Close
Updated:

Job pressure on a solo general counsel compared to a Deputy GC in charge of 20 lawyers

If we could attach a stressometer to an archetypal GC who is the only in-house counsel and do the same to an archetypal Deputy GC who counsels a multi-billion dollar business unit and the 20 other lawyers who serve it, whose stress needle would most often go red? Can we speculate on the two position’s relative legal complexity, ulcers, conflicting demands, workload, and other stressors?

As Truman knew, nothing matches sitting where the buck stops, but the lead lawyer for a large business unit sits where a ton of change stops. They have no board issues, no CEO demands (but business unit President demands), no securities work or SOX compliance however, so obviously the pressures are different; still, it’s hard for me to give the clear nod to the solo GC for higher stress than the deputy who deals with complex people management, wide-ranging legal issues, and far more revenue at stake.