A good example of grooming a general counsel with business experience (TransCanada)

TransCanada is one of Canada’s biggest energy companies, has more than 130 staff in its legal department, including about 40 lawyers. Its new general counsel has a wealth of business experiences (See my posts of Dec. 15, 2005 on “tours of duty” by general counsel; and April 18, 2005 on the failure rate of lawyers who move to the business side.).

As recounted in an profile of its new general counsel, Sean McMaster, Canadian Lawyer Inhouse, Vol. 1, Aug. 2006 at 17, states that in the late 1990’s McMaster moved out of the law department to the corporate executive side, eventually rising to become president of TransCanada’s unregulated businesses. Later, before his appointment to the top legal post, McMaster served a year as vice-president, corporate development.