Two prominent education providers have teamed up with GC-led networks to provide tailored training for junior and senior lawyers.

The Centre for Legal Leadership, an education support service founded by international firm RPC, has teamed up with the University of Law to offer an online course aimed at developing senior in-house lawyers. Education provider BARBRI has partnered with the O Shaped Lawyer, a network of general counsel, to help shape the content for its SQE ‘prep for practice’ programme.

Centre for Legal Leadership said its Lead In-House Lawyer course, which begins in September, will develop personal leadership skills for anyone looking to step up to, or who is currently in, a head of legal role. The 10-month course will cover topics such as managing and retaining a strong legal team, strategic planning and understanding financials. GCs of international companies will provide first-hand insights.

Richard Macmillan, GC at Moorfields Eye Hospital, said: ‘Sharing knowledge and expertise is vital for the future of our profession. In my view we have a professional obligation to ensure that the future GCs/heads of legal have the right skills to be able to develop into leaders.’

Announcing its partnership with the O Shaped Lawyer, BARBRI said core 'attributes' drawn up by the group - being adaptable, building relationships and creating value through legal initiatives - would be embedded in its SQE prep course, which is designed to provide trainees with commercial and business skills.

The O Shaped Lawyer began in 2019 as a small gathering of GCs who wanted to see a ‘more rounded’ approach taken in legal education and ongoing development.

‘In the curricula there is a strong emphasis on technical skills, not human skills,’ Natalie Salunke, head of legal for RVU and a member of the O Shaped committee, told the Gazette. Often, when recruiting lawyers from private practice, the first six months are spent 'effectively retraining them -  talk in a way the business can understand and write emails so that people know what they're saying'.