The sweet spot of in-house lawyers
In our nowadays' legal world of drastic changes, currently every discipline (in-house lawyers, law firms, tech start-ups, LPOs, new legal service providers, etc.) tries to sharpen its profile.
When we look at the major disruptive trends like legal tech, new legal providers and, more generally, the need for lawyers to be able to manage complex legal projects, it is worth thinking about where the sweet spot of the in-house lawyer is.
We all know the concept of the sweet spot, which is commonly seen as follows:
Now, what is the sweet spot of the in-house lawyer? What is it that we can do, what business decision makers want and what no one else can do (in the same way)?
Here are a couple of suggestions but I am happy to hear your thoughts:
- Combine contracts and legal expertise with business savviness;
- Help the business to shape complex deals;
- Manage big projects from the legal side. I.e., first slice the elephant into work packages and decide what should be done by (i) the in-house lawyer him-/herself, (ii) a computer, (iii) a law firm and (iv) any kind (and which kind) of new legal provider; then, and more importantly, after receiving the results for all these work packages, put it all back together with a strategic view on the big picture;
- Help everyone to set the right priorities, in particular for contract negotiations: what is really important, where are the big risks?
- Be the guardian of the truth for business management.
If we as in-house lawyers focus on these strengths my view is that it will be very hard for legal tech or alternative law providers to eat our lunch even in the current times of disruptive changes.
What do you think?
General Counsel. Secretary of the Board of Directors - SIEMENS, S.A. - Spain&Portugal
5 年Dear J?rg,? thanks for sharing your thoughts. In my view, the future is about managing risks, and the Legal risk is only one, among many others. I think that during the last years, in-house lawyers have substantially evolved. We have developed the necessary skills and we have been trainned in a way that enables us to understand, manage, coordinate and implement effective solutions to the different risks that the company has to confront, better than other professionals within the company. In-house lawyers have (or in the future must demonstrated) enough knowledge about finance, commercial, strategic, operational ... issues, which combined with our legal knowledge gives us a powerful position to assume such role, combined with our current role of "be the guardian of the truth for business management" as well as the confident and reliable function for shareholders and stakeholders. If Legal don't move towards such role as global risk manager (or whatever you want to call), I guess that others will do and Legal will only report legal risks to such function, reducing our impact on the organization.? And, of course, management of company risks (including the legal ones) will not be possible without IT tools, including the new Legal Tech. Best
Contract, Commercial and Export Control Manager at Andritz S.A.S. (France)
7 年Thank you for your post, J?rg. I think that traditional in-house lawyers are bound to disappear in a few years. In our competitive world, multidisciplinary approaches are and will increasingly replace the old 'guardian of the temple' role. Knowing the law is not enough anymore. This has been the traditional roles of in-house lawyers in Western continental Europe for decades. The Anglo-Saxon approach is increasingly gaining ground. The very concept of contract management is a good example of the change of legal era. In-house lawyers of the 21st century need to be not only legally 'fluent' but also business and customer oriented, finance literate, very curious and eager to learn, master human communication and very importantly, loyal and sincere with the top management of the company. Thank you for having read these lines, Arturo.
Team Lead | Drive Complex Projects & Strategic Initiatives | MEA | Healthcare - Power Generation & Transmission - Renewables
7 年Legal tech will not replace legal departments but it should reduce headcount. After all, tech advancements should increase productivity and/or reduce costs. The legal project management idea has merit, however, user friendly legal tech may enable business people to use the output themselves or to be less dependent on legal support. All doom and gloom? No. In-house legal departments have skills that are transferable. This could lead to legal departments having a broader scope or, more likely, see in-house lawyers/ contract managers become legal tech specialists or business people who use legal tech. In conclusion: Embrace legal tech, be in the legal 'sweet spot' and/or broaden your experience.
Area Vice President DACH at DocuSign
7 年Great note! What we are seeing at Seal is that LegalTech offerings like ours are a powerful ally for in-house lawyers once they are embraced, and not a competition. Both in the "big project" scenario you highlighted, but also for day-to-day activities, e.g. regular contract reviews!
Strategy & Transformation in Digital, Business, Culture
7 年Work packages is a very interesting approach!