Professional development initiatives for UK in-house lawyers

Not only has InBev embarked on an ambitious training program (See my post of Nov. 24, 2006 on its academy.), but two other talent-development efforts in the UK are running along side.

In the summer of 2006 the Commerce & Industry Group’s London branch launched a mentoring scheme. According to LegalWeek, Aug. 31, 2006 at 3, a dozen high-profile general counsel have agreed to mentor twice that number of junior in-house lawyers (See my posts of April 30, 2006 on the looseness of the term “mentor”; and July 14, 2005 on the difference between a mentor and a coach.).

While I admire the thrust and the collective effort, I am a bit taken aback because a mentor is usually assumed to counsel someone through the briar patches of the mentee’s company, something which a general counsel in another company could not effectively do

Meanwhile Nick Deeming, group legal director of BOC group, has been thinking through plans to launch the UK’s first MBA tailored specifically for in-house lawyers (See my post of April 12, 2006 on somewhat similar development programs in the US.).