How the Few Break Through.
Those who do reach the boardroom rarely do so by accident but few do so purely on merit as a lawyer.
Relationships matter
Almost every lawyer-turned NED could point to a specific individual who had opened the door ajar to a recruitment process, which gave them the opportunity to properly present their experiences: a chair they had advised during a previous crisis, a CEO they had worked with a decade earlier on a transaction, or an NED who vouched for their leadership skills. By no means relying on nepotism, this was a necessary step to “just get onto a shortlist and be given the opportunity to interview. Once you’re at interview, it’s up to you.”
One said simply: “Without that earlier interaction and direct advocacy, I doubt anyone would have interviewed me, let alone appointed me. I had worked closely with someone during the financial crisis on strategic, unprecedented work. They knew I could think outside the box. I still had to interview competitively of course, but it got me in the room.”
Another said “Your network is critical. Peoples’ prior experiences of you do matter for your first appointment. It’s a reference point for a chair or CEO. My first NED role I knew the CEO and he recommended me to the process. Even then in my interview the chair asked me about a specific legal issue and I replied that I had no idea and to ask Slaughter and May! I was later told it was precisely the right answer to the interview question.”
“Sweat every network. Talk to every former client. Talk to every corporate partner you know who is still advising the boardroom. Have a conversation with every NED or CEO you’ve ever worked with. If someone has seen you in action, they might have a fuller perspective of the value you can bring.”
Another noted “I definitely had some happenstance, having a legal background was specifically useful to my first board appointment but once that NED role was on the CV I have tended to play down the legal side and emphasise risk management instead. It’s rare to move straight from senior lawyer to NED without something extra.”
People devote their lives to become NEDs, and your competition is spending the last few years of their executive career warming up their networks.
Breadth of experience is crucial
The lawyers who succeed tend to have done one or more (often all!) of the following:
- Run part of a business or an international practice
- Acted as senior / managing partner or GC/CoSec
- Taken on HR, risk, sustainability, or operational portfolios
- Worked in multiple sectors
- Completed governance training (FT NED diploma, financial literacy courses)
- Built trustee, charity or government board experience early
This mirrors the pathway for other functional leaders such as CFOs and CIOs, who increasingly require cross‑functional exposure before landing board roles. Several said that charity boards, government bodies, and divisional boards are invaluable training grounds, exposing executives to governance, scrutiny, and accountability without the glare of public markets.
“I’ve been incredibly fortunate. The companies I worked for gave me a very broad remit - HR, risk, internal audit, health and safety, programme management, sustainability. I wasn’t just doing the classic GC/company secretary role.”
“The Government panels and boards I’m on have been hugely valuable, not just for exposure to issues but also for access to some of the people who sit around the table. And of course you are right at the heart of UK decision-making which impacts lives.”
Another experienced Chair mentioned the potential positioning of senior private practice lawyers as NEDs of other professional services businesses. “In several professional service businesses I’ve been involved with, the private equity owners struggled with investing in marketing and business development in a people business. I was able to push hard on investment in people and collaboration. That professional services instinct and nuance was invaluable. They invested and it improved cross‑selling and performance.”
Another NED had spent the last few years of their executive career moving into a different commercial function, focusing on government relations and sustainability. “Had I moved straight from law into board roles it might have been different but I didn’t encounter any bias per se about having trained as a lawyer. That said, my early board roles were more focused on my specific sector experience and government relations, but the legal background gave me some core credentials in risk management and transactions. If possible, spend time as a businessperson. Also don’t underestimate startup and divisional boards.”
Intentional positioning
Successful candidates should reposition their identity: from ‘lawyer’ to ‘leader with legal grounding.’ As one put it: “People need to stop saying: I’m a lawyer. That’s the starting point, not the selling point.”
Another distilled their pitch down to three components “Be intentional about relationships. Be intentional about the bricks you’re laying. Pick sectors you can genuinely engage with. Sit down and identify all your skills and experiences that aren’t just legal skills; people leadership, change management, crisis management, strategic thinking. Then present yourself not as a lawyer, but as a professional leader who deals with risk, people, complexity, and change.”
Sector experience may make a difference. Particularly financial services, because of the regulatory dimension; lawyers have an natural understanding of the “extra stakeholder” in the regulator. Professional services boards can be a natural home. As one NED said “where the business model mirrors law firms I have had success. I sat on the board of an engineering consultancy and I could instantly read their accounts because the economics were so familiar.”
Another key component is being the right person for the right moment. The company’s circumstances must match what you offer; upcoming transactions, major litigation, governance changes can all be circumstances that give this background an edge. “My first NED role was with ‘unnamed company’, preparing for IPO. I’d been through an IPO before, so the experience aligned.”
“In my experience lawyers can spend too much time talking about the specifics of their legal experience. Talk about the company, talk about the scenarios in which you can add value. Because of the perception of lawyers you have to talk not so much about yourself but about the business. Many former lawyers fall into the trap of analysis paralysis.
Experience of specific experience can of course be valuable, such as litigation. Another FTSE100 NED mentioned “I’d been through some harrowing litigation in my latter executive career that I was able to reference specifically in interviews. This type of situation was front of mind for the board for which I was interviewing, and everything I said was resonating. It was a real serendipity of circumstance.”
Whatever your angle, instead of positioning yourself as senior lawyer, it has to be as a business leader with a set of experiences matched to the circumstances of that company. Ask yourself, what am I solving for?
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