In-House Legal Departments: Two factors determine your strategic success

At some point, each in-house lawyer has made the decision to be an in-house lawyer. Whether you moved from private practice (most often) or went to an in-house role straight from law school (less often), something called each and every one of you to make that choice.

This choice could well be because you love business / enterprise / the commercial world; the machinations of the corporate world can be fascinating, the possibilities endless and the sheer diversity of legal work within that context thrilling. As in-house lawyers, your role in helping an organization to achieve its commercial goals is critical, and the intellectual joy of being at the center of big commercial initiatives a key driver of professional satisfaction.

Ensuring that the delivery of legal work has the highest and most relevant impact on your organization’s strategic goals requires two critical factors:?

1. Know the business goals of your organization

Seems obvious? A recent survey of in-house legal teams revealed that more than half are not ‘very’ familiar with the strategic goals of their organization.

It’s easy enough to do. On a day-to-day basis you can get caught up in the whirlwind of legal requests coming from your business clients, turning things around as quickly as possible and ensuring that the wheels of business continue to turn.

However, you risk being the hamster in the wheel if you do not prioritize work in a manner consistent with your organization’s strategic goals. Imagine a world in which you frantically turn contracts around for a part of the business that has been slated for closure. It matters not how hard you work, or even how efficient you are – your strategic impact will not be maximized.

Instead, by having intimate familiarity with the goals, you will be able to:

• Immediately understand, rate and prioritize your legal work for where it will have the highest strategic impact;
• Tailor your legal work so that it hits the nail perfectly on the head of each strategic goal.

It bears repeating: take the time to find and familiarize yourself with your organization’s strategic goals. You will be a far more effective in-house lawyer because of it.

2. Deliver legal work in the most efficient and effective manner possible

To provide fantastic legal advice and service, you must ensure that your legal department runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible. To achieve this, the legal team must have its own strategic plan.

The results of a recent poll of in-house legal teams on this issue were less surprising, but no less concerning. Results show that more than three quarters of legal teams have not prepared a strategic plan for their in-house legal teams in the past two years, and more than half have not done one at all.

A strategic plan will help you to map out where you need to be and how you will get there. It will ensure that you know the resources you need to execute on your plan and how you will measure your success to ensure that you remain accountable – to yourself, your team and your organizational stakeholders.

It doesn’t need to be difficult – try building your legal strategic-plan-on-a-page here. To ensure that you are delivering strategically for your organization, you need to take the time to work smarter, not harder.

At Xakia we are passionate about ensuring our customers maximize impact within their organizations. We want our in-house legal teams to be admired for their efficiency, effectiveness and critical contribution to the commercial machine. Understanding the strategic impact of your work lies at the center of Xakia’s analytics to help you prioritize appropriately, and to demonstrate to your stakeholders that you understand the context within which legal work is delivered.

Want to see how? Start a free trial today.