A business thrives or fails according to the quality of its decision making and those decisions involve a range of risks, including legal and regulatory risk. One way to conceptualise the role of in house counsel is to see the business as an Formula 1 engine - a highly engineered, high performance machine - and the legal inputs you are responsible for, including those from outside counsel, as the lubricant in that engine. The moving parts in an F1 engine are constantly in friction and without the appropriate lubricant the engine will overheat and seize up very quickly. To support optimal performance for the business “engine” we need to ensure that the legal inputs to corporate decision making are of the highest quality, as poor quality, imprecise or unduly risk averse advice will cause the engine to seize up during the Grand Prix. So, the combined role of in-house and outside counsel in delivering the legal advice is as crucial as high viscosity engine oil is to F1 cars.
So how do you build and sustain the relationships with outside counsel that deliver the nuanced and finely calibrated legal inputs that are essential to corporate decision making? I shared some thoughts on this topic in the latest issue of the International In-House Counsel Journal. Please follow this link to read the article: https://www.iicj.net/subscribersonly/23march/iicj2mar-management-michaelfawlk-exemplifyconsulting-switzerland.pdf
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