Hello from Heriot Brown - Autumn is here!

I hope you’re well and managed to take a break over the summer! The days are drawing in fast and it feels as though I’ll blink and it’ll be Christmas! But there’s lots going on between then and now!

I was recently reflecting on my 13th anniversary of working with in-house lawyers and how things have (or haven’t) changed – would love to hear your thoughts in the comments (or DM if you’d prefer)

Upcoming Events

• LegalGeek is coming up next week and tickets are free for in-house counsel. When I was at the event last year, I was a wee bit overwhelmed by the crowd and only ran into about 8 in-house counsel who were there, even though I knew many more were attending! Let me know if you’re planning on attending here and I’ll share my tips/access to the in-house community WhatsApp to help us meet up with each other.
• My Community Friend Tom Bangay at Juro (who else just flashed back to The Inbetweeners?!) shared their Draft Punk event with me and said I’m welcome to share with you –? Check out the agenda and register for your free ticket here. This is for in-house counsel only and places are limited! The event features practical sessions on negotiation, contract design, generative AI and more.
• HB Community Roundtables continue with Handling Burnout with Lisa-Marie Sikand and how to build your legal team from scratch as a sole counsel with Allia Khan.

Community Update

There’s lots going on so contact me for more information on community events, meet-ups and chats!

This week we held our second community yoga class and networking breakfast and love working on alternative events – It’s also helping me with my New Year’s Resolution – would love to hear about yours and how they’re going (spoiler mine isn’t going to plan but it’s a start!)

Is there anything else that you would like us to arrange? All ideas welcome!

Top Content Picks

Lessons I Learned in Law Podcast has had some cracking episodes recently!

• Ailsa Longmuir on how lawyers are business enablers, not blockers
• Francesca Porter on being an airbag, not a seatbelt
• Maryam Ziarati McLoughlin on being personal and getting to know the individual

Lisa-Marie Sikand and I held the first session for Well-Being for Modern Leadership and here are some of the outcomes. The Legal Ops community came together to help advise on CLM/eBilling implementation and here are the key take-aways – let us know if you would appreciate some help/advice!

The Lawyer recently spoke out about “Clients don’t care about your PEP” – interested to hear what your thoughts are on this and what you would like to see private practice shout about that would attract you to them as a potential client?

I’m also always here to help so please feel free to reach out or pop a time in my diary to catch up too! Whether by phone, video or in-person (why not come to The Hoxton Southwark for a coffee ?!) it’s always a pleasure to find out what’s happening in the community and where I might be able to help!

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All the best,

Emma

P.S if you like reading the ramblings of an In-House Head of Community each month, please subscribe!