Reflections on my first year as an in-house lawyer

It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since I left private practice to take up my first full-time in-house role as Head of Legal at Shieldpay .

Despite several in-house secondments and working with a variety of clients on an 'outsourced in-house' basis for many years, the move felt like a great leap into the unknown. Many questions abounded: Could I cut it? How would I be received by my team and the wider business ? Would my lack of FinTech experience prove fatal? If it wasn't for me, could I ever go back into private practice? And if I did, would I ever be able to get clients again?

Fortunately, I've not had to consider those final two questions just yet; so far, moving in-house feels like the best career decision I've ever made. Why didn't I do it sooner!?, I often ask.

With that, here are some reflections on my first year as an in-houser.

Less of a great leap, more of an adjustment

I'd heard accounts from several lawyers who made the switch and found it to be a shock to their system. Examples ranged from cultural differences (especially around attitudes to risk and autonomy), to the volume/velocity/variety of legal requests, to simply a lack of resource. Yes, it sometimes feels like drinking from a fire hydrant, but whether a result of working with fast-growth companies for most of my career, or perhaps because I'm a generalist who enjoys working in fast-paced environments, this thankfully hasn't been the case for me.

However, moving in-house has certainly been an adjustment in a few noticeable ways:

1. Being 'accountable' takes on a different meaning: As a private practice lawyer, I felt accountable for providing advice that wasn't negligent (mainly to my clients, but also to my firm) and producing deliverables that reflected my clients' instructions. In-house, I'm accountable not only for the outputs, but for the profile of the legal function within and outside the business (see more on the latter point below); ensuring that I understand the risk appetite of the business, and know enough about what's going on in different areas of the business, to see the angles and put my advice in context; and, ultimately, for ensuring that the investment the business has made in having a legal function is returned through a commensurate elimination/mitigation of legal risk (that last point has some nuances to it that I'll write about another time). If something that's within my sphere of influence goes south, I need to be prepared to take that on the chin if it couldn't reasonably have been prevented, and ensure that me and the team are ready to handle it to the best of our abilities.
2. All for one, one for all: I've always felt invested in obtaining successful outcomes for clients and showing them support, both in terms of the advice I gave and, very often, attending the events they ran, drinking the beer they sold (it was good while it lasted), buying the clothes they made, and using the services they offered etc. However as an in-houser, I feel even more invested in my client's success. And that doesn't emanate from the fact that my client pays my salary, or that I have some share options that may or may not ever come to anything. There are several interdependencies that are critical to the Legal function's success and being in-house is, without doubt, a real team sport. There's so much value that an in-house team can add beyond doing legal work and I feel a stronger draw when it comes to stepping outside of my lane and supporting colleagues in other teams. [As an aside, institutional loyalty/commitment from in-housers isn't always a good thing, as the Horizon Inquiry has recently shown.]
3. There's regulation and there's Regulation: Shieldpay is an FCA-regulated business. For me, this has been a really positive thing overall, as I haven't stepped into a business that throws caution to the wind. Regulated businesses can't "move fast and break things" like some other businesses can. Rather, all business decisions are considered in the context of regulatory compliance and risk management. But if you think complying with SRA rules is hard work, FCA regulation is a whole different ballgame. I've been really fortunate to join a team with some top notch compliance and risk professionals who have taken the time to help me navigate the rules, learning a lot along the way.

Captivity is A Good Thing

When you're in-house, it goes without saying that you're a 'captive lawyer'. Not 'captive' in the sense of being a prisoner, but rather as a resource solely dedicated to your employer. The solicitor-client relationship doesn't get any closer than that. It means that while you can, and should, manage your time and the expectations of various business teams, you can't hide behind your inbox or the demands and needs of multiple external clients. This isn't entirely dissimilar to private practice, but when you're in-house you need to operate at the speed of business, providing low-latency legal support, if you will!

The fact that Legal has a touchpoint with so many areas of the business means you have a bird's eye view of what's going on and may be able to join dots in ways that other colleagues may not. That's a truly privileged position to be in.

And it's true what they say about in-house lawyers being the 'corporate memory' of the business: when consistency and execution are key, the ability to recall the facts underpinning historic decisions, understand relationships with and concerns of investors, and be able to provide context for live issues, is essential.

Legal can be a 'soft power' weapon

Typically used in relation to politics and international diplomacy, 'soft power' refers to the ability to co-opt and shape the preferences of others through appeal and attraction, rather than taking a more adversarial, aggressive or passive approach.

Legal is, without doubt, a soft power weapon. Whether dealing with customers, suppliers, current or prospective investors, or regulators, Legal has the opportunity to demonstrate that the business they represent is professional, reasonable and collaborative. When the business mainly deals with law firms and other professional service firms in particular, this is crucial in terms of building trust and confidence. I really didn't expect that my previous experience as a COLP or as a corporate transactional lawyer would prove so useful in my day-to-day activities, but it really has helped me find my place within the business and enabled me to contribute in a hopefully meaningful and measurable way.

Community/network is *everything*

I've always really valued my network, but never really felt part of a community as such; private practice just isn't that way inclined! Going in-house has completely changed that. The first community I joined was Crafty Counsel whose events really are some of the best I've ever been to; they offer a rare combination of vibe and value. This was followed closely by the Juro Slack community which, with almost 1,000 members, has been incredibly useful (I'm really looking forward to speaking at their Scaleup GC event in a few weeks' time, which sort of blows my mind considering I was an observer at this event last year). Then there's the Disruptive GC Network and the fantastic WhatsApp community channels created by Emma Bower at Heriot Brown In-House Legal Recruitment .

These communities have really helped me find my feet and learn from the experience of other in-housers. You really do get out what you put in.

I don't miss private practice

This is quite difficult to write let alone share, but it's an inescapable truth. I always enjoyed in-house secondments and, in recent years, being the 'go to guy' for several clients on just about anything they needed my help with. Yet something was always holding me back from making the move: loyalty to my employer; commitment to my team; a reluctance to walk away from working with longstanding clients; and the idea of having to rebuild my professional profile as an in-house lawyer.

When I had my head in the game, I just kept plodding along with a smile on my face (well, most of the time). But now I've had time to reflect on the best part of 14 years in private practice - a short time, by any career measure - I can admit that I wasn't happy. The constant cycle of winning work, doing work, billing work, was grinding me down. The pressure to deliver for clients, while also delivering for the business, became a struggle. At the end of each long day, I didn't have much gas in the tank to think about other things and explore other interests. I suppose I was suffering from a sort of professional Stockholm Syndrome.

But I needn't have feared. No sooner are you on one side than you're on the other, adapting to a new way of working and learning as you go. And every day is certainly a school day!