Becoming a High-Impact Commercial Lawyer and Leader
Any lawyer who’s made the leap from private practice to in-house law knows the challenge. While the two functions might seem similar, in reality, there are key differences and a unique skill set is required.
Competing interests, endless demands across an organisation, and the need to prioritise effectively, make an in-house legal role highly demanding.
So, what does it take to be a high impact, commercial lawyer and team leader? We’re covering the key attributes required to succeed.
The Fundamental Difference: Private Practice vs In-House Law
In private practice, typically, the focus is on solving problems as they arrive on our desk to the best of your ability.
In-house practice differs significantly. Internal legal teams often have to juggle many competing issues and demands from stakeholders across the organisation, across multiple channels of communication (including in-person) with no clear path on which should be completed first.
This makes working as an in-house lawyer a unique and demanding role.
Problem Solving to Thrive as an In-House Lawyer
Succeeding as an in-house lawyer means not just having the technical legal skills and experience, but having key ‘commercial’ attributes necessary to work in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment. One of which is the ability to continually problem solve.
Jennifer Mulheron, Harrison.ai said, “Problem-solving skills are the day-to-day bread and butter of what we do. A lot of what comes across my desk are not problems that I’ve solved before but i can utilise my problem-solving skills to find a path forward”.
It’s not just immediate problems that need to be solved as an in-house lawyer, but potential future ones too.
Pete Hamblin, SEEK highlights the importance of being proactive. “You’ll allocate time for proactive work no one asked you to do. That way you see your role as proactive not reactive to avoid future issues no one else can see yet”.
Adding Critical Value: Laser Focus & Prioritisation
It’s also essential to align problem-solving skills with the objectives of the business, to provide maximum commercial impact.
“What’s definitely critical is understanding your relevant company’s strategic objectives. What does the company actually want to do for the next 12, 18, 24 months? What’s the roadmap?” said Jennifer Mulheron.
Answering these questions can help you to prioritise effectively among endless, competing interests.
Georgie Gane, Law Squared said. “I’ve found that the teams who added the most value are those who understand the bigger picture and are able to have laser focus on where they can add the most value. They build relationships with stakeholders and they work with the business rather than on the business”.
To deeply understand the organisations objectives, it’s necessary to build strong relationships with teams. That includes studying the business strategy, aligning with business interests, and asking to sit in on meetings whether they be product, marketing or sales, across the organisation.
Make Data-Driven Decisions & Automate for Efficiency
To have maximum impact, it’s also essential to measure your actions, consider where you can move the dial most for the business and ensure that’s where you spend the majority of your time. That means making data-driven decisions.
Measuring success as an in-house lawyer can be challenging, but there are tools - such as spreadsheets, time trackers, and feedback forms that can be used to see where value is being added. These can be reviewed and used in feedback loops to boost efficiency.
Pete Hamblin said measuring success is essential. “You do have to look at data. Find a way to measure, and then re-measure over time. Importantly, what you should be seeing is time spent on the key things that will move the dial”.
With endless competing interests for the in-house lawyer, it’s also important to avoid getting stuck in the weeds. Your team is there to spot issues, solve problems and offer critical advice, not get slowed down by endless admin tasks.
Finding the right legal tech solution that captures data for you, and streamlines manual tasks can prevent you, and your team from getting lost in legal minutia. This helps boost the efficiency and effectiveness of your team.
Powering Your High-Impact Team
Ultimately, successful in-house lawyers focus on problem-solving, effective prioritisation, building strong relationships across the business and proactive ways of working.
As a team leader, it’s essential to choose team members with those core attributes - beyond their technical legal skills and legal experience.
To elevate your legal capabilities, your in-house team may also benefit from a scalable extension to your team to manage BAU work, such as Law Squared as a Service (LSaaS), which helps you focus on the high-impact, maximum-value tasks that will move the needle for the organisation.
Watch our webcast Beyond Legal: What it really means to be a ‘commercial’ in-house lawyer here.