What Does a Corporate Lawyer Do?

Corporate lawyers are legal practitioners who assist businesses in understanding their rights and responsibilities. An indispensable asset to small businesses and large corporations alike, corporate lawyers on a day-to-day basis assist in both advisory and negotiating capacities, ensuring their clients and/or employers are achieving their objectives whilst effectively navigating complex legal frameworks. To perform these duties, corporate lawyers are required to possess a comprehensive understanding of the law, as their duties are wide-reaching and their roles typically demanding.

What is the role of a corporate lawyer?

Corporate lawyers are most simply defined as practitioners of corporate law, the legal framework which governs the rights, responsibilities and legal conduct of individuals, organisations, and business entities. Corporate law specifically pertains to corporations and provides rules and regulations encompassing the entire lifecycle of a business. From founding to dissolution, corporate lawyers seek to minimise disruptive business practices and safeguard corporations from legal disputes.

Furthermore, regulations and frameworks within corporate law define how corporations may interact with diverse stakeholders, including investors, shareholders, government agencies, employees, and consumers. Fundamentally, corporations are considered to be their own legal entity, meaning they possess their own rights. Additionally, this limits the liability of shareholders and investors.

Corporate lawyers work to ensure corporations comply and operate within regulatory boundaries while remaining financially sustainable. They provide counsel on legal situations, obligations, and challenges while also considering the commercial and practical implications of the guidance they provide. Many corporate lawyers additionally work beyond an advisory capacity, by helping to protect their clients from prosecution and to initiate legal action when required.

A defining characteristic of corporate lawyers is that outside of possessing legal expertise in a specific practice area, they must also deeply understand their client’s industry and possess strong business acumen. This possession of knowledge spanning diverse practice areas helps corporate lawyers to formulate effective strategies to mitigate legal risk and maximise commercial outcomes for corporations.

What skills do you need to be a corporate lawyer?

Corporate lawyers typically dedicate a large portion of their time to drafting, reviewing, and negotiating contracts. These contracts require them to collaborate with diverse stakeholders, and typical agreements they formulate outline relationships with suppliers, partners, and taxation. Contracts are a foundation of business law, and they protect the legal rights of businesses and corporate entities.

Besides contract management, corporate attorneys assist clients with formulating internal policies and clear management procedures. To do this, corporate lawyers help create bylaws, draft essential policy documents, and perform administrative tasks to guide employees and managers in performing their duties.

Additionally, a key responsibility of corporate lawyers is to ensure their clients are complying with the law at local, state, national, and international levels. This requires corporate lawyers to research regulations and develop comprehensive plans to ensure compliance. During legal disputes, corporate lawyers will often act as a representative for corporate entities.

For instance, a corporate lawyer who works with publicly traded companies would need to comprehensively understand securities law, and then they would formulate policies to ensure their client complies with these laws. By doing this, a corporate lawyer will mitigate the risk of their client committing serious crimes such as market manipulation or insider trading.

The final major duty of a corporate lawyer is to assist businesses with securing venture capital. They will assist clients in negotiating terms with prospective investors and review contracts to finalise deals.

Corporate lawyers typically operate within two settings. Firstly, they could be the member of a law firm, which range in size (small, medium, large) and may specialise in certain practice areas such as securities law, tax law, or mergers and acquisitions. Corporate lawyers employed by firms will often manage multiple corporations and clients as part of their portfolio, charging billable hours to the businesses they work with.

Alternatively, corporate lawyers may be employed as in-house counsel for businesses. Corporate lawyers as in-house counsel will usually serve as an advisor to one company exclusively and provide tailored guidance on the legal issues challenges they may specifically encounter.

How to become a corporate lawyer

To become a corporate lawyer, individuals will usually begin with obtaining a bachelor’s degree, most likely in a discipline providing a strong foundation to understand business principles. Then, following their undergraduate studies, an aspiring corporate lawyer will sit the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), which assesses whether a candidate possesses the necessary reading, comprehension, and writing skills that are critical to completing law school.

Upon successfully passing the LSAT, students will then attend law school. Law school typically involves an intense, three-year full-time program providing students with a comprehensive understanding of the law. During this time, students will opt to take specialised courses aligning with their specific legal interests, and this is where many will begin to specialise in corporate law.

In addition to studies, it is generally recommended students seek practical experience through internships or clinical programs. Many businesses and big law firms accept interns, providing them with an opportunity to observe the realities of practicing law and the hours per day required to succeed in the field.

Finally, upon graduating from law school, all students who want to practice law must pass the bar exam. The bar is a test specific to each state, and this exam assesses whether an individual possesses the necessary knowledge and skills to represent clients. Upon passing the bar, a law student becomes licensed to practice law.

However, upon becoming licensed and gaining experience in the legal industry, most corporate lawyers will be required to continue pursuing additional qualifications to maintain their competitive edge. Corporate lawyers must build a strong professional network and remain aware of legal and business trends to advance in their career effectively.

What are corporate lawyer work hours like?

The legal profession has a reputation for requiring arduous work and schedules. Several factors will determine the specific number of hours a corporate lawyer will work, with the most significant being the size of the firm they are working for.

Lawyers working for large firms typically have the longest hours averaging 66 hours per week. Younger lawyers are often shocked by the large annual billable hours expected by firms ranging from 1,800-2,200 hours annually. To successfully fulfil these early career hours, corporate lawyers often work extra hours and take on heavy caseloads. Regularly working long hours means lawyers often experience disruptions to their work life balance, neglect their physical wellness, and eventually experience physical and emotional exhaustion which lead to burnout.

With long hours, is there any hope for work-life balance?

Lawyers notoriously have long working hours, and pursuing a career in corporate law specifically requires adhering to the dynamic needs and tight schedules of corporations, requiring constant availability. This combination of stressful work, extensive duties, and low margin for error presents a complex challenge for lawyers to minimise their stress, prevent mental health issues, and achieve work life balance.

For lawyers to do this, there are several strategies they can implement. First, as lawyers work long hours, they must establish boundaries, set realistic expectations, and effectively communicate with their employers and co-workers. Depending on the firm size, it may be difficult for a corporate lawyer to minimise their heavy workloads, so they should also consider investing in technology and tools to streamline their workflows and maximise their productivity.

Additionally, as remote work becomes more available for corporate lawyers, they should consider whether this arrangement provides them with the flexibility and time to fulfil their professional duties by minimising commutes and removing them from stressful work environments.

To preserve mental wellbeing, lawyers must proactively allocate time for activities which are both fulfilling and relaxing. Examples may include spending time with family or finding a hobby which helps them decompress.

Finally, maintaining a supportive network of friends and family outside of the workplace can help corporate lawyers to draw a clear line between work and their personal lives. Clear boundaries, strategies, and mindfulness are essential for legal professionals to maintain the health and wellbeing and preserve a work life balance.