Write a General Counsel Resume for the Board and the CEO
General counsel resume example with governance, risk and legal department leadership keywords, plus a guide to writing for a CEO and a board audience.
Example General Counsel summary
General counsel and corporate secretary for a regulated manufacturer, leading a team of seven across three countries and reporting to the CEO and audit committee. Rebuilt the outside counsel panel, held legal spend flat through two years of growth, and advised the executive committee on pricing and regulatory strategy. Seeking a chief legal officer role in a growth stage healthcare business.
Skills to list on a General Counsel resume
- Legal department leadership
- Corporate governance
- Board and committee reporting
- Corporate secretarial practice
- Enterprise risk management
- Compliance program design
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Commercial contracting strategy
- Litigation and dispute oversight
- Regulatory affairs liaison
- Anti-bribery and trade compliance
- Outside counsel panel management
- Legal budget and matter management
- Employment and labor advice
- Crisis and incident response
What actually gets this resume read
- Open with scope: reporting line, team size, countries covered and the committees you sit on or report to.
- Show the business decisions you influenced, not just the legal work, because the hiring committee is usually a CEO and a board chair.
- Quantify the legal function you ran: headcount, outside counsel panel, matter volume and how the budget moved.
- Give governance its own space, since corporate secretarial work is a large part of the job and is often invisible on a firm resume.
- Name the regulated environment you operated in, because a device company and a bank hire for very different instincts.
- Two pages is normal at this level, but the first half page has to carry scope, sector and the reporting line.