Beyond a personal brand

The new CMS General Counsel (GC) report ‘Beyond a personal brand’ explains why general counsel should make time for personal branding, and to look at the initial steps they can take, as well as the benefits it can bring to their business colleagues and to society more widely.

The evolving role of general counsel worldwide has the potential to give their personal brands a particularly broad resonance and value – hence the title of this report. A general counsel who builds a strong personal brand is creating a potent tool to extend their influence and effect wider change. And as the profile of the profession continues to diversify, we will inevitably see innovative GCs exploring ways to secure wider benefits from what might once have been a purely personal asset.

‘Beyond personal brand’ includes in-depth interviews with General Counsel from around the world: Dessi Berhane Silassie, Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer and Global Head of Legal for IP, Financial Services & Asia Pacific at IHS Markit; Vanessa Vilar, Group General Counsel Ice Cream at Unilever; Helen Fletcher, General Counsel UK at BNP Paribas; Gonzalo Smith, General Counsel of Falabella; Delphine Sak Bun, General Counsel Nothern Europe Asia Pacific at Eviden; and, Zelma Acosta-Rubio, General Counsel and VP Corporate Affairs, Interbank.

Key findings

1. Most GCs are familiar with the idea of a personal brand  – only 16% say they are not. But only 20% are fully familiar with it.
2. Only 3% of GCs believe that a personal brand is not  something for lawyers.
3. Only 18% of GCs work hard to improve their personal brand. Over half (56%) don’t work on developing it at all.
4. 67% of female GCs feel their gender has been an obstacle in the development of their personal brand. Only 13% of male GCs feel the same.
5.  GCs generally believe that legal skills are less relevant in building personal brand than their relationships with stakeholders. 66% say developing internal relationships within their company is highly important, compared with 21% who feel the same about being ‘the best’ in technical legal matters.
6. Nearly all GCs have LinkedIn profiles – but only a minority  make full use of LinkedIn. 
7. Only 5% of GCs have used an adviser to help them develop their personal brand.

We hope that you will find it useful and inspiring. Download the report to read the complete survey and interviews with senior in-house lawyers. 

Please note that there is another version of this report available in Spanish, focused on Latin America. Click here to learn more about the Spanish version of this report. 

We are delighted that Professor Arancha Ruiz Bachs of IE Law School, a specialist in and author of books on personal branding, was able to support our project with her knowledge and expertise.

To access the full series of reports from the CMS General Counsel initiative, please click here.