that need to connect, knowledge-share, and make lawyers feel less alone at work.

🟪 Asked my network
Your network is your net worth when you’re starting out. I leaned on peers for templates, advice, and emotional support. The global in-house community is huge - especially on LinkedIn. Ask for help. It works!

🟪 Business partner first
Legal is not a cost centre. I made it my job to help the business win - especially sales. I treated internal teams like clients and focused on helping them hit their goals.

🟪 Cross-functional collab
I sought out internal experts early - deal desk, sales, finance, HR - to learn the commercial drivers fast. This helped me become a better partner, and made their lives easier too. Win-win.

🟪 Clear goals
I focused on one thing: closing deals. I aligned Legal’s work to the company’s goals and checked in regularly with our CEO to make sure I was always focused on what mattered most.

🟪 Outsourced + automated
I outsourced the heavy, low-value work to an ALSP and bought a CLM tool as soon as I had bandwidth. Total game-changer. It freed me up to focus on the high-impact stuff.

🟪 Consumed content
LinkedIn became my learning playground. There’s so much free knowledge out there - not just on legal issues, but how to be a stronger business partner. I learned fast thanks to the generous folks sharing their playbooks.

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