TheCorporateCounsel.net

For the latest episode of “Mentorship Matters with Dave & Liz,” Dave and I were honored to talk with Chaka Patterson, who recently published the book “The Hot Seat: Mastering the Public Company General Counsel Role.” Chaka is Founder and CEO of Chaka Strategy, a leadership and strategic advisory firm that helps Chief Legal Officers and General Counsels of publicly traded companies become more effective enterprise leaders, and he is also a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.

During his career, Chaka has served in the roles of General Counsel, VP of Treasury and Investor Relations, outside counsel, and enforcement attorney for the Illinois AG’s office – so he has a well-rounded perspective and shared a lot of helpful advice during our 23-minute conversation. We discussed:

1. Mentors who influenced Chaka’s career path in private practice, enforcement, and in-house roles – and the important lessons they shared.

2. What inspired Chaka to write “The Hot Seat: Mastering the Public Company General Counsel Role” – and why he felt that now was the right time to publish this field guide.

3. Chaka’s advice for building and strengthening important relationships with the C-suite, board and other stakeholders.

4. Skills and experiences that lawyers should actively seek if they aspire to have a general counsel role and thrive in “the hot seat.”

5. How to overcome common patterns that hold lawyers back.

Among other takeaways, I appreciated Chaka’s advice to move away from the “volume mindset” and his thoughts on shifting from a technical expert to a strategist.

Thank you to everyone who has been listening to the podcast! If you have a topic that you think we should cover or guest who you think would be great for the podcast, feel free to contact Dave or me by LinkedIn or email.

– Liz Dunshee