You’ve been a deputy general counsel, served at the right hand of the GC, and know the business—are you ready to take the next rung of the in-house career ladder? In this episode of The Legal Department, Candace Jackson dives into her journey from deputy general counsel to general counsel of a newly public company. She discusses how deputies can position themselves for GC roles, from optimizing LinkedIn profiles to showcasing relevant industry expertise. In the Office Hours segment, Candace offers actionable advice for navigating career development roadblocks, especially when working under a boss who may be holding you back. Whether you’re a deputy looking to grow or an in-house counsel aspiring for the top, this episode is packed with insights tailored to your journey.
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About Candace Jackson
As SVP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Silvaco, Candace provides strategic, business-centric, cross-border legal advice across the full spectrum of legal issues while also playing a pivotal role in supporting Silvaco’s continued global expansion and innovation initiatives.
Before joining Silvaco, she served as Deputy General Counsel of global semiconductor design firm Synaptics Incorporated, where she oversaw the legal function and counseled the business on a wide range of legal issues. Ms. Jackson also served as Assistant General Counsel of US Foods Holding Corp., a national food distribution company, where she was instrumental in leading the company’s IPO and the exit of its controlling stockholders, while also establishing its securities and corporate governance function. In private practice, Ms. Jackson was a senior associate in the capital markets practice of law firm Mayer Brown LLP where she provided securities and corporate governance counsel and led capital raising transactions for public companies of all sizes. There, she helped to build the firm’s Public Companies and Corporate Governance practice.
Transcript
On this episode, I’m excited to welcome Candace Jackson, who is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Silvaco. We are going to be talking about how she’s moved from Deputy General Counsel to General Counsel of a public company, which is not a small feat. We are going to be talking about how the job is different, what she expected, what it turned out to be. It’s part of the larger series that I have done on deputies. I’m excited, Candace, to talk about your experience.
I’m excited to be here. Thank you.
Candice Jackson’s Legal Career Journey
I gave a little bit of a teaser, and we know each other through the Ready Set GC program, but I know a little bit about it. You don’t fall into a public company GC role. They don’t hand those out, especially for folks who are not already sitting GCs, which is, as we know, a high hurdle to cross. Let’s not go deep on your career journey, but I want to know more about your in-house role and your job as Deputy GC of Synaptics. To me, as I looked at your experience, it seemed like a mini GC role. Can you talk a little bit about what you did there?
I was hired by the previous General Counsel who, when he interviewed me, told me right up front, “I plan to retire in the next 3 to 5 years, and I can’t make any promises, but I would love to hire my successor.” His goal right off the bat in hiring me was to teach me how to do his job. I came on board as Assistant General Counsel and for corporate. I was the sole attorney responsible for corporate governance, SEC reporting, and M&A.
Can I ask you how many were on the team?
We had a small legal team. Other than the General Counsel, eight of us, so it was a relatively small team. Not all were lawyers, so there were two patent engineers. There was one legal assistant. We were a relatively small team when it came down to attorneys, and most of the attorneys were either IP or commercial. When it came to everything else, it was me and the GC. We were quite a team. We were a two-person team, and we approached the department leadership in that way.
He truly made me his right-hand person. I started every morning in his office. We would spend about an hour talking about what’s going on at the company. Our personalities complimented each other because he wasn’t as outgoing, and I’m the office butterfly. I would be with the people, talking to people. People would stop me and ask questions or say something came up, and so I would have my finger on the pulse of the business.
You were his eyes and ears.
I was his eyes and ears. I’d sit down with him every morning. I’d tell him what has bubbled up to me in the last 24 hours. He would tell me what’s bubbled up to him in the last 24 hours, and then we’d divide and conquer. We figure out who’s doing what, and then we’d go off and do it. It was a great synergy, and it allowed me to have broad leadership over whatever it was that I was going to be doing that day.
We’d talk about it in advance, and I’d say, “This is what I’m thinking. This is how I’m going to approach it.” He’d say, “That sounds great. I like that approach,” and then I’d go off and do it. People started to see me as an extension of him. Our schedules were even complimentary of each other because he was a very early riser. He’d be in the office at 5:00 AM. We would be the only ones there for hours.
I don’t know much about Synaptics. Is it a global company?
It is a global company, yes.
Then that worked well.
It worked well because he was the early riser. I was the night owl. When he would go offline around 7:00 PM, then I took over the night shift, and I would stay up until about 1:00. There were only four hours a day that the company didn’t have high-level legal coverage.
I think there’s a lot of glamour in being part of a global legal team, and this sounds a little crazy to me. The night shift is like there’s a third shift in the legal department.
Part of that was me. I’m a night owl, and if there was something important happening, then I’d make myself available. I’d be willing to have calls with Europe or Asia at 10:00 PM because I’m up, and why not?
This sounds like a unique position that you had at Synaptics. You got behind the curtain about what the GC role is. I want to shift a little bit to your job, and I want to talk about how you got it because again, that is such a high bar. Since you were close with the GC and had a bird’s-eye view into what the job is, what’s been surprising about you now that you are officially in the chair?
I would say the things that have surprised me have not been necessarily related to the work itself. I do feel very well prepared for that. What has been surprising for me, and I don’t know, to what extent other women lawyers face this, but I have had a few instances where, men in particular, from the outside, sometimes try to circumvent my authority and go directly to my boss or question the decisions that I have made, and that’s been the biggest challenge. You think that like once you are in that position, there’s a certain difference that comes with that, and there’s not. That’s been surprising for me, and the amount of work you have to do to maintain your credibility. It was a surprise to me, for sure.
Maintain your credibility – it's a surprise how much work that takes! Share on XLet’s set the table a little bit about Silvaco. It is a company that’s been around since the ‘80s. Did I read correctly that there wasn’t in-house legal before? There wasn’t a GC before you got there?
There wasn’t a GC, but they have had a head of legal for at least the last several years. I’m aware of three other heads of legal. They had a VP position that was head of legal, but in all of those cases, they were the sole lawyer at the company. I believe it was reported to the CEO. I do think that they had that reporting structure, but they were in more of a commercial role. Now that the company is a public company. It’s a newly public company, and the role has changed a lot. It is a true general counsel role now, so I’m the first general counsel of Silvaco.
Maybe that’s part of it. Maybe it’s not because you are a woman or whatever, but maybe part of it is culturally they viewed it as legal help like you are getting stuff done, and now you are truly in an executive role.
This is not coming from internal people. These are external people. These are service providers. These are vendors.
They are used to having their cozy relationships with folks, and you’ll just have to show them what the real deal is.
That’s a transition coming in and saying, “No, I get to be the decision-maker on these things,” and trying to transition people from seeking outside advice to start with me, and then it branches out from there. That’s been a little bit of an education internally as well, and it’s a culture shift for the internal team to know that there is a competent lawyer internally that they can come to first with their questions. That’s something that I knew coming in, and I knew it would take some time to transition, but I was surprised by the external people who make me work for my credibility, for sure.
A lot of people can relate to that. I was the first in-house GC at my company, and people have done things. Your company is around 40 years old. Those people have had relationships for a long time, and they are like, “What is this?” Now I have another layer?” It is something people have to get used to. That’s probably pretty similar.
You seem like you were probably pretty GC-ready, and I want to talk about you. From following you, I know that you have done a lot of work even outside of what sounds like the incredible mentorship you had at your prior company. Can we talk a little bit about where you have gotten those resources and built networks? I want to talk about some of your in-house networks like the L Suite and Tech GC, but maybe talk about how you’ve approached your professional development.
Building Confidence And Finding Your Voice
For most of my career, I viewed myself as a securities and corporate governance lawyer. One organization that I was involved in was the Society for Corporate Governance. When I transitioned into my role at Synaptics, it was my first tech role, and I joined the L Suite, which at the time was Tech GC. I would say my involvement in both organizations everyone pinpoints networking as the driving force for participating in those organizations but for me, what was the most important thing that I got out of them was they were spaces where I was able to build my confidence and find my voice. They were spaces where I felt like I could contribute to the conversation. I could share my perspective. Over time, I was asked to speak on panels and take on more leadership opportunities, and that transitioned over into my work.
One thing my former CEO would say to me as a deputy was that what he wanted to see was he wanted to see me speak up in meetings. He wanted to see me contribute a perspective. That was a skill that I honed specifically in those organizations. Having the confidence to know like, “I have something to say. Let me raise my hand and share it.” That translated directly to my work and is an important tool that you can sharpen when you are participating and volunteering in these organizations.
Did you make that connection consciously? Did you get that feedback and then say, “Here’s this way for me to build my confidence?” Were you already doing those conferences and taking those opportunities, and then you realized that you were getting something more out of it?
It’s the latter. I jumped into it and took it as an opportunity to develop a community and be a part of a community, and when I did that, I found that I was finding my voice and I was because people who know me well, never believe me when I say this but I’m an introvert, and I’m quite shy.
I don’t know you that well, and that’s a surprise to me too.
People don’t believe it, but it’s true. Once I saw myself being seen as someone who is confident and who is certainly not shy about sharing their perspective, I realized I had grown so much being part of these organizations.
The episode’s not out, but I did an episode with a former general counsel. He’s doing a coaching practice now, and the whole topic was executive presence. We talked about how building that confidence is a core part of the executive presence. It’s interesting for me to hear that and when you say your CEO said the advice he or she wanted you to speak up in meetings and have a perspective, that is one of the core parts of EP. It’s a through line here in the legal department for people.
I want to talk about how you got this job. I don’t think that there’s anybody reading who thinks that getting a public company GC role is a layup. I have talked to a lot of in-house lawyers, a lot of GCs, and people at brand-name private companies sitting GC roles are struggling to get a public company role. I want to talk about, and I know a little bit from our prior conversations about your journey to that but how did you approach getting this job? What did you do to prepare? How did you go about networking, or how did you land it?
The Importance Of Industry Experience
I hate when people say things like it’s just sometimes it’s luck, and sometimes it’s a little bit of serendipity. In my case, there’s some of that. I don’t know if it was luck, but I found myself in an industry like a niche industry of semiconductors. My company is a semiconductor design and manufacturing software company. We make software for the larger companies that design and manufacture semiconductors.
We are in this vertical of the semiconductor industry. When my company, which is a very small company in this industry went public and they were looking for a general counsel, they were open to a first-time general counsel but it was important to them to have somebody who had industry experience and understood the business.
In a sense, carving out a niche for yourself or finding yourself in an industry. The semiconductor industry, the vertical, is large but there are not that many companies. The pool of candidates, if industry experience is important, the pool of candidates is not going to be massive and so, being somebody who is in a senior legal position in the industry and would be willing to take a chance on a smaller, newly public company, it put me in a in the right place at the right time for this position.
Did it come to you from a recruiter?
It did. They used a search firm, and so this recruiter found me on LinkedIn. They weren’t referred to me by anyone in particular. They found me on LinkedIn while doing a search at different semiconductor companies, and they were looking for somebody with public company experience, someone who understood SEC reporting and corporate governance and like I said, I have up until my time at Synaptics, my whole resume is SEC reporting and corporate governance and stuff. I was their girl.
In a sense, there was this serendipitous element of it. I do think that having the confidence to be able to say, “I’m ready for this role. I have a perspective on things.” They had some concerns and key characteristics that they were looking for in a candidate, and that confidence and perspective spoke to what they were looking for and so, part of it was also developing that skillset, that confidence, and that executive presence but it was a little bit of serendipity.
Preparation meets opportunity, let’s call it that way. I want to just shout out that I did an episode with Brittney McDonough, who’s a recruiter at BarkerGilmore. For folks who want some real blocking and tackling on how to position yourself as a deputy to be ready for a GC role, that’s Episode 49. It dovetails with what you are talking about, which is being able to sell the skills that meet the job requirements. It sounds like you have the industry experience and exactly the technical expertise.
I don’t want to discount. You did prepare through the relationship you had with your prior GC and the work you did through the L Suite, Tech GC, and those programs. I know you were making a transition from Synaptics to Silvaco. What did you do to prepare for this role? Coming in as the first in-house GC of a newly public company, that’s a big leap.
Transitioning From Private To Public Company
One thing I will say in my law firm life, I did advise a lot of pre-IPO and newly public companies. Often, they did not have any in-house counsel. My clients were the CFO and the CEO, and I had a little bit of experience with what the particular issues are at newly public companies as they struggle with that transition from going from private to public.
Can we talk about what those are? That’s a concrete thing we could share with folks.
A few things. Number one would be maturing their board of directors. A lot of newly public companies have boards that are made up of a mix of experienced and first-time directors so, there are often a lot of questions about governance, structure, transitioning getting on a good cadence, and what is required to do. There are a lot of governance and housekeeping needs that newly public companies have.
There are often a lot of questions about all of the new public company rules. What is this blackout list? Why am I on it? How come I can’t sell my shares? How come we can’t share information the way we used to share information? There’s a culture shift that has to happen when companies go from private to public.
Are you involved in that now in your company, or was it all set up for you when you got there?
I’m involved in it. I would say a lot of the hard part happened after I came on board because they had their lockup from the IPO, so people weren’t thinking about selling shares before I joined the company and then I joined, the lockup period ended, and we had our first open trading window and then our first closed trading window. There were some of those issues.
I would say Silvaco has done a great job of making the transition. We are a smaller company, it’s got about 280 employees, so we are a smaller company. There are fewer people to bring along. When you are a much larger organization, it can be a little bit more of a challenge, but because we are such a small company, they have done a good job, and people are excited about this next phase of being a public company and so, I have been able to leverage that excitement to get people on board with the changes.
The company culture is such a big part of how you can succeed in the role, and it’s great that you already have the pump primed. Let me shift a little bit. You are the GC now. Are you looking to hire? If so, do you have a different perspective on filling the seats now that you are the GC?
I am looking to hire one lawyer, but I expect that as the company continues to grow and revenue continues to grow, the legal team will have to grow. We’ll grow with the company. I look at it a little bit differently now, in part because we are such a small team and because, well, we are such a small company and because I am used to being on a small team where I wear a lot of hats anyway. It’s been a little bit of a challenge for me to figure out even what I would need in another attorney and what I would be able to hire in another attorney. I’m also younger, so a lot about hiring someone my vintage or more senior and what that dynamic would be like, which I never had to think about as a deputy general counsel. Now I have to think about that and whether because I am new in this role, I don’t plan to retire anytime soon. What development opportunities I can provide to someone who is where I was a couple of years ago?
I would think though, with a company that has a small legal team, a global company, there’s plenty to do. Even if there’s not a big career ladder or a long career ladder for folks, getting those technical skills and exposure to different parts of the business is a huge development opportunity. Don’t sell it short. You don’t have the high ladder yet.
That’s what I have been thinking, is that this is a great opportunity for someone who wants to come in, who wants to broaden their skill set and take on more areas of responsibility than what they have had in the past. Someone who wants to come in and slowly add management experience, because as the team grows, there’s an opportunity for someone to grow into a leadership position and so, that’s what I have to offer someone as a potential DGC. I’m excited about that. I’m excited about the growth opportunity. It’s a growth opportunity for me as well to be able to develop someone and provide that career development. I’m excited about it.
I have to say, my favorite role on a team to recruit for is the number two deputy because the technical folks, I find, can get their little niche and they want to do that niche. To get somebody more of a generalist that wants to help you carry the load is such a pleasure to have somebody like that and I don’t know, I want to explore a little bit if you feel the way I have felt, which is that the GC role can be lonely sometimes and so, I have appreciated having deputies that I could lean on.
I would agree. My department is structured. It’s me and my paralegal.
That’s how I started too. That was my first recruit.
It’s me and my paralegal. I told her when I started, “You are my number two.” She’s my Fort Knox. She’s the person that I can talk to about not everything, but a lot of things but I agree. Having somebody who can be a true number two, that you can lean on and have someone to share the experience with. I would like to hope that my former general counsel got that from the relationship with me. Part of our one hour every morning together was a little gossip.
He and I would talk about who said what to whom yesterday. It was important for him to have somebody he could share that with and not have to sit with it himself. I agree, and I do find it a little bit lonely, but I’m excited to have the opportunity in the future to have a partner in crime that I can bring on board and teach the ropes the way that I was mentored in my last role.
Even if you don’t have that deputy yet, I hope you are finding some support through networks or whatnot. I have what I call my coffee clutch of other health system GCs, and we get together periodically. There’s a therapy component to those relationships in addition to sharing knowledge.
I do have a similar group of women GCs that I meet with monthly, and we support each other. We offer each other advice when dealing with political or interpersonal issues like, “How would you handle this?” That’s important to have, so I agree.
Let’s pause now and recognize we are connected through the Ready Set GC program, which, for folks who don’t know, is a program that develops women General Counsel. Candace and I are both working on a program for deputies, which is how we are connected. That building network is a big part of that program.
I would say it’s so important to have that network of women or not women that you can go to for guidance. This job is difficult. It’s political in a way that my previous position as a DGC was not. I do think my GC provided a lot of air cover for me and shielded me from things that I’m now finding are part of the day-to-day job.
The DGC Position And Its Importance
Let’s talk about that a little bit. Back on the topic of what surprised you. I feel like people might be irritated that I keep saying this, but I feel like the role of general counsel is viewed as the brass ring, the thing we’re reaching for from an achievement perspective. It’s very different from any other role. Let’s talk about the political component because some people can get tripped up by that, not expecting it. It’s not just about giving legal advice and helping the business facilitate transactions. When you say political, what do you mean?
Political, I don’t mean Dems and Republicans. There’s the tact you have to have in picking your battles, deciding when to address things and when not to, and getting pulled into conflict with other people. Whose side are you going to take? Who are you going to support, and who are you not? That is all part of the position that I never had to deal with as a Deputy General Counsel. All I had to do was make people feel heard, make them feel like they were getting great legal and business advice needed, and that my General Counsel looked good. That was my job. Now, I have to think about these things. If two executives are disagreeing and both come to me to forum shop, or someone gets advice from someone else and comes to me to forum shop, that happens a lot.
How you handle that is part of the politics. How you communicate with your CEO is part of the politics. How you build a relationship with your CFO is part of the politics. Whether or not your head of sales feels like his team is supported by your team is part of the politics. That was part of the job I was shielded from in my previous role.
I want to take a step back to the DGC position. I remember when one of my very close friends got her first public company GC position. She confided in me that one of the DGCs had applied for the job, was upset they didn’t get the job, and was doing things to undermine her. For me as a DGC, I always took my role seriously. My job was to make sure my boss looked good. That was 100% my job.
When my former General Counsel retired and the company hired a new CLO, I took that position seriously as well. Her smooth transition was my responsibility. I worked hard to make sure that the transition went well for her. My message to deputies would be that’s part of politics too. You get exposed to it during transitions. How you handle it speaks volumes about your preparation for being a General Counsel. If you can’t be gracious and work hard for someone even when they have what you want, then you’re not ready for this job.
If you can’t be gracious and work hard for someone even when they have what you want, then you’re not ready for this job as General Counsel. Share on XThat’s part of the politics you can prepare for in your role. How you handle it speaks volumes.
It’s another management challenge. How do you motivate people? Now you have the specific problem of someone who is incredibly disappointed and maybe resentful. How do you get that person back rowing the boat, or get them out of the boat, or get him out of the valley?
As the deputy, like I said, this is your first foray into the politics of that higher level. It’s an opportunity to show real growth, leadership, and maturity in how you handle it. If you handle it by undermining the successor, you’re not ready for the role. If you handle it with grace and take responsibility for helping them transition smoothly, that’s a sign you’re ready to take the next step.
We need to manage ourselves. I’m going to switch to a new segment of the show that I’m calling Office Hours. I get a lot of listener questions through LinkedIn or otherwise from other people who are in-house, and I thought you’d be a great person to ask this question, especially given that you’ve had this strong mentoring relationship with your former GC.
The reader asked, “I have been at my company for several years in the same role and have assumed some increasing responsibilities, but I’m eager to do more and hopefully get promoted. I’m well-liked and receive positive feedback from my boss and our executive team. When I have asked about opportunities for growth and promotion, my boss struggles. I’m not the most senior person on the team, and my boss has said that any promotions will be based on tenure. What should I do?”
Advice For The Listener
My advice to anyone, whether it’s a very large legal department where you are one of hundreds and trying to find opportunities to grow and advance, or a smaller team where you are one of the junior people, is always to show interest and have curiosity about what other people do and make yourself available. For example, if you are a corporate lawyer, if you are a transactional lawyer and you are curious about IP, go to the head of IP and let them know that you are curious and would love to help out on a project sometime if they need an extra body on something. If there’s an M&A transaction and you are the M&A lawyer, and you know that they are doing IP diligence, ask if you can help out. Ask if they have their diligence checklist that you can take a look at, and maybe you can help the patent portfolio for the target company.
I would say be curious and look for opportunities to help on projects because when there is an opportunity that comes up, when there’s an opening on another team, or when they need someone to take ownership of something that no one else has the bandwidth to take ownership for, they will remember the people who were curious, proactive, and showed interest.
I would say, always look for opportunities outside of your wheelhouse, especially if you want to be a general counsel. Don’t stay in your niche, look for opportunities outside of your wheelhouse where you can be helpful, where you can learn something because you don’t have to be responsible for it to learn it, and so, look for opportunities to be on projects and to be helpful because those are the people who get the opportunities later.
Look for opportunities outside your wheelhouse, especially if you want to be a general counsel. Don't stay in your niche. Learn something new because you don't have to be responsible for it to learn it. Share on XWe can get so focused on the flashy titles or whatever to get a promotion, but as your career trajectory has shown, having the technical expertise, having experience in the industry is what helped you position for that next role. I agree that there are always opportunities, even if it’s not about getting the next rung on the ladder. Candace, I have enjoyed getting to know you better, and I’m sure that Silvaco is very lucky to have you in this new role. I close all episodes with the same final question which is what is your pump-up song?
My pump-up song, I Love Girls Who Run The World by Beyoncé. That’s one of my pump-up songs.
Who runs the world?
Girls.
Thanks for being in the show. I enjoyed it.
Thank you. I enjoyed it as well. Thanks.
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Candace Jackson Baseball Stats.
My name is Candace Jackson. I am the Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary of Silvaco. A fun fact about me is I am an avid potter. I love to make pottery, all sorts of things, but mostly bowls, jars, and dishware.
