Surviving your first year in-house (Post 1)

Critical skill: Commercial Contracts

Even though the role of an in-house product counsel differs from an in-house commercial counsel, you need to know how to contract. (See Post 4 for other skills of a product counsel.)

And we all know: the lament of all law students (and this is categorically asinine to any outside observer) is that law school curriculums don't teach students how to read and write a contract. You learn contract theory (and potentially some practical knowledge, see e.g., don't get drunk and draft napkin contracts). After three years of law school, the only "recital" I knew about involved my piano teacher whacking my wrists for bad finger form.

My secret weapon was Professor Wei Chen's Commercial Contract Fundamentals course, hosted by UC Berkeley Law Executive Education.

I started my career in a regulatory group at a law firm, so most of my time was spent assessing statutes and regulations + memo writing. I would NOT recommend jumping into a product counsel role without commercial contract experience; my first year at Ramp was rough.

But if you do, take Professor Chen's course. She dissects highly negotiated provisions (e.g., liability and indemnification, data rights and obligations, intellectual property), provides practical examples, and even invites guest speakers. To this day, I still refer to my class notes.

Tip: I'd requested education funds from my company to take the course, as it develops a skillset that adds direct value to your work. From there, I also dove into as many (supervised) contract negotiations as I could. I helped on contracts with partners / customers / vendors, and quickly identified gaps in my knowledge.

Proud to say on my second annual review with my manager, he called me, "a different attorney." I attribute 70% of this "Most Improved Award" to Professor Chen and her course.