Over a decade ago, leading a team of in-house lawyers at a top national law firm seemed unimaginable. Yet here we are.
So, what’s next for in-house lawyers? Here are my 7 strategies for success:
- Understand and Integrate Business Strategy: It’s simple – your legal advice must drive business strategy. Embrace and integrate business strategy into your team and legal operations. This fosters strategic thinking at all levels and ensures that your advice is practical and aligned with business goals.
- Know Your Client and Collaborate: Invest time to understand your client’s business and partner with the relevant business areas, e.g. IT, Procurement, HR. This collaboration helps provide contextualised advice and practical mitigations to support strategic decision making.
- Optimise Legal Operations with Data: Build an efficient legal operations model and collect data on different work types and business areas. Use this data to gain insights, shape your operations and align your resources with strategic needs. Implement tools like playbooks, template contracts, process maps and technology for contract management and workflow automation to standardise and streamline processes.
- Deliver Clear Actionable Advice: Avoid legalese! Your colleagues need clear, concise advice in plain English. Use headline summaries to make your advice easy to understand and actionable, enhancing the client experience.
- Stay Engaged and Proactive: Regularly meet with key stakeholders to stay updated on business developments to build trusting relationships. Encourage your team to join project groups to proactively advise on legal issues and provide strategic input.
- Horizon Scan: Know the upcoming legal and regulatory changes that will impact your client’s business. This will enhance strategic planning and decision making to ensure your client’s business remains compliant. This also helps build confidence amongst key stakeholders, showcasing your commitment to protecting your client.
- Leadership: People are at the heart of any successful team – they’re an invaluable asset. Small gestures of appreciation can go a long way. So, it’s ever more important to support and invest in them. Reflect on your leadership style and find ways to lead and manage your team most effectively, you undoubtedly see great results!
Final Thoughts:
The role of In-House Counsel continues to evolve. The key to thriving in a dynamic environment like this is to continuously adapt, innovate and lead with a strategic mindset. Embrace these strategies, and you’ll not only enhance your legal team’s impact but also contribute to the broader success of your organisation.
By Gurdeep Singh Plahe, In-House Legal Manager at Irwin Mitchell and Committee Member of Birmingham Law Society In-House Lawyers Committee