Resources to help the modern in-house lawyer grow - Avi Weiss
In this week’s installment of Contract Heroes, we sat down with the mastermind behind the creation of Counselwell, Avi Weiss. Avi is currently an in-house lawyer at Coinsquare, a cryptocurrency company based in Canada, but he also manages Counselwell simultaneously. His passion for in-house counsel and the drive to provide resources for his peers in this versatile and demanding profession have led him to take on both jobs, often working nights and weekends to achieve his goals.
Throughout the episode, we had the opportunity to learn more about Counselwell and its early days while also gathering some of Avi’s essential tips for anyone looking to find a job working as in-house counsel. Though a bit different from our typical subject matter, Avi’s perspective provides a great look at the world of in-house counsel, what it’s like, and how to get your foot in the door.
Creating Counselwell
So, what is Counselwell all about? Avi explained that he created Counselwell with the intention for it to become a resource and a home for in-house lawyers, which it most certainly has. Counselwell offers resources like online courses, a Job Board, a vendor directory, and a Slack community to lawyers all around the country, helping them to grow professionally in their careers and reach new heights.
The idea for Counselwell originally came to Avi when he made the switch to in-house counsel himself for the first time. He started out his legal career working at a large law firm in Toronto. Bigger law firms like this one, he explained, have lots of resources available for nearly any subject, as there are people working there from practically every area of law who can give you advice. When you make the jump to in-house counsel, however, you become the only resource for that company when it comes to all sorts of legal subject matter. Whether the questions are in your area of expertise or not, you are still expected to know or be able to figure out an answer. Despite searching around, Avi was unable to find any resources to help him when he first started working in-house. So, he decided to make his own resource: Counselwell.
One of the features of Counselwell that we wanted to highlight in particular are the online courses being offered, such as legal project management and contract management. Avi explained that working as an in-house lawyer himself, he was able to think about the types of tasks that lawyers have to do most often outside of the usual substantive law tasks. Dealing with contracts and managing legal projects were two of the most frequent tasks he noticed, hence why they were made into online courses at Counselwell. The legal project management course teaches things like staffing, balancing costs, and time management in order to help lawyers create a structure for handling various legal projects. The contract management course is designed to help lawyers assess their contracts and processes before adopting any form of legal-tech, like contract lifecycle management (CLM) software.
Tips for Prospective In-House Lawyers
Counselwell also features a unique Job Board that is specifically designed to help those seeking in-house positions find the perfect job for them. Avi noticed that in-house counsel positions can have an infinite number of titles, which makes searching for and finding job listings difficult. The Job Board eliminates all the clutter of different titles by listing only jobs for in-house counsel. Starting back in mid-2021, the Job Board has grown to include about 60 listings, with more and more being added each month.
One of the main points we asked Avi to touch on was providing some tips or suggestions for anyone interested in an in-house position, whether they’re at the start of their career or simply looking to switch paths for something new. He explained that the first step in the process should be to narrow down your search by thinking about key aspects of your dream job: what type of industry or company you want to work for (a government agency, a startup, a non-profit, a big company, etc.), what type of legal department you want to be a part of (small agile teams or larger ones), and what type of work you want to do. The type of work that you want to do is especially important, and Avi warned against picking a job based on what others might think of your title. Instead, focus on what tasks you’ll be doing at that job and what the actual experience of working there will be like in order to determine whether or not it will be a good fit for you.
We’ve condensed Avi’s checklist for finding your perfect job down below:
- Create a spreadsheet of all the key aspects of your dream job mentioned above.
- Create a list of companies that match all your criteria.
- Reach out to people on LinkedIn who work in those companies and track the conversations on your spreadsheet.
- Use the conversations to narrow down your choices more and more until you find a job that centers around your ideals.
For more exclusive chats with expert guests in the contract lifecycle management sphere along with valuable legal-tech advice, check out past installments of Contract Heroes, and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!
