The best in house lawyers aspire to be “business partners”. But what is required to achieve that sought after status (knowledge of the law is a given)? Here are some non-exhaustive and interrelated thoughts on the topic drawn from my own experience as an in house leader:
1. Immersion. Understanding the business is fundamental to effective counseling and enabling business strategy. Achieving this requires an investment of time and effort that begins at the pre-appointment stage. Every candidate should be able to display a basic understanding of the operations and strategy of the business they hope to serve as well as some insights into how their experience can enable that strategy going forward. Once appointed, in house counsel should immerse themselves in the business during the early months, taking every opportunity to ask questions and learn from legal and business colleagues alike.
2. Risk Fluency. High performing in house counsel operate at a level beyond risk identification (or “issue spotting”). Being able to identify risk is helpful but without an accurate assessment of the risk (likelihood of occurrence, impact, mitigation) this skill is of limited utility to business. Risk fluency includes the ability to discuss risk and risk appetite with a business client.
3. Expectation Management. Relationships work best when both parties know what to expect from one another. For lawyers this entails conversations with business colleagues and ultimately agreement as to the contributions of the lawyer to the decision making process. For example, since few proposed actions are clearly permitted or clearly prohibited, lawyers are rarely able to “approve” or “disapprove” (and the appropriateness of these terms in the context of business decision making is an interesting topic in itself). Establishing this and what a client can expect from a lawyer’s advice is a foundational step.
4. Curiosity. Never stop learning – being curious about the business and its competitors builds and constantly refreshes your stock of knowledge. Formal training programs can be useful but lawyers who become dependent on or wait for formal learning opportunities will miss out on what is often readily often available by being in the room with the right people and simply listening.
5. Anticipation. Anticipate the client’s needs – think like a sports photographer: “The most important thing you learn as a sports photographer is anticipation - not where the action is taking place, but where it's going to take place. Not where the subject is now, but where they're going to be.” (Lawrence Schiller, Producer).
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