General Counsel & Executive Coach

Edward is the Chief Legal Officer and Secretary for Clopay Corporation (a Griffon Corporation company, NYSE: GFF), the leading manufacturer of sectional garage and rolling door products with over $1.6BN in annual revenue. Edward serves on the Clopay leadership team and has grown and improved its in-house team of attorneys and paralegals for over a decade. Before moving in-house, Edward was a commercial litigator in several large law firms in Chicago, including Jenner & Block and Greenberg Traurig.

Among his achievements is successfully transitioning from the courtroom to the boardroom, landing his first in-house role as Litigation Counsel for JLG Industries, Inc. (the $3BN leading manufacturer of aerial work platforms and telehandlers; NYSE: OSK), and then growing and leveraging his corporate generalist skill set to manage JLG's legal department. Leveraging his creativity and soft skills along with a voracious interest in learning and growth, he was able to position himself as the ideal candidate for a corporate role despite having strictly a litigation and regulatory background. His in-house career took off from there, as he now sits as general counsel for an international manufacturer.

In addition to his legal practice, Edward is an executive coach with Sidebar Counseling, where he applies his long history of mentoring and coaching law students, attorneys, and professionals in other fields. Edward helped several attorneys transition from outside counsel to successfully practicing as in-house counsel, law students apply for and succeed in all manner of legal practice (including resume review and interview techniques), and provided guidance to individuals in various corporate functions over the course of his career.  Given his passion for teaching, Edward also served as a Jessup Moot Court coach for law students at Loyola University in Chicago, Ohio State University, and St. Augustine University in Tanzania.

Services Offered: Executive coaching