General Counsel Career Path
All the insights below are based on Jobtrees users’ actual career paths, aggregated together, instantaneously, to show you the real and unique most common career progression for each role. Use this as inspiration for your next job and to re-calibrate expectations for what success is in your next career step. After you search, toggle over to the Family View to see what roles are in the same job family. Use this to get a sense of the hierarchy of roles within this job family and inspiration for other jobs you can target.
The career path for a
Based on 199 Jobtrees users who were a General Counsel in their career, on average, they have 5.80 years of experience and 3 jobs prior to this one. They have spent a significant amount of time in this job before moving on 6.4 years on average and earn $202K per year on average in this more senior role.
16% of Jobtrees users moved to another job with this same title in their next career step. The most common career steps after General Counsel are Associate, Chief Legal Officer and Associate General Counsel. Associate, the most common next career step, is a less experienced role which is common to see in career paths as titles aren't synonymous across companies (higher title doesn't always mean higher pay or larger scope) and not all job seekers are looking to increase their responsibility in their next career step. While Associate isn't from the Legal job family, there are common paths within the same discipline as General Counsel shown by Chief Legal Officer also being a next career step Jobtrees users are taking.
If you are looking for more ideas on potential career paths from this job, you should also consider Deputy General Counsel, Corporate Counsel and Chief Operating Officer as they commonly lead to General Counsel as well. Find more insights below about this specific career path based on our Jobtrees users' experience.
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The roles above are the most common next steps in our users’ career paths.
Use the + button and watch the ‘branches grow’. It adds another level of potential career steps based on the most common paths taken by Jobtrees’ users.The roles below are the most common previous steps in our users’ career paths.
Use the + button and watch the ‘roots grow’. It adds another level of potential previous career steps based on the most common paths taken by Jobtrees’ users.Read insights on these paths here
Understand more about the career path
How can I become a
The most common career steps to get to General Counsel are Associate, Corporate Counsel and Deputy General Counsel based on actual career paths reported to Jobtrees.
While Associate is the most common, there is no specific role leading to General Counsel that is an overwhelmingly common path. Another characteristic of the General Counsel career path is that experience within the same job family as this role isn't common and as a result likely not necessary. This shows there are many potential paths to becoming a General Counsel so focusing on translatable skills is likely more important than a specific role.
If you are looking for more potential career paths to General Counsel, you should also consider Associate General Counsel, Senior Counsel and Attorney as they commonly lead to General Counsel as well.
What should I know about the career path
Career paths aren't linear with people often returning to a prior role which is what you see with Associate being the most common role to and from General Counsel. This is common when people move to companies of different sizes or choose to return to a function they fit well with. Career paths aren't linear with people often returning to a prior role which is what you see with Associate being on the path to and from General Counsel. This is common when people move to companies of different sizes or choose to return to a function they fit well with.
General Counsel is part of the Legal job family which has a variety of unique role within that discipline. Choosing to pursue a role within this family likely will mean that you will need to look outside of your discipline to find new roles and so should focus on related skills as part of that search.
Other common titles that have similar job requirements and career paths as General Counsel are General Counsel And Corporate Secretary, Of Counsel, Senior Vice President And General Counsel, Svp & General Counsel.