Eleven committees, Toastmasters and board training for in-house staff of Exelon’s law department

Sylvia Bateman, an Associate General Counsel at Exelon, took a few minutes at the SuperConference to describe some of the professional development opportunities her legal department makes available. Batemen said, “We provide training if lawyers want to sit on a not-for-profit board.” Exelon’s legal department also hosts a chapter of Toastmasters, the international organization that helps people speak more confidently and competently before groups.

Next, Bateman told the audience that Exelon’s 60-lawyer department sponsors eleven committees, mentioning about half of them: the environment, CLE, diversity, mentoring, pro bono and summer clerks. This blog has metaposts on all those topics, and a few citations to summer programs (See my post of May 23, 2007: sharing summer associates; May 7, 2006: GE and its summer interns; Feb. 17, 2008: diversity and a summer associate program; and March 19, 2009: summer interns to save costs.). The eleven committee heads report periodically to the Exelon “Legal Council.”

Bateman noted in passing that the mentoring committee sometimes pairs lawyers with business officers. A co-panelist, at Ford Motor Credit, said that her legal group uses Mentium to arrange mentors outside the company.