Risk Mitigation and Career Management
Many in-house counsel look at risk mitigation as a cornerstone of their work. But according to James Bellerjeau, a lecturer in the LLM program of the University of Zürich and former group general counsel for Mettler-Toledo, a Swiss S&P 500 company, in-house counsel do not look at all risk equally. "Critically," he writes in ACC Docket, "the best counsel understand that our job is not to mitigate or eliminate all risks. We would put our companies out of business if we tried."
Rather, he says, the best in-house counsel look at their jobs as a "sandwich of opposites."
"On the one side we have our business partners, who are always fighting for new business. They are the eager risk takers who will always push boundaries. The other slice of bread consists of regulators, authorities, outside counsel, and advisors. Their mission is to hold us back, and stop us from potentially causing harm in the pursuit of business. They would have us eliminate risk from the business."
Bellerjeau takes his sandwich metaphor and extends it to the career management arena. "Both sides of our sandwich are made up of extremists, and left unchecked would lead to a bitter meal," he says. "We in-house counsel turn the sandwich into something delicious by the magic sauce of 'risk management.' That is, we see the benefit of taking some risks, so agree in principle with our business partners about the purpose of a business. But we also see the benefit in avoiding certain other risks, and so pay attention to the regulators and advisors."
What does this have to do with career management? he asks. Check out "Manage Your Career Like You Advise Your Clients" to find out.
Published February 7, 2022.
