Goalkeeping in a Pandemic: What In-House Lawyers can do when things feel out of control

As the Covid-19 crisis drags on, I'm becoming concerned about a few emerging issues for in-house lawyers.  One in particular is the increased pressure many lawyers are feeling in playing the 'goalkeeper' role for their organisation. 

Why 'goalkeeper'?  Well, much of the time that's exactly what the job feels like. You need to keep your organisation out of trouble. You cannot stand by and ignore errors and risks. You're a safe pair of hands, and you have a good view of the field. 

But you don't get much margin for error.  You're frequently rushing to solve problems that other people haven't dealt with, it's not always clear when benign situations might spiral out of control, and sometimes you're fending off a barrage of issues. And if you make a mistake, it can be a disaster. 

That's OK – it's what makes in-house life so interesting.  But in the Covid-19 crisis, three things seem to be happening simultaneously for in-house goalkeepers:  

• First, there's a spike in work: more requests for advice, more demands for review of contracts, more things going wrong on deals. (More shots on goal... you can deal with that).   
• Next, there's different kinds of work – questions you've never seen before, colleagues contacting you who don't normally work with legal, and areas of law becoming relevant that you're not particularly confident with. (The goal you're defending just got bigger... that's challenging). 
• But then to really complicate your situation, the executive wants you to do stuff that isn't normally part of your role - join a crisis management team, lead the implementation of new technology, prepare a business continuity plan, propose measures to reduce headcount. Some of these opportunities can be brilliant for your career. But to have this happen right now?  It feels like the organisation literally built another couple of goals on the pitch, and asked you to mind those as well.   

The combination of those three things is pretty stressful. Now imagine your view of the field becomes obscured (working from home), some of your players aren't there (sick leave, personal crises), the organisation throws in a total freeze on spending, and you’re trying to juggle all this around your own personal challenges.  It's understandable to feel overwhelmed - and it's a particularly nasty situation for sole counsel, and those with very small teams. 

So what can you do?   

Not surprisingly, I don't have a magic answer to this – but it's definitely worth focusing on the following areas: 

1. If you have a team, delegate.  That sounds obvious... but crisis situations expose and amplify our bad habits. If you're drowning in work and not delegating enough, it may be due to thoughts like: "this is just too important to delegate", "Bob hasn't worked with the Exco before", "the CEO asked me to deal with this personally", or "my team are way too stressed". Can you change those unhelpful patterns of thinking? If podcasts are your thing, this one from the Manager Tools podcast helped me enormously in changing my approach: Delegating to the Floor. 
2. Prioritise like your life depends on it.  Regardless what medium you use, simply stopping to write down a list of your issues and flagging the ones that are the biggest problem can be hugely valuable. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of email, and the underlying sense of unease that we're all feeling. But even at the most difficult times, there's an order of importance even among the most critical matters – and there's only one of you. 
3. Write down the very next step. David Allen's book Getting Things Done is famous for good reason. For me, the single most important point in the book is that if you can define the next step you need to take on a task, then you've got something you can do to move it forward. And the feeling of empowerment you get from simply taking action is huge. 
4. Challenge your 'quality' mindset. A key skill in in-house practice is to triage how much time to spend on any given task. Most of us don't get into legal practice to put our name to makeshift drafting, but sometimes, that's what it takes to get a deal closed. Some things matter enormously. Some things don't. You'll certainly have an internal 'threshold' which dictates the amount of effort you put into any given task; in this situation, you might need to raise that threshold to a much less comfortable level. And in doing so, you might find it challenges some of your assumptions about how to be effective in your role. (By the way... your peers don't think you're lazy, or a sub-standard lawyer. That's your imposter syndrome talking.)   
5. Ask for help. It's easy to assume that everyone is incredibly busy at the moment, or to feel like you don't have a mentor to reach out to. In reality, people are usually delighted to help, and showing vulnerability is a massive investment in building trust – something that will pay off long after Covid-19 is gone. The best sources of advice will often come from unexpected places. The number of 2nd degree connections in your network is vast – and there's not many people who'd reject a simple request to share their thoughts on a problem. Ask for an introduction. 
6. Set expectations. Often when you're feeling overwhelmed, it's not through a lack of capability, or even capacity - it's because the requests are coming from your boss, from the executive, and from demanding clients, all at the same time. And none of them will be used to hearing "no". In a crisis, you want to be a team player, you want to accept the late-night calls, and you don't want to let anyone down. Yes, you need to work hard. Yes, this period is going to be really difficult. But defining some sensible boundaries and refusing to take on everything is a much better strategy than working yourself to death.  If you're dealing with demands you can't meet, then acknowledge them, say you can't meet them, and explain what you will do and by when. Examine your motives, too – are you reacting to something real? Or is it all about your fear of being criticised? 
7. Do your best. The Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented and devastating global situation, and it's very unclear how it's likely to play out. I think it's perfectly normal that anyone would be feeling anxious and uncertain, or even completely paralysed as to how to proceed. But one thing which invariably helps in a crisis is to feel that we're surrounded by good human beings who are trying their best. Be one of those people. Be brave, and use your best judgment. It's what people will value you for when this is done.  

It's clear that not everyone is going through the same experience at the moment. I'm speaking to lawyers whose work has barely changed, lawyers who are exhausted, lawyers who are worried about their jobs, and lawyers whose job is about the least of their worries right now.  The thinking above is what has helped me stay reasonably sane in-house, when I've run into situations I didn't know how to handle. I hope some of it resonates for others who are finding the current environment hard going. 

Some further places you may want to look to for help in these areas: 

• Manager Tools have published an entire podcast series on managing effectively through Covid-19.  I've trusted Mark and Mike's guidance for well over a decade on how to lead, manage, and deal with the most difficult situations. It's an incredible resource, and it's completely free.  
• LOD's Anthony Wright recently shared some excellent thoughts on how in-house teams can take positive action despite the difficult situation we're in. How can you be proactive instead of reactive?  If you must reduce costs, what are some ways in which you might change how you provide legal support?  What does 'best practice' really look like?  And what if you're stressed because you're not busy enough?  If you're after some more guidance, you can find it here: Prove how valuable you are. 

If you have other thoughts on this, aspects I've missed, or good resources that people can turn to for help - please do share them. This really is a time when your network can benefit from your strengths.