Leadership advisory for general counsel and law firm leaders

Start by separating two questions you are probably treating as one: who is a strong lawyer, and who is ready to lead the enterprise. They are not the same skill, and conflating them is the most common reason legal succession stalls.

The fastest way to get clarity is an objective read on your most likely successors. An Executive Readiness Assessment evaluates a senior lawyer’s leadership capability, style, and readiness for an expanded role — and returns specific, actionable development priorities rather than a verdict. For a function or firm with several leaders to consider, our Talent & Leadership Solutions bring a disciplined review of bench strength, succession readiness, and risk across the group.

Because development for senior legal professionals is delivered in partnership with Amber Kagan — former Chief Compliance Officer and Global Head of Labor & Employment Law at GE — the work is grounded in the realities of legal practice, not generic management theory. The point is not to make your lawyers less expert. It is to add the leadership capability their careers never required, before the gap shows up in a missed succession or a lost team. Start a conversation and we will recommend the right first step.

Yes — and it is closed routinely, because this is a development problem, not a talent problem. The people in question have already proven they can master hard, high-stakes work. What they have not been given is deliberate instruction in the distinct discipline of leading: setting direction, delegating substantive work, influencing peers, and holding a team to a standard without doing the work for them.

JRA’s approach to law firm leadership coaching pairs an objective starting read with focused development. Executive Coaching gives a managing partner or practice leader direct, practical guidance against the real situations on their desk — not abstract frameworks. For a leader stepping into a new firm-wide or managing-partner role, New Leader Acceleration is a structured program that builds working trust with the team they now lead in weeks rather than quarters.

Development is delivered in partnership with Amber Kagan, who made exactly this transition herself — from practicing lawyer to enterprise leader at GE. That means the coaching speaks your partners’ language and respects how a partnership actually makes decisions. The capability is learnable; what is required is the decision to develop it on purpose. Speak with us to scope the right engagement.

Most leadership development for legal teams stays at the level of content — a workshop, a reading list, a model on a slide. It is sound, and it rarely changes behavior, because the translation into a partner’s or general counsel’s daily decisions is left to chance.

JRA works the other direction. We begin with an objective read on a specific leader through an Executive Readiness Assessment or a Leadership Impact Snapshot, so development targets that person’s actual gaps rather than generic competencies. Then the work is applied to live situations through Executive Coaching.

The other difference is who delivers it. You work with Jack Ryan, who assessed and developed senior leaders as an Officer and CHRO at GE, and with Amber Kagan, who led law and compliance at the highest level inside the same company. You are not getting a junior consultant working from a playbook — you are getting two senior practitioners who have operated at the top of both the legal and enterprise worlds. If you want firm-wide reach as well, our Interactive Workshops bring intact teams a shared leadership framework in 90 minutes. Tell us your goal and we will tailor the approach.

Treating it purely as a hiring decision is exactly where boards get surprised. The strongest internal candidate is usually the best lawyer in the department — and being the best lawyer is no guarantee of being ready to run the function, manage a budget, and operate as a true member of the executive team.

General counsel succession is best handled as a development question well before it becomes a hiring question. An Executive Readiness Assessment gives the board and the sitting GC an objective view of whether a successor is ready — and, critically, what specific development would get them there. That turns a high-stakes bet into a deliberate plan with time to execute it.

If you are weighing more than one potential successor, or want to understand the bench across the whole legal function, Talent & Leadership Solutions provide a structured read on readiness and risk. The aim is to walk into the transition with confidence rather than instinct — and to develop the next leader on purpose rather than hope they grow into it. Start the conversation early; succession done well takes time.

All inquiries route directly to Jack Ryan. For senior legal professionals, assessment is led by Jack Ryan Advisory and development is delivered in partnership with Amber Kagan — so you get both an operating leader’s view of executive readiness and a legal leader’s fluency in your world.

Jack spent a 29-year career at GE as an Officer, Chief Learning Officer, head of the Crotonville Leadership Institute, and CHRO of GE Capital and GE Aviation, then served on the Management Committee of Rockefeller Capital Management as CHRO and later COO. Amber Kagan was Chief Compliance Officer and Global Head of Labor & Employment Law at GE, with nearly four decades at the highest levels of law, governance, and employment strategy.

This is senior-only, bespoke work. You are not handed to a junior team, and engagements are confidential by design — which matters when the subject is a named successor, a managing partner, or a sensitive transition. Whether the starting point is an Executive Readiness Assessment, Executive Coaching, or a broader look across the full suite of solutions, the first step is a direct conversation. Reach out and you will hear from Jack.