InView Digital Magazine for in-house legal professionals | Issue One

THE COMMUNITY FOR IN-HOUSE L E G A L P R O F E S S I O N A LS TO L E A R N CONNECT AND SHARE.

ISSUE 01 SPECIAL ISSUE APRIL 22

From the creators of LawVu.

Being an agile General Counsel in times of constant change The term ‘agile’ has certainly had a workout over the past year of pandemic-related challenges.

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CONTENTS

INVIEW

Inside Ethics

Being a good General Counsel these days isn’t just about knowing the law.

Here’s why being business savvy is key, too.

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Ethics and morals are inextricably linked, yet they should not be mistaken as the same thing.

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Change

Being an agile General Counsel in times of constant change

The term ‘agile’ has certainly had a workout over the past year of pandemic-related challenges.

— 06 Change

Closing the gap between legal and the rest of the organization

We explore the relationship between General Counsel and their organization and how they can close the gap and work better together.

— 08 Change

How to win friends and influence people

Change management is often broken down into a three step process; preparing for change, managing change and reinforcing change.

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E D I TO R ’S L E T T E R

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Editor’s letter

Business

The business skill set every General Counsel needs

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Reviewing your corporate moral compass

Mindset

Finding your why – a corporate counsel perspective

What sets a great leader apart from the rest? It is their ‘why’ that allows them to find purpose in their work.

— 18 Mindset

Authenticity matters in the legal profession and here is why

What if it was about time for lawyers to be themselves, and bring their wholeself to work?

— 20 Trust

The legal trust paradox

Luminary legal operations leader Mary O’Carroll recently came out swinging against what many view as a foundational concept in the legal operations industry.

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Dear reader, INVIEW is a community for in-house legal professionals to share, connect and learn. We wanted to create a place where us in-house can be one with our peers. One goal is to break down some of the silos that exist between legal and the rest of the business, and (if we are being honest) within legal. The INVIEW community seeks to achieve all this in a modern, cool and fun way.

We hope INVIEW is a place that you can come learn, share, connect and also contribute. In the making of this community we wanted to share the stories, journeys and the amazing work that in-house professionals like you are doing the world over whether that’s as a General Counsel, a lawyer or counsel as part of a team, a legal operations professional, paralegals or anyone else.

In-house legal teams and professionals are a little bit heroic, getting through a lot of work, in a short amount of time, with the daily grind flying by as you try keep pace with the rest of the organization. As jurisdictions and technology are changing, you keep up, and we are here to keep up with you. To share your stories, bring you the latest in content and conversations that develop as the industry evolves, and as you establish what the next version of best practice looks like.

And, through our community champions program you’ll get to follow the lives of legal ops leaders leading the charge and the change in their organizations, hearing it straight from them, in their words, about what they are practicing, what change they are making and what they are thinking about in real time. Who better to hear from than the people doing the doing.

We have an open door policy, where you can share with us in real time what you want to read and learn about, and even who you want to connect with. On occasion we’ll also branch out with our content as we know that in-house have to deal with much more than just the law. You are commercial, technology powered, interesting people (not robots) that want to know just as much about leadership, business and change management as you do about the law, risk, and compliance.

We’re on a mission to bring legal back to the heart of the business where it belongs.

Welcome to the tribe!

Disclaimer The views expressed in InView are those of the author and, except where clearly indicated, are not to be taken as those of or endorsed by LawVu Limited. No responsibility whatsoever is accepted by LawVu Limited for any opinion or information contained in InView.

Copyright All rights reserved. Any form of reproduction of any content without the permission of LawVu Limited is strictly prohibited.

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FIND US ONLINE

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C O N T R I B U TO R S

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Contributors From left to right the people involved in putting this all together.

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Find us online.

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Sian Simpson InView Editor

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Connor Amor-Bendall Writer

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Ines Almeida Writer

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Catherine Murray Writer

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Micheal Hanly Designer

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Elise Hislop Illustrator

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Tim Boyne Guest Contributor

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Sarah Ouis Guest Contributor

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If you’re enjoying what you’re reading please send InView or this digital magazine to a friend or colleague and find us online: WEB — INVIEW.LAWVU.COM

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Being an agile General Counsel in times of constant change Article by INVIEW writing team.

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Rather than a buzzword, these qualities give the term ‘agile’ relevance to the role of General Counsel, where leading by example provides a way for the team and wider organization to see and emulate the skills.

We’ve identified four areas where being agile leads to greater performance and outcomes for the team and for the organization.

Build an agile team Legal operations of the future will be agile, valuecentric, and tech-enabled, says CLOC’s The Future of Legal Operations report. Being agile means delivering a structure and culture which lends itself to supporting changing dynamics, with the ability to effectively allocate and empower resources with the organizational framework.

Learning from this definition, General Counsel lead their team by assigning work to the right resource level, increasing productivity, lowering costs, and engaging team members. There’s also the opportunity to centralize repetitive work into centres of excellence, allowing other resources to commit to areas requiring more nuanced support.

Agile teams possess a culture which empowers individuals to make decisions and react quickly in a fluid environment, and provides ongoing development so they can remain confident.

The term ‘agile’ has certainly had a workout over the past year of pandemic-related challenges. Organizations are functioning under new and ever-changing conditions, and yet at the same time business continues on as ‘usual’. In-house legal teams are facing increasing complexities in their role, requiring leadership which reacts and responds to the nimble legal and commercial landscape.

The role of General Counsel and their legal teams naturally expands in times of disruption, says Abbott Martin, Vice President, Gartner.

“When the law and stakeholder expectations are unstable and sometimes at odds, legal departments must provide operational clarity and build the corporate resilience to move forward.”

Adopting an agile skillset enables General Counsel to act swiftly, adapt, and remain flexible, while maneuvering their team and the wider organization through times of constant flux. But what does being agile look like for the General Counsel?

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Whether it’s an intrinsic skill or an acquired behaviour, being agile provides a myriad of positive outcomes both for the individual and the environment they work and live in. Members of the Forbes Coaches Council outlined 15 qualities which define an agile leader, including: • Being accepting and present • Being comfortable being uncomfortable • Always listening • Learning continuously • Being able to deal with constant disruption • Creating inclusive and empowered teams • Cooperating courageously.

Key to providing transparency and greater value is understanding the current state of play and responding to areas which are underperforming.

Analysing trends with LawVu’s reporting and analytics means if specific issues are present, such as a spike in litigation work from a department, flagging KPIs, or an increase in outside litigation resources, the data is easily extracted to determine the best way forward. Furthermore, the Matter Management platform ensures resourcing and task allocation is transparent, providing the base from which to action change in a real-time setting.

Review risk Inherent in the job description of the General Counsel is the mitigation of risk. Meeting risks in volatile, uncertain times requires agile risk management practices, says McKinsey’s Meeting the Future report, focusing on tapping into people with the right skills and knowledge in real time, convening cross-functional teams, and authorizing them to make rapid decisions. In order to determine who needs to be involved in managing a specific risk and how they should work together, there is the need to understand the nature of the risk, its significance, and how quickly it may impact the organization.

A practical approach to prepare for risk is to create playbooks assigning responsibilities and tasks to specific scenarios, resulting in a level of preparedness for when an urgent situation does arise.

Embrace technology

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COVID-19 mandated lockdowns and restrictions to normal working environments can mean team members are working from physically and socially distanced locations for extended periods of time, often with little certainty of when a return to the office might be.

Tools to support the move to remote working enable General Counsel to provide the team with flexibility and connectedness, while maintaining a seamless workflow regardless of where members are. One example is LawVu’s Conversations tool, which facilitates communication between team members in real-time, ensuring continuous interactions and engagement within the legal team. Conversations consolidates emails, matter comments, and chats into an easy-to-access universal sidebar, replicating the in-house stream of communications in real-time.

Support the CEO The role of General Counsel spans the legal and commercial worlds, merging the two to provide comprehensive advice for optimal business outcomes. Supporting the CEO is key to business success for all matters, from advising on a political issue, to ensuring an organization’s reputation is kept intact.

Adopting an agile skillset enables General Counsel to act swiftly, adapt, and remain flexible while maneuvering their team and the wider organization through times of constant flux.

According to Gartner, just 8 percent of General Counsel perform a truly executive role in their organization, with 59 percent dealing only with legal work and guidance rather than top-level strategy. Defaulting to strictly legal activities fails to incorporate meaningful extra-legal business considerations and limits strategic work and business guidance, ultimately limiting contribution to corporate outcomes. Being agile and pivoting towards more strategic work brings General Counsel closer to executive decision making and execution, and the ability to add even more value and influence to an organization.

There’s never been a better time to adopt a more agile stance as General Counsel, providing your team and wider organization with a way forward which embraces change and effective outcomes, all played out in real time. — For more commentary go to inview.lawvu.com/articles

An agile approach to team building requires resources and tools to support and enable success.

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Closing the gap between legal and the rest of the organization Article by INVIEW writing team.

The saying goes that behind every great leader, is a great woman.

In this day and age we submit that a great ‘partner’ is a more appropriate term, a partner providing support, advice and strategy from behind the scenes, allowing their significant other to thrive. Think Barack and Michelle Obama, Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford or even Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

The relationship between General Counsel and their organization is in many ways the same. Every thriving organization, from a burgeoning start up to a multinational organization is spearheaded by a team of executives, but guided by a savvy and strategic in-house legal team that are commercial, agile and prepared in their response to legal challenges.

Yet, despite the importance of this relationship, in-house legal teams are often siloed within an organization. Their reach touches every facet of the business, but they are debatably the least understood and appreciated business unit of the organization. How can we close this gap?

The market for legal services has changed, pushed by increasing client demand for innovative and timely services – as technology has changed the pace at which business operates. Most significantly, senior management has demanded that the legal business unit increases its efficiency, transparency, 08

and access to data whilst cutting costs and improving user experience, essentially asking legal to do more with less.

In comparison to the legal function of an organization, other business units have adapted to and adopted new technologies that have facilitated a more fast paced technology-centric working environment. Sales departments harness Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems such as Salesforce, and Finance utilise Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to create efficiencies and have a clear picture of their pipelines. Legal has fallen behind other business units: legal’s reliance on dated technologies and the lack of a single, centralised platform has seen it operating in a reactive manner: the internal “legal silo”.

The solution to create an integrated in-house legal department is simple in theory; legal needs to reposition itself to be proactive rather than reactive.

The application of this is perhaps not so simple,

To find a solution, we must first look at the problem: What has caused this rift? as it involves multiple stakeholders, technological changes and executive support.

An infrastructure update is the most important.

In-house legal teams need to move onto one technology platform that manages their pipeline and data, giving legal a place within the organizational playing field. If there is one thing that Covid-19 and subsequent lockdowns have taught us over the past year, it is that modern, agile technology can support a business and its people to function remotely, breaking the traditional “bums on seats” narrative.

The legal profession is one steeped in tradition, perhaps causes a reluctance to adopt technologies, as many legal firms and professionals still prefer bound files and paper shredders. In order for legal teams to be on an even footing to other business units, especially in technology savvy firms such as the Big Four, adopting a fit-for-purpose technology platform is essential. Tasks such as knowledge, matter, spend, and contract management can be accessed on the same web platform that provides dashboards and reporting, creating an efficient, proactive system.

Implementing this system will require executive and board sign off, and a complimentary legal strategy, structure, and talent management plan that has business wide integration as a key pillar.

The logistics of developing and implementing this plan will require time, cooperation and a healthy amount of back and forth between management – no mean feat.

Business-wide integration of the legal team will of course require some reciprocal leg-work from the legal staff themselves. This might involve the introduction of training that gives legal staff a broader and deeper understanding of what their colleagues do, and of their companies’ core offerings. In all industries, from consulting to construction, this context empowers legal to respond more efficiently to inbound requests and gives the business the relationship-level trust to break down the walls of the “legal silo.”

As every lawyer knows, change is never simple, especially within the legal profession, where every decision is meticulously analysed for risk and potential reward. Yet change is essential to close the gap between legal teams and their organization.

Like any other relationship, legal needs to create a strong, transparent relationship with its business partners to facilitate world-class teamwork and to support the business in achieving its potential.

— For more commentary go to inview.lawvu.com/articles

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INVIEW CHAMPION

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Introducing Theo Kapodistrias this month’s InView Champion

Our first InView community champion is none other than the super bold, ambitious, and dedicated Theo Kapodistrias. Continuous improvement might be his middle name, in both the professional and personal sense. Kapodistrias told us he’s always had a passion for people and the law. He’s built a career with the philosophy of being “more than just a lawyer.” In addition to providing legal advice, he’s involved in governance, compliance, risk, and training a new generation of confident lawyers to get a seat at the table no matter their age. He is also a bit of a guru when it comes to communication and building trust.

After finishing his studies at the University of Tasmania, Kapodistrias was hired as their in-house lawyer and stayed there for over five years working on groundbreaking projects. During his time there he was a volunteer director, and is the Tasmanian divisional president of the Association of Corporate Counsel in Australia (ACC).

Kapodistrias currently works as General Counsel for Upguard, a cybersecurity startup working to help companies securely configure their systems and guard against outages and 10

breaches. He is also a keynote speaker helping other business professionals to be seen, heard, and make an impact.

His ambition has not gone unnoticed.

Kapodistrias has been recognized nationally for his work, winning the 2017 and 2018 Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 (Corporate Counsel), the 2018 Lawyers Weekly Corporate Counsel Award for Academia, Training and Education Lawyer of the Year, and Young Lawyer of the Year 2020 by the Law Society of Tasmania. He was featured in 2019 Legal 500 Guide to Australia’s Rising Stars publication.

He is sought after for his enthusiasm, humor, and expertise. As someone who strives to make a difference and breaks down barriers every chance he gets, we’re honored to have him as an InView Champion for 2021, where we can follow his journey, learn from him as he builds out the Upguard in-house legal team, and also explore his thoughts within and beyond the law.

INVIEW CHAMPIONS

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Our community champions program follows the lives of legal ops leaders leading the charge and the change in their organizations, hearing it straight from them, in their words, about what they are practicing, what change they are making and what they are thinking about in real time. Who better to hear from then the people doing the doing.

We’ll be exploring these themes with our champions over the course of the year.

• Value • Trust • Change • Technology • Innovation • Mindset • Balance • Ways of working • Collaboration

• Communication • Business • Career Development • Future • Diversity • Transparency • Insight • Leadership

In the next issue we’ll be chatting with legal counsel Kate Sherburn about going in-house earlier in your career, and bringing creativity to the law, and how to avoid the hiding things trap with your sales team.

Follow along with our InView Champions for 2021.

Left to right: Stephen Drysdale, In-House Counsel, ZURU Group, Kate Sherburn, Senior Legal Counsel, Who Gives A Crap, Theo Kapodistrias, General Counsel, Upguard.

Do you know someone who would be an amazing champion?

Nominate them here @ inview@lawvu.com 11

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Reviewing your corporate moral compass Article by INVIEW writing team.

Ethics and morals are inextricably linked, yet they should not be mistaken as the same thing. Ethics aim to determine what is right and wrong and how to act accordingly; they are the process in which we make decisions based upon our morals. Socrates’, Aristotle’s and Plato’s definition of ethics focuses on acting virtuously, or doing good, as they believed acts of virtue correlated to finding happiness. Morals are the foundation of ethics, they are our individual principles that determine what we perceive as right and wrong, or virtuous.

In the eyes of a soft legal positivist approach, law and morality are far from joined. The Law aims to enforce a set of behavioral norms that allow society to function. We could be tempted to believe that what is legal is ethical, but sadly this is not true.

Ethics and the law often contradict one another, there are times when doing what is legal will go against what we believe is ethical. For instance, Twitter recently found itself in a conundrum where they realised that Donald Trump’s Twitter account was encouraging violence among his supporters and polarization within America, however unless they could legally prove he had violated a Twitter policy, they had no grounds to stand on to remove his Twitter handle.

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Corporations are at their core, a conglomerate of humans, and as such are moral entities. They are now more than ever subject to the moral judgement of individuals: shareholders, investors, journalists and protestors. The ethical decisions a corporation makes is subject to moral scrutiny and public outrage. Twitter’s suspension of Trump’s account in January demonstrates the weight that ethical corporate decisions can hold.

A corporation needs a clear ethical framework and decision making process in order to avoid finding themselves in a hot seat like Twitter, where there is no clear ethical decision to be made and no way to appease both stakeholders. This requires two key functions; an established set of organization morals that are upheld by their people, and a legal arm that can uphold these ethical guidelines and appropriately determine risk.

In the eyes of a soft legal positivist approach, law and morality are far from joined.

Trump’s outreach on Twitter was a core way for him to connect with his supporters and spread his political views. Arguably his tendency to go on capitalized Twitter rants was one of the reasons he was elected. From the early days of his presidency there were public cries for the suspension of his account. As his hate speech intensified and it was determined his tweets had ultimately incited violence, Twitter made the decision to suspend his account on the basis of violating their ‘Glorification of Violence’ policy.

Morals differ hugely from person to person, they are shaped by religion, culture, or socio-economic status. They are etched into the fabric of our society and are constantly shaping the world we live in. The polarized views that people hold on Trump is a prime example of how individual morals differ. Humans are emotional, opinionated beings and we project our moral compass onto others, in the hope of influencing the ethical blueprint of society.

In making this ethical decision, Twitter would have weighed up their legal obligations and the morals that were at stake, in this drawing the line between freedom of speech and hate speech. Although they ultimately deemed the suspension as the ethical thing to do, Twitter could not win with this decision.

They pleased Democrats and left leaning individuals yet they still faced criticism that they should have acted sooner. Meanwhile the suspension of Trump’s account caused a plethora of outrage of Trump supporters and the alt-right.

Establishing an ethical framework requires consensus from the Executive Leadership Team, the Board, and Shareholders on the company’s moral standings both internally and externally.

This could encompass a Diversity and Inclusion strategy, anti-harassment, anti-corruption and workplace safety policies, and a sustainability Strategy. Having these frameworks allows a company to know its external positioning. For instance, does tendering for a new oil exploration project align with their sustainability strategy?

Or, does engaging with offshore companies or dictatorships that violate international human rights conflict with their Diversity and Inclusion strategy. Employees should be educated on, and uphold, their company’s ethical framework allowing them to flag when an unethical situation arises, while managers should demonstrate the company’s morals in day to day practice.

Trump’s outreach on Twitter was a core way for him to connect with his supporters and spread his political views, arguably his tendency to go on capitalized Twitter rants was one of the reasons why he was elected. framework this provides their legal team with clarity around decision making and the mitigation of risk, positioning legal to proactively anticipate and handle ethical issues. By allowing legal to be on the ethical front foot, the likelihood of public and external legal dilemmas is also reduced. There is irony in the role of legal upholding corporate ethics, as we discussed earlier; what is legal is not always what is ethical. This is why providing the legal team with an ethical framework is imperative, as it gives them a roadmap of where the company’s morality lies, and where their legal obligations lie, allowing legal to find the crossroads between the two. — For more commentary go to inview.lawvu.com/articles

A legal arm comes into play when an ethical dilemma arises, but also in the prevention of ethical conundrums. If a corporation has a strong ethical 13

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The technical side of mergers and acquisitions is certainly complicated, think legal legwork, financial arrangements, business system integration and repositioning organizational structure. But bringing people onboard to support and facilitate a smooth transition can make or break a merger or acquisition. Many CEOs and senior executives worry about the human side of change as they know that a company will only reap the rewards of change if it occurs from the bottom up.

With people comes politics, and getting everyone on the same boat is never an easy task. Why? An individual has to re-learn processes and how to perform their job to a new standard and this is no small impact. Successful leaders understand this, and you may find they have a certain title on their bookshelf, such as Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People. Carnegie’s book explores the ways in which to best garner the loyalty of others, through explaining techniques, understanding how they think, how to make people like you and how to effectively give criticism.

His book is in essence a handbook for change management; an approach to deal with the peopleside of organizational change.

Change management is often broken down into a three step process; preparing for change, managing change and reinforcing change. It addresses changes to individual process and performance, retaining and evolving company values and culture, creating a cohesive team environment and leading for success.

Legal departments are ready for change. They are aware that they need to adopt new technologies and work processes in order to get on board with the rest of the organization and to remain agile in an increasingly volatile business world. Historically, legal departments have been rather un-receptive to change due to the change-adverse nature of the law. However, Corporate Counsel are ready to drive change within their department. The problem lies with the fact that legal professionals are not change professionals but of course, lawyers.

How to win friends and influence people Article by INVIEW writing team.

Corporations are strange beasts. They are well oiled machines that churn along with the power of thousands of individual cogs, all working in their individual role to support the organization as whole. Put a corporation in the position of a merger or acquisition and all those individual cogs have to recalibrate to support a new machine.

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Bearing this in mind, there are steps legal can take to integrate change management to the best of their ability. Firstly is the most obvious, simply make sure the big dogs are on board, General Counsel need to have a vested interest and commitment to leading change within the legal department. This may involve negotiating and convincing other senior legal leaders to get on board with change or simply leading through demonstration and providing a pathway for the legal department to follow.

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support is needed. For instance, junior lawyers may be adjusting to new cultural and business objectives that a merger creates, whilst senior counsel may be struggling with adopting new technologies.

Creating and distributing ownership in the change management process is essential for the legal department as it brings the team on board for the journey. By providing people of all levels with direct tasks and responsibilities to implement change management, a positive opportunity is created for these individuals to rise to the challenge, create solutions and demonstrate their ability.

Ultimately, General Counsel should remember, as Carnegie surmises so succinctly in this title, that the ultimate key to change management is winning the loyalty of and influencing others.

Next is understanding and playing to the culture of the in-house legal team. Stereotypes aside, lawyers are generally more Type A personalities who respond well to clear plans, tasks and structure. For a General Counsel to garner the full support of their legal department in a time of change, they need to recognize how their team best operates and the behaviours and personalities within their team – structuring and delegating change management tasks accordingly.

Lastly, General Counsel must look externally as change management in the legal department most frequently occurs regarding new technology adoption to bring the department up to speed with the rest of the business. In this instance it is crucial that General Counsel market themselves to their wider organization, to create an awareness of the value the legal team provides and why they are undertaking change management, particularly if undergoing change management is creating noticeable pains for the wider business. Ultimately General Counsel should remember, as Carnegie surmises so succinctly in his title, that the ultimate key to change management is winning the loyalty of and influencing others. — For more commentary go to inview.lawvu.com/articles

Once the leadership team is on the same page, General Counsel need to guide their team in adopting the ‘soft-skills’ required to instigate change - soft-skills being the people side of change. Communication may seem obvious, but it’s importance must not be underestimated. Promoting a discourse within the legal arm about change will highlight where individuals need help with adoption of new processes and technologies and where 15

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The legal trust paradox Article by Tim Boyne.

Luminary legal operations leader Mary O’Carroll recently came out swinging against what many view as a foundational concept in the legal operations industry: e-billing.

In a forum posted to the CLOC community, she boldly (considering how much the e-billing industry contributes financially to CLOC) laments the very existence of such tools. She asks why legal is the only department in the enterprise to need its own special billing systems and she longs for a time when e-billing is no longer needed.

It’s a refreshing take and her assertion is that the need for e-billing tools and invoice forensics, is due to the existence of the billable hour.

From a technical perspective, that is undeniably true. If the desire to analyse individual time entries didn’t exist, there’s no reason why law firms couldn’t submit their invoices into the same billing systems that the rest of the business use. And herein lies the real story. E-billing has become a proxy for a bigger problem. Namely, the systemic lack of trust between the supply-and-demand sides of the legal market.

In a forum posted to the CLOC community, she boldly (considering how much the e-billing industry contributes financially to CLOC) laments the very existence of such tools.

Legal departments trust external law firms to help manage various forms of corporate risk, to go to war together in “bet the company litigation” and to keep their directors out of jail, but they don’t trust them to invoice them accurately at the end of the month. It’s the only industry in the world that I know of where the potential victims of fraud using tools to help keep the perpetrators honest is considered BAU.

The way forward?

I don’t believe it’s via AFA’s alone as Mary suggests.

Fixing fees or billing based on “value” might make whoever’s in charge of outside counsel budgets sleep better at night, but they’re just as open to manipulation as hourly bills. In fact, potentially more so as the alchemy that goes into crafting billing strategies is now obfuscated. Many firms will only 16

commit once they’re certain that the move to AFA’s will result in a net gain. e.g. more profit. Is that winning for in-house teams? I’m not sure but I’m fairly certain it’s only a matter of time before boards and c-suites start asking questions again.

In my humble opinion, the long term solution to reducing the in-house legal markets reliance on e-billing tools, at least in their current form, will come from improving transparency and collaboration. By removing the opportunity for outside counsel to retreat into the black box. By eliminating uncertainty and making the process of approving an invoice a simple, seamless, relationship strengthening act at the end of each month. “No more surprises” has been the catch cry of a generation of lawyers, but it hasn’t stuck.

But there is hope. There is a realistic opportunity on the horizon to truly “disrupt” the current model, and it comes in the form of the king of all legal tech buzzwords, “Knowledge management”.

There is now a whole new class of rapidly maturing knowledge management products like LawVu that are designed to capture effort and work product as structured IP. These products are paving the way for the industry to truly embrace the use of concepts such as project management, project templates, automation, contract analysis, machine learning and A.I., and most of the impactful gains in this space are being driven by modern legal operators in modern corporate legal departments.

It’s this framework that will ultimately eliminate justification for the once sentence that creates all the problems; “I can’t really tell you how much it’ll cost”. Once we can remove the mystery, and matter types of all shapes and sizes can be broken down into modular, predictable, repeatable pieces of work, the industry will have a scalable model for transforming the status quo, and the entire legal ecosystem can finally move forward on a footing of transparency, collaboration and trust. — For more commentary go to inview.lawvu.com/articles Tim Boyne is the Co-Founder of LawVu, the first truly connected software platform for in-house legal teams. Matter, contract, and spend management in one secure, cloud-based platform.

Visit www.lawvu.com for more information.

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The business skillset every general counsel needs Article by INVIEW writing team.

Thriving in-house legal departments build value and get results for their organization, through an integrated and practice delivery approach. They also require great leadership, and the role of the General Counsel is critical to their success. For a General Counsel to lead effectively, they need to not only be an exemplary lawyer, but also harness a solid business skillset. As their reach impacts every facet of the organization, their decisions need to be business savvy internally and externally. This calls for the General Counsel to have a solid understanding of their companies operating model and general business practice.

Possessing business savvy allows a General Counsel to wear both their legal and business hats to make informed strategic and operational decisions that align with the company’s objectives. This ultimately saves time and money. However, one does have to ask, what makes good legal judgement?

A major Gartner report puts it this way: “As a starting point, GC should think about the role they occupy and have a direct conversation with the CEO about long-term corporate needs. GC should rework their future commitments, so that they are keenly focused on the highest priority corporate goals and strategy.” Essentially if legal is aligned with the overall business goals, everybody wins.

Just like good judgement, good communication is key for a General Counsel. Transparent and clear communication with the legal department, the rest of the organization and the executive leadership team puts legal on the front foot. The company is aware of legal decisions as they are made and how they will impact the business. The American Bar Association’s advice on communication surrounds conveying an objective and providing those impacted with clear expectations, timelines, and potential challenges.

But not every General Counsel possesses business savvy, and those who don’t may be thinking, how can I achieve it? The first step is to understand your business. What services does it offer? What is its edge? Who are its target clients? Having this basic knowledge puts the legal department in a better position to offer advice and make decisions that align with the organization’s objectives and values.

Knowledge is power, after all. Sir Richard Branson puts it this way, “Do your research.”

Branson is also a big proponent of putting the team’s well-being above your own – which inevitably leads to success. As he says: “If you take care of your employees, your employees will take care of your customers, and your customers will take care of your shareholders.” For General 18

In other words: it’s important to be a good leader - and support other people so they can support you. A win-win all around.

Counsel, this applies to their treatment of the legal department and the wider organization.

If General Counsel takes care of and respects their legal team, and has open and honest communication with the rest of the organization, they will foster loyalty and trust. This encourages employees to genuinely care for the customers and stakeholders that the organization serves. In other words: it’s important to be a good leader – and support other people so they can support you. A win-win all around.

Business is built upon the principle that “time is money”, and as such, time is never something to be wasted. According to KPMG, General Counsel play the role of a “barometer” particularly in complicated transactional environments. An array of corporate issues will run past General Counsel’s desk, giving them an oversight of the business ‘weather’. This daily information combined with General Counsel’s business knowledge allows them to forward think and calculate risk. However, to be able to stay on the front foot of this constant tide of legal, corporate and strategic decisions, General Counsel need to be well organized and responsive.

Cue digital disruption. This is where the migration of legal onto one workflow technology platform is crucial as it provides General Counsel with much better data to monitor the legal department and businesses responsibilities. A technology platform provides agility and brings the legal department on par with the rest of the organization. Ultimately it gives General Counsel a much clearer ship to steer.

General Counsel should build themselves a business toolkit that is filled with all of these things.

They include good communication, operational business knowledge, a loyal team, legal workflow technology, respect for their colleagues and sound judgement for effective leadership. By doing so they will position themselves as the organization’s barometer, and perhaps even ‘horizon scanners’, predicting any storms to come. — For more commentary go to inview.lawvu.com/articles 19

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Finding your why – a corporate counsel perspective article by INVIEW writing team.

A great leader has purpose, and is driven by a genuine passion for what they do. Think Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill or Malala Yousafzai. Their determination and strength comes from the heart, in turn inspiring others.

It is imperative for General Counsel to possess a ‘why’ if they are to lead effectively. This ‘why’ may not be about institutional change like King or Yousafazi’s ‘why’, who were fighting for human rights, but it must be enough to drive General Counsel to aim for constant business improvement.

Simon Sinek’s 2009 TedTalk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” explains that while every leader may know what they do, very few know why they do it.

Sinek states that leaders often rush to the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ but miss the fundamental step of ‘why.’ This step is crucial as it provides leaders with a reason to explain to others. People are much more likely to accept change or a call to action if they have a clear reason to do so.

As humans, we seek meaning in our everyday lives. From religion to literature, to sport to art, we have always sought something greater than the mundane. If leaders can provide their employees with a ‘why’ it gives the team something to rally around and to aim for, together. This unison and shared goal creates a force of motivated individuals.

And as a result, businesses do better.

So, what drives a General Counsel? Some lawyers begin their careers driven by a desire to facilitate positive change in society, others by a desire to succeed, whilst many have personal reasons that drew them to law. As such, every General Counsel will have a unique ‘why’ that led them to practicing in the first place, however they share one thing in common - they chose to go in-house rather than staying in private practice.

This transition to in-house can be crippling to a lawyer’s reason for practicing, especially if their 20

move was instigated by a desire for better work life balance over the nature of the work itself. As many know, when climbing the corporate ladder, finding a ‘why’ can feel futile. It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day chase of emails, meetings, and drafting and reviewing documents. But when we run on autopilot, we lose something fundamental: a compass. A ‘why’ is fundamental to giving ourselves greater meaning in our day to day work, providing goals and something to work towards. It reminds us of our role in the bigger picture. When we believe our work is meaningful, we reap profound rewards.

We are more motivated and research shows that we experience an increase in empowerment, engagement, performance, personal fulfilment, and job satisfaction.

We can redefine our role in more meaningful ways through job crafting, a process that allows us to shape our roles into something more aligned with our ‘why.’ By identifying what makes us tick in our roles, we can craft our practice by choosing to spend more energy on work we are passionate about.

Although we have job descriptions that we must fulfil, we also have autonomy in our careers as we do ultimately have a say on the projects we work on and clients we work with. A General Counsel may not need to want to change the world, but perhaps they want to use their responsibility to ensure their company is fair and equitable, providing a great work place for their employees.

General Counsel have the tools, expertise and resources in their hands to drive real change. It’s easy for lawyers to overlook things like ‘job fit’ because it can be difficult to discern where their values fit in the legal world. Yet finding the thing that makes you different than any other General Counsel will lead to much better results. Perhaps it is your passion for your company, the industry you are in, the people you work with or the projects your company is involved in.

Service based lawyers (those whose work includes defence and prosecution) report greater job satisfaction and overall well-being. This could be due to the meaningful nature of legally representing and providing direct service to others. For those working in other areas of law, such as corporate law, malpractice litigation or estate planning - this

If leaders can provide their employees with a ‘why’ it gives the team something to rally around and to aim for, together.

This unison and shared goal creates a force of motivated individuals.

direct meaning is not so tangible. Being a part of a corporate machine does not provide the same level of individual accountability and as such the ‘why’ is not so obvious.

Perspective is also important here. In the words of Christopher Wren, “One man may call himself a bricklayer, while another may identify as ‘building a House of God.” How we choose to view ourselves and the definition of our purpose is ultimately in our hands. Corporate Counsel already have a purpose, they are leaders. As stated earlier, what sets a great leader apart from the others is the ‘why’ that drives them. In looking to establish this ‘why’, General Counsel can find clues in their everyday work and ‘job craft’ their role to include more of these tasks. Perhaps it is strategy, negotiation, working with their team or wider organization, mentoring, mitigating risk, or collaborating with other business units that makes them tick. Identifying even a small ‘why’ and using it as an overarching guide in everything General Counsel does will reap many rewards. As Simon Sinek said, “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it and what you do simply proves what you believe.” — For more commentary go to inview.lawvu.com/articles

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their true human selves would already be a start towards a more customer friendly approach.

Lawyers are typically great problem solvers and use their creativity for that particular purpose.

That’s what they usually get paid for. Incorporating their own personality into the services they already provide would only take the service delivered to another level.

Authenticity matters in the legal profession and here is why Article by Sarah Ouis, In-house counsel at mdgroup.

In an era where personal branding is on the rise, where people across social media open up about their vulnerabilities; why would lawyers’ exceptionalism prevail? Would it even be in their benefit to do so? What if it was about time for lawyers to be themselves? How could they battle against the ridicule, violently opposed stages and reach the self-evidence of authenticity? Why would lawyers even want that?

What if this quote from Arthur Schopenhauer could be applied to finding our true self in an industry where one must fit the mould: the legal industry?

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

Being authentic, being our own self, can turn out to be problematic, where our personality does not tick the boxes of the industry standards.

Being professional in our industry can easily be assimilated to being traditional; constantly serious if not boring. As if being subject to a certain code of conduct or standards would eradicate any possibility of being different.

Why is now the time for lawyers to be themselves?

It can be argued that lawyers fear being authentic for a few reasons: • Their clients may have expectations about how a lawyer should be and therefore being different could lead to them losing business.

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• They could also miss out on career opportunities by not fitting the bill.

As valid as these reasons can be, we can fortunately see things changing. People have been opening up about the need for the legal profession to evolve and adapt. The development of new players in the industry are disrupting the landscape of legal services, fostering the need for innovation and a more customer centric approach. With that in mind, could we consider challenging the way lawyers are generally perceived? Could we consider asking clients about their expectations and whether bringing an authentic touch could actually be valued?

The reason being that people do business with people. We see it in our everyday lives. We give a tip to a waiter in a restaurant (where going to a restaurant was still a thing!) for great customer service, but also where the waiter showed his personality traits. People want to connect with people they can trust, building a sustainable network implies connecting in such a way that is meaningful. Whether for business development or networking purposes, putting on a different persona is just not sustainable. If you feel trapped into being in an environment where you must show another version of yourself, then it may well be that you have not found the right place for you (yet!).

We all belong somewhere, and we must find where we belong A few years back, I was interviewed for a Legal Counsel role and one of the areas I was recommended to improve was my ‘professionalism’.

The recruiter surely had valid points and I was too junior to be able to self-reflect. Looking back, I realised that the company’s culture was just not a fit for my personality. The legal team was very traditional and clearly this was not the type of environment where I could have evolved.

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you picture yourself not worried about speaking up, suggesting ideas, agreeing, and disagreeing, opening up about your vulnerabilities?

People want to connect with people they can trust, building a sustainable network implies connecting in such a way that is meaningful.

Now, try to picture an environment where you have to put your work hat on, an environment where as soon as you (virtually) enter the office, you would leave half of yourself behind, trying to conform to the culture, mirroring your colleagues’ attitude, not being able to speak up about things that bother you. Which one of the two feels more liberating and fulfilling?

Being in an environment that supports your authenticity will help you strive in a professional setting. This has been researched by Google during the Project Aristotle which emphasized the importance of an authentic workplace to create “psychological safety” in teams’ performance.

If being authentic matters, being part of an environment that supports it will allow you to better perform. If you perform better, this should in turn lead to greater confidence in your work and fulfilment in the workplace.

The legal industry needs it

Cultural fit was probably less talked about a few years ago and being professional and traditional in our industry used to be the same thing. However, the rise of alternative legal service providers, legal tech companies and even law firms showcasing a different approach to legal services in the likes of Stephenson Law have opened opportunities for lawyers to look for an environment where they can be themselves, if they are different to the traditional mould.

The legal industry has long suffered from an archaic reputation. Lawyers are still often associated with being expensive folks, who are paid to just push papers around. There is so much more we offer the world as an industry and profession. Being ourselves, letting people know about our struggles in law school, finding a training contract, the complexity of what we do, and the risk aversion mindset ingrained in our way of working surely cannot do us any injustice. And after all, we are human!

Whether we work in-house or in private practice, we belong to an environment that would welcome our authentic selves because this is how we can also perform better.

It is about time for the era of the human lawyers to shine. — For more commentary go to inview. lawvu.com/articles

Better performance and fulfilment

To quote Dharmesh Shah, co-founder of HubSpot: “Many companies have forgotten they sell to actual people. Humans care about the entire experience, not just marketing or sales or service. To really win in the modern age, you must solve for humans”

Steve Jobs once said: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

If the delivery of traditional services did not historically account for the importance of the end user’s experience, then for lawyers to demonstrate

Can you imagine an environment where you would not have to think twice before showcasing who you are as an individual and what makes you, you! Can

Sarah Ouis is an in-house legal counsel and legal content creator. She produces innovative legal content on social media, @verylawyerproblems.

She is on a mission to contribute to a more user centric approach to the delivery of legal services.

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From the left: Tim Boyne, Writer, LAWVU — Sarah Ouis, Writer, LAWVU —

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