Your Personal Board of Advisors.
For the GCs navigating complex leadership and business decisions. Executive Circles are designed for GCs ready to invest in consistent, high-impact leadership development alongside a trusted group of peers. Each Circle brings together a small, curated cohort of General Counsel for a 10-month, peer-driven, facilitator-led leadership journey.
GC EXECUTIVE CIRCLES
A transformational leadership journey
Participants receive 20+ hours of facilitated leadership development—targeted, practical, and immediately applicable to the GC or CLO role. Delivered at a fraction of the cost of traditional executive leadership training that often costs for than $10,000 per year, our program offers greater relevance and more tangible outcomes for today’s General Counsel.
Why the value is clear:
Executive Growth at a Fraction of the Cost. In comparison to one-on-one executive coaching or traditional leadership training, our GC Executive Circles provide equally powerful leadership development tailored to the GC role, at a far lower price point.
Executive-Level Impact. Beyond costs, our circles help you build the skills, confidence, and executive presence to thrive as a GC, influence at the executive table, and lead with impact.
A Trusted Peer Advisory Board. Gain candid insights and support from fellow GCs who understand your challenges, helping you solve problems faster and with more confidence.
Practical, Immediately Applicable Tools. Each session equips you with frameworks and strategies you can put into practice right away - with your team, your business partners and your board.
Intimate by Design
Real transformation happens when leaders can speak openly, share candid challenges, and get targeted advice. We intentionally build cohorts of GCs who are in a similar stage of growth and leading legal teams of comparable size, ensuring that every conversation feels relevant and practical to their context.
Real-time Learning
Bring live challenges to the table and learn to lead as an executive. You’ll walk away with solutions you can put into practice immediately. While the facilitators bring proven frameworks and deep expertise, the topics and challenges come from you and your peers—making every session immediately relevant and grounded in the realities of the GC role.
Co-created Curriculum
The 10 month journey is not a fixed syllabus. Your cohort shapes the curriculum by identifying the most pressing leadership challenges you want to tackle. Each month will focus on a distinct theme, supported by key exercises, tools, and resources that help you apply the learning to your real-world context.
Trusted Peers
Our circles are a place of validation, support, and belonging where you are not “the only one” carrying the weight of the role. They are an opportunity to form life-long friendships and professional bonds that continue far beyond the circle.
Seasoned Facilitators
Guided by co-founder Jenn Smyth-Whelly, who has been transformed by this format and deeply understands the skill required to draw out the group’s wisdom. The combination of Paula’s GC experience and Jenn’s expertise in executive leadership is a winning formula to leverage in our circles.
Beyond traditional leadership training
What Our Members Are Saying
“What I value most is the candor. These are sitting GCs talking openly about the things you cannot easily raise with your own executive team or even your outside counsel: compensation, difficult executive or board dynamics, restructurings, the personal toll of the role. The conversations are confidential, specific, and free of posturing. I leave every session with at least one idea I can use in my day-to-day.
The hardest part of being a GC is not the legal questions. It is the judgment calls you make alone: how to manage a board, when to push back on the CEO, how to build and develop a team, how to price risk for a business that wants to move fast. The Exec Circle gave me a room full of people who had already faced those calls, and that has been worth more than any CLE or training I've taken.
If you have never been part of a group like this, the simplest way I can describe it is a personal board of directors for your career. It is a small, trusted set of peers who understand your job because they hold the same one, who will tell you the truth, and who are invested in your success with nothing to sell you. I recommend the Exec Circle without reservation to any GC who wants to lead better and feel less alone doing it.”
Alice Davidson, General Counsel, Tipalti
“Over the course of the last eight months, I have been fortunate to dedicate time and space to be with a tight-knit group of exceptional peers, facilitated by an expert in leadership development that tailored a program to suit our unique challenges in our roles. Each monthly session provided practical leadership insights, meaningful reflection, and candid discussions I could not get anywhere else.
What I appreciated most was the trust and openness that developed within this group that allowed for honest candid conversations. Coming from different industry backgrounds and geographic locations across the country, we came together to discuss issues that focused on the broader leadership, strategic, and organizational challenges that come with the seat we hold around the management table. Learning from each other about our successes and mistakes along the way was foundational for our group to create a shared sense of growth.
The program has elevated my leadership brand. I have gained greater confidence and clarity through my Exec Circle cohort to influence and navigate the complex stakeholder relationships we face as GC. We are each other's peer advisory board, and professional support network. It provides a confidential forum where GCs can openly discuss issues, test ideas and gain fresh perspectives. My trusted circle continues to serve as a source of insight, encouragement, and accountability.
I would highly recommend this program to any GC looking to grow as a leader, expand their strategic impact, and connect with an outstanding community of peers.”
Jeremy T.L. Chan, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Thinkific Labs Inc.
“Executive Circles open up the possibility of a shift in how we practice as GCs. Each GC Collective Executive Circle session offers new ideas, and is expertly led by Jenn, who excels at creating just the right kind of space for meaningful discussion. This is how I have experienced each of those sessions: an opportunity for honest, respectful discussion with like-minded peers who have encountered the same challenges I have. They get it, and they've got my back. Every time, I walk out with renewed enthusiasm for my work, and a feeling that regardless how hard things might get at times, it'll all work out. I have never experienced anything like this in my professional space, and I'm willing to bet you haven't either.”
Fabien Fourmanoit, Chief Legal & Regulatory Officer, Beanfield
Ten months.
One transformational journey.
If you’re not in the room, you’ll miss the conversations, solutions, and relationships that will define your next stage of leadership.
If you are interested in joining us, apply now.