How to write achievement bullets as a lawyer/inhouse counsel?

Submitted by Jochen Sulhanen
in
General Questions and Comments

Hi,

I really liked the guidance on the achievement bullet points in the career related casts. My issue is that as a lawyer in a large cooperation, I very seldomly can put down something as a measurable achievement ("increased market share by 17,2 percent YoY"). Rarely do I have achievements like "leading global compliance projects on time and budget". But 80% of my ork is giving advice to others.

Could anyone share achievement bullets for similar roles?

Jochen

Submitted by Tom Waltz on Friday February 24th, 2012 1:31 pm

just a few ideas...

  • what cases did you work on?
  • How did they turn out?
  • How much of your advice led to things going really well?
Submitted by Roger Williams on Saturday February 25th, 2012 9:55 am

  • Improved client satisfaction rating by 10% through improved delivery of recommendations
  • Reduced time to deliver a recommendation by 2 weeks through improved research methods
  • Acquired 10 new customers for my company from client referrals
Submitted by Sam Gamble on Sunday February 26th, 2012 6:09 am

As a finance person I run into the same thing to an extent.
If you are writing a resume for another inhouse type role - don't forget the hiring manager will likely be conversant with the challenges you may have.
One thing to focus on is how you made life easier for the end customer from their point of view... the higher ranking customer, the better.  Also, how you may have built relationships with your client group so that you became their (sole) point of contact as opposed to perhaps your boss or someone else in your group.
Gains in internal efficiency are also good, but likely secondary.  At first I thought Beezers second point above was good but then I thought maybe it was two weeks better than being horrible before... also you may want to think about how you can turn the point around to show the impact on "the business" as opposed to a discrete item.
Another idea - did you reduce the company's reliance on outside counsel / outside legal costs?
How did you contribute to the business being able to negotiate contracts / settlements etc. more quickly / profitably?
 
 
 

Submitted by Jochen Sulhanen on Monday February 27th, 2012 12:11 am

Great answers! I like especially
a) the reduction of outside counsels costs [this is easily measurable - the numbers are available; they are tracked closely]
b) the focus on WHO has been supported and what was the result [something like: "direct support of SVP Sales to roll out global marketing campaign on time; legal clearance done in 44 markets"]
Structurally, I have identified two problems:
a) "what cases did you work on" => in a resume, this needs to be anonymized in some way
b) Lack of numbers. Results will often be: advice/support etc. If everything is going extremely well - nothing happens [from a legal perspective]. Those are hard to be measured [please challenge/share if you know how to measure internal client satisfaction - NPS?].
Thank you so far  - and happy to learn more!
 

Submitted by DataEraseReque… on Monday February 27th, 2012 9:59 am

 
[Structurally, I have identified two problems:
b) Lack of numbers. Results will often be: advice/support etc. If everything is going extremely well - nothing happens [from a legal perspective]. Those are hard to be measured [please challenge/share if you know how to measure internal client satisfaction - NPS?].]
This is a problem I'm having with my resume. I work mostly in an anonymous capacity, and when I'm not anonymous, the work doesn't usually correlate directly back to my normal, every day job description. Those are great to include, in my opinion, as they're truly achievements as I see it, but there's not a way quantify the benefits from them as they relate directly to my normal job. 
 
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