Being the General Counsel for Corporations Lets You Experience All Aspects of the Law!

This week in the Law School Insider we had the pleasure of interviewing alumnus of Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, Ryan McKnight who acts as general counsel for Avasure. As a company Avasure develops, markets and deploys technology and educational tools that support the nursing profession in improving its practice environment. Ryan McKnight works in all aspects of legal oversight for the company, but this is not where he started his career, nor is it where he thought he would end up.

Before law school Ryan McKnight started working with a company that was working in freight. He started at the ground floor but worked hard and started moving up in the company. As he was there he started to learn more and dealing with import/export issues in freight. In the field that he came to a point where he realized he wanted to continue his education and WMU-Cooley was the best option as he planned to continue working while in law school. WMU-Cooley's flexibilty offered him the ability to continue working and to balance his personal life too.

Because he was working during law school he was able to use the knowledge he was attaining to give himself the ability to continue moving forward in his field. Towards the end of his law school career there was an opportunity to get an externship in Washington DC in a similar field, working with similar issues to what he was doing in his day-to-day work, but unfortunately this fell through. Instead, he ended up working for a family practitioner in areas of family law, criminal law, litigation and business LLC work. 

Ryan McKnight mentioned that he went from thinking that he was going to be working on macro economic trade relations issues to instead nitty-gritty family law.

After law school Ryan McKnight worked in a private practice for three years and then decided to branch out and find work in the corporate field. On a whim he had lunch with the CEP of Avasure as he wanted to ask questions about the corporate law. The CEP realized that Ryan McKnight had many of the skills that Avasure needed and they made him an offer, and he accepted the position.

Ryan McKnight now deals in every aspect of law within Avasure. In the time that he has been in his general counsel role at Avasure he has learned a few things about what is needed to be successful in the general counsel role. As a general counsel in a corporate environment you need to have:

1. The ability to pick up something and say "I may not know what the answer is but I am willing to figure it out."
2. The willingness to dive into every situation and get the job done.
3. The willingness to make a decision and move forward.

As Ryan McKnight thinks back on his own law school journey, the only thing that he stated that he wished that he had done was get more involved at his law school. He now sees how valuable involvement would have been, especially as it relates to learning how to better interact with a diverse group of people.

This led him to his last piece of advice that he shared with every one today. Network, Network, Network. In everything you do make sure that you are networking, building relationships, as these relationships will help you in so many ways in your career.

Did you like this interview? Do you have a question for Ryan McKnight? Leave a comment below to let me know!

Are you a practicing lawyer? A law student? Would you like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of the Law School Insider? Send me an email at lawschoolinsider@cooley.edu