My career has been something of an accident.

I qualified into an M&A role, but was quickly seconded to an internal capital markets team when the dot.com boom went bust, leading me to develop a focus on financial services M&A. I went on secondment to a struggling British bank after the GFC with the intention of landing a big client for my firm, but fell in love with working inhouse. And, when I started my career, I never expected that I would end it in New Zealand, but a chance encounter with a Kiwi overseas brought me here - and my life is all the better for it.

At each stage though, the "coincidence" of being in the right place at the right time has in reality been the coming together of many small decisions that have put me there - skills I’ve built, experience I’ve gathered and people I’ve built relationships with.

And I have missed out on opportunities too - where I have not put myself in the right place to take advantage of it.

The truth is, only you own your own career. 

But while it may be true that you have to own your own career, that doesn’t mean you have to do it alone.

It’s against this backdrop that I am very excited to launch the ILANZ Career Development Framework. Put together by Kiwi inhouse lawyers for Kiwi inhouse lawyers, the framework is an invaluable guide to allow you to identify the skills you need for a successful inhouse career – and to help you develop them.

Wherever you are in your career, there is something for you in this framework. Whether just starting out or in a senior role, there are always ways to develop, find opportunities to grow and take your career to the next level - whether through a new role or - just as importantly - by improving how you operate in your current one.

And it won’t end there. ILANZ will build on this framework, through events at Conference, webinars and in person sessions to help you develop skills within this framework.

Ultimately, every single one of us is able to put ourselves in the right place to advance our careers. But it takes considered thought, self-awareness and help from others. You don’t have to decide where you end up, but you do need to think about your direction of travel. You don’t need to get everything right, but you do need to be aware of where you need to learn and grow. And you don’t need to take all the opportunities that are put in front of you, but you have to make a decision that something is “right enough”. 

I hope and trust this framework, the workbook, and the connected sessions ILANZ will be arranging will help you towards that. My thanks go out to the whole ILANZ Committee and our Management team for their hard work in creating this, but particular recognition has to go to Kirsty Millard and Ran Robinson who both made outsized contributions as integral parts of the working group on this, and to Bram van Melle, our vice-president, who generated and breathed life into this idea – and whose passion for improving the lives and careers of inhouse practitioners shines through in the finished product.

Happy reading - and happy planning!

Ben Jacobs
President, ILANZ