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In-House Interrogatory
In-House Interrogatory
Listen to this articleFor general counsels, it’s always business. Not personal.
Or so Tom Hagen, the adviser to The Godfather in the film trilogy, would say.
Attorney Daniel Doktori, who is an associate in the emerging companies practice at WilmerHale in New York City, said in an article that the role of general counsel at a start-up company is much like the role of consigliere, the position made famous by Hagan, played by Robert Duvall, in The Godfather film series.
“Being general counsel is like being Tom Hagen in The Godfather – you’re a Consigliere,” said a New York City lawyer quoted in the article. “You need to understand where the founders are coming from – the sacrifices they had to go through to build their business.”
Doktori says start-ups hire attorneys who will be able to fit into the company culture of taking risks.
Here’s our question for you:
Do you agree with this philosophy? Is your job equatable to the (legal) version of the Corleone family’s consigliere?
Leave a comment below or email me.
Need to Know:
- A lawsuit seeking to remove Jacksonville’s general counsel from office has been dropped.
- Deutsche Bank names a new co-deputy general counsel for Germany.
- Halliburton’s general counsel retired and the company filled the position at the beginning of the year.
- A former Air Force general counsel was appointed as Homeland Security secretary.
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