A Day In The Life Of An Associate Counsel At JW Player
Molly, an Associate Counsel at JW Player, describes a varied workday filled with "fire drill" questions from various departments, ranging from HR issues to urgent contract reviews, highlighting the unpredictable nature of in-house legal work. Their mornings are dedicated to meetings across different teams, while afternoons focus on managing ongoing projects, external counsel, and preparing for the next day's inevitable urgent requests, emphasizing the importance of timely responses to company needs.
Communication, Problem-Solving, Teamwork, Project Management, Legal
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Molly Noreika
Associate Counsel
JW Player
UCLA 2015
University of Pennsylvania School of Law, 2020, JD
History, Art History
Arts, Entertainment & Media, Technology
Legal
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans
Video Highlights
1. Associate Counsel roles involve a variety of tasks, from addressing urgent HR issues to reviewing contracts for various teams (marketing, sales, etc.).
2. The work is dynamic and requires adaptability, as the day-to-day responsibilities can change based on immediate needs.
3. There's a balance between attending meetings (often in the mornings) and working on longer-term projects or managing outside counsel (typically in the afternoons).
Transcript
What does a day in the life of an Associate Counsel look like?
The fun part about being associate counsel on an in-house legal team is you never know what kind of questions you're going to get. You could get a fire drill from HR, perhaps something is going on with an employee. Hopefully, that's very rare, but it can happen.
You could also get a lot of contract questions. We might need to have a vendor signed today, or else everything's going to be on fire. Sales contract questions come up all the time, like needing a customer to sign today. People will ask, "Can you look at this contract? Can you answer this question?"
So, there's a lot of variability. My general day usually starts with mornings filled with meetings. I think that's true for a lot of roles, especially since our company is based on the East Coast, and I'm here on the West Coast, working remotely. I can join meetings in my pajamas, which is awesome.
I try to keep my meetings to the mornings. I meet with people from marketing, HR, sales, and really any team. Then, my afternoons are more focused on ongoing projects, catching up on things from earlier in the day, or managing our outside counsel.
I write emails to outside counsel to make sure that anything going on, like pending or pre-litigation matters, is going smoothly. I also collect myself for the next day to ensure that long-term projects are progressing well. This way, those fire drill questions, which are different but guaranteed to be asked every day, can be addressed in a timely manner. That's what the company really cares about: getting answers.