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

e silver linings playbook for a world gone mad

From the creators of LawVu

THE COMMUNITY FOR IN-HOUSE LEGAL PROFESSIONALS TO LEARN, CONNECT & SHARE

Sian Simpson

EDITOR

Connor Amor-Bendall SENIOR WRITER

Heather Kidd SUB-EDITOR

Chris

McGavin WRITER & EX-LAWYER

Emily McCormick DESIGNER & ILLUSTRATOR

Special thanks to our contributors and interviewees:

Teresa Allan, Faten Awad, Seshani Bala, Fabien Bonavia, Barbara Dealey, Courtney Dick, Marija Dukadinovska, Ummu Fallon, Sarah Farmer, Michael Green, Christina Hardy, Deanna Hinde, Samantha Horsfall, Mayo Ishigami, Asim Khan, Kiri-Ana Libbesson, Margaret Maguire, Danh Nguyen, Danny Pamma, Shaun Plant, Sabina Read, Shira Sacal, Stephanie Stevenson, James Sullivan, Richard Susskind, Matt Vaughan, Ryan Zahrai, Shadé Zahrai, Demetrio Zema, Malgosia Zietara-Miller

Disclaimer

The views expressed in InView are those of the article’s author, contributor or interviewee (as applicable). Except where clearly stated otherwise, these views 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.

Editor’s letter

Dear InViewers,

I am delighted to write this letter reflecting on our past two years of growth and connecting with one another. When I began the InView community in early 2021, I had high hopes for the depth and breadth of the community we could create. We have certainly exceeded my wildest dreams and continue to do so.

Aptly so, this magazine edition focuses on connection. We were fortunate to meet many of you in person last year at our InView Conferences in London and Sydney. These experiences brought our community closer than ever and truly cemented why we began InView – to give in-house counsel a voice and a place to learn, connect, share and grow.

Change and uncertainty plagued 2022, but rather than focusing on the negatives in this issue, we look to the silver linings that resulted from the struggles. We discuss with a panel of General Counsel from across the globe, the unexpected opportunities and happy accidents that came out of business complexity. As they say in the governance world, the flip side of risk is opportunity.

A year of chaos (some would say) saw many of our InViewers thrown into the deep end and we explore the realities of becoming a leader and navigating responsibility.

Technology is, as always, an omnipresent theme, although the conversation has shifted from questioning its value to exploring its best uses. Pondering tech-enhanced futures and which legal tech options to choose, ensuring that we are solving real problems and not just band-aiding problems we’ll have to fix again in the future.

Self-perception and self-worth were frequently contemplated by our community last year. There is a growing understanding that designing legal careers to suit oneself and fulfil professional and personal values is possible. The question is, how do we best design our futures?

Lastly, we look at the war on talent and why hedging one’s bets on their people during tough times is worth it. The GFC taught us what not to do when it comes to letting talent go. Looking to the future, businesses must work harder to provide a culture that caters to counsel’s needs.

With a cornucopia of themes coming to a head, I wonder what 2023 will bring.

Thank you, Sian Simpson sian.simpson@lawvu.com

Margaret Maguire General Counsel at Fexco

Pandemic produces unexpected silver lining

by Connor Amor-Bendall

That every cloud has a silver lining might be a cliché, but it’s turned out to be true for many in the legal industry. The global pandemic has produced a shift to more high-tech, efficient and cost-effective ways of working.

“Covid provided an unexpected opportunity to reflect and reassess on the current and future direction of the company and to ensure the correct structures and processes are in place to support the longevity of Fexco,” says Margaret Maguire.

The company experienced an economic pinch due to Covid in 2020, reporting a loss for the first time. As a result it has incubated business opportunities in sustainability and renewables, diversifying its product offerings and evolving the senior leadership structure.

“One of the consequences of Covid is that we have all become somewhat inured to change in our personal and professional lives,” says Maguire. Becoming comfortable with change is a good thing, especially for lawyers who are notoriously hesitant toward it, and Maguire sums up the shift in attitude very neatly when she quips, “Covid put the last nail in the coffin of our photocopier.”

The widespread adoption of legal tech and legal operations that has occurred in legal teams across the globe has resulted in positive impacts on efficiency, accuracy and cutting costs. Maguire notes that the move to widespread e-signing also proved to be a revelation, making the process of contract signing smoother and more efficient. “There’s no more chasing directors down corridors.”

The pandemic created myriad unexpected events, one of which impacted Maguire personally. She was promoted to GC. “Being given this unanticipated opportunity was probably the best thing that could have happened as I didn’t have the chance to second guess myself. I wasn’t actively pursuing advancement opportunities. Between the demands of having three young kids and doubt as to whether I had built up sufficient management experience,

I don’t know whether I would have initiated moving to the next level myself.”

In fact, Maguire has embraced the challenge and in retrospect, realizes she was ready to take the step. Becoming a leader has been an enlightening experience. “I have come to appreciate that fostering a culture of output, being valued over hours involves a top-down approach, and sending emails at 10pm creates an expectation amongst more junior staff that they must follow suit.”

Another issue important to Maguire is creating an environment where her team members feel valued and can grow, and she is also acutely aware of the benefits to be gained by generating business buy-in. As her team is hybrid, remote and in-person, she actively encourages a sense of belonging and unity. “Switching jobs is much easier to do when done from behind the comfort of your home desk, particularly if you don’t feel you are part of a team.”

The “war on talent” plays on Maguire’s mind, especially given Fexco’s headquarters are in rural County Kerry in southwest Ireland. And while the pandemic has resulted in many negatives, one positive is the widespread acceptance of hybrid work environments, which, according to Maguire, has “widened the pool of talent”.

Pre-pandemic, Fexco had a monopoly on providing high-value interesting work to locals who did not wish to leave Kerry, but the employment landscape has changed dramatically. Thanks to the acceptance and consequent growth of remote work, competition for jobs has increased.

Maguire refuses to be daunted, she believes the shift in outlook has created an opportunity for Fexco to double down on its unique selling proposition. Everything comes down to perspective, it seems, and her glass is half-full rather than half-empty.

“Covid put the last nail in the coffin of our photocopier.”

Keeping calm in the chaos

by Connor Amor-Bendall

What to do when the world goes mad was a central theme in both our Sydney and London InView Conferences last year; we invited an amazing group of GCs to share their thoughts on two panel discussions on how they navigated having the world’s metaphorical kitchen sink thrown at them. Below are some of the key lessons.

Putting people first, not letting talent go in a crisis with Seshani Bala, GC at KPMG New Zealand

During a recession, businesses often slash headcount as a cost-saving move. Bala believes this a mistake. “It’s important to think long-term and have a committed strategy to retaining key talent,” she says.

“Avoid chaotic, knee-jerk reactions at all costs, as these have long-term impacts on your brand, reputation and future resourcing. People are the foundation of every business. There will always be fierce competition and demand for outstanding talent regardless of a cyclical market, and I say this as a former private equity lawyer who began my career during the GFC.”

Market peaks and troughs are as natural as summer and winter. As Bala points out, slow patches provide an opportunity to upskill and diversify existing talent, to

become more agile and optimize legal services through technology enablers and efficient processes.

“The best lawyers are recognized as high-value targets in the market and they know it. If they feel they are on a sinking ship that has lost momentum and vision, they are likely to explore other options,” she warns.

Corporate knowledge transfer can seriously hinder a business during already stressed times. Putting people first and leading with integrity while making tough decisions is critical in a crisis.

“It comes down to leading with empathy, clear and transparent communication, being supportive and keeping people motivated. We’re all in this together, and to quote Abraham Lincoln, ‘this too shall pass,’” Bala advises.

“The best lawyers are recognized as high-value targets in the market and they know it. If they feel they are on a sinking ship that has lost momentum and vision, they are likely to explore other options.”

Horizon scanning - being proactive, not reacting, especially after Covid with Margaret Maguire, GC at Fexco

Keeping abreast of potential issues on the figurative horizon is the epitome of proactive law. “For Fexco, horizon scanning is a dedicated workstream that forms part of the wider group risk and compliance strategy,” says Maguire.

What exactly is horizon scanning? Maguire describes it as “keeping track of upcoming and prospective legislation on an ongoing basis and sharing details of any relevant prospective legislation with the legal team, the executive management and the wider business”. In other words, seeking out compliance and regulatory issues before they land on one’s desk.

The benefits of horizon scanning are extensive. Maguire points out that it enables companies to be ahead of any imminent regulatory changes that will impact operations. “We can put in place the necessary processes and procedures to ensure timely and cost-efficient compliance,” she says.

On a different note, horizon scanning is a perfect precursor to innovation, a chance to identify upcoming legislation developments and begin to ideate opportunities that could benefit such change. “One recent example is Fexco’s development of PACE (the Platform for Analysing Carbon Emissions) which was born out of a recognition that regulation governing emissions and emissions reporting is likely to grow significantly in the coming years,” she says.

Navigating risk profiles of different geographical areas with Danh Nguyen, Group General Counsel, Paysend Group

During the past couple of years, Nguyen found himself facing a complex challenge - navigating risk profiles

in different geographical areas. Paysend is a Fintech disruptor and offers financial transfers to over 170 countries across the globe for individuals and businesses. Keeping abreast of an evolving regulatory landscape in so many regions is no mean feat and the scope for risk high, which required agile, creative thinking from the legal team.

Nguyen says remaining closely connected with colleagues, consultants and other subject matter experts in different regions was crucial to staying on top of potential risk. Being transparent with information and listening to others’ approaches to mitigating issues was a key learning for his team.

Nguyen spent considerable time reviewing and revamping internal policies and procedures to make them more robust and agile. Doing so created more dexterous responses to regulatory changes and new requirements from regulators. He points out this also allowed the team to identify and plug any gaps.

Holding regular touch-base calls during the height of the pandemic ensured alignment of strategy and approaches to regulatory compliance. A silver lining of leveraging Paysend’s extensive network was efficient and effective horizon scanning, which Nguyen and his team will continue to do.

Saving space for firefighting with the 60/40 rule with Teresa Allan, Vice President, GC & Ethics and Compliance Officer, Australia & New Zealand at Capgemini

Saving space for firefighting is Allan’s hack to navigating a crisis. Allan operates by a 60/40 rule: allocating 60 percent of her time to current work and saving 40 percent for inevitable firefighting and managerial responsibilities. “From a personal perspective, it gives me the illusion of control because I have the space to be able to respond

quickly and appropriately as the situation needs,” she says.

As a VP and GC, Allan is a designated escalation point for matters. By scheduling time for such matters, Allan minimizes the risk of her being the bottleneck. She says it also means she’s less likely to drop the other balls she’s juggling when she has to respond to something urgent.

The 60/40 rule allows Allan’s team to operate in a more relaxed and confident manner. The legal team take comfort in knowing she is available to bounce quick queries off and to provide support. The wider business knows matters won’t disappear into a long escalation cycle up to Allan.

Logistically, Allan recommends blocking out time in your calendar so others don’t fill it up and explaining to team members that “although you have time, you still can’t drop everything at a minute’s notice”. Creating a culture where the legal team is cognizant of the GC’s time and scheduling regular catchups is the way to go.

Wicked problems, not everything can be solved with Christina Hardy, GC and Company Secretary at Opal Healthcare

Wicked problems are issues that fundamentally cannot be solved despite one’s best efforts. “I wish I had known about them my entire career,” says Hardy. Lawyers are constantly faced with issues to fix; being able to identify when one is ‘wicked’ saves time, stress and headaches.

She learned that it pays to consider how one approaches decisions. For instance, before sinking one’s teeth into an issue, deliberate if the issue at hand should be handled individually, consulted upon or delegated.

Navigating being a unicorn in a recession with Malgosia Zietara-Miller, Director, Group Head of Legal at Personio

When Zietara-Miller joined Personio last year, the company was experiencing a shift in operation. A unicorn company, Personio was used to exponential growth pre-pandemic. “We used to go full speed ahead with everything we do and used contractors and external support to deliver in a short period of time. With the recession, we needed to become much more cost-conscious - which is normal for a company of our size - and to be able to cover as many topics in-house as we can rather than rely on external advice.”

In-house counsel like Hardy found themselves inundated with wicked problems during the pandemic. Working in residential healthcare, Hardy faced some complex challenges she could not change, such as elderly people falling ill and passing away. Learning to identify what was within her control and what was beyond it, allowed her team to focus their energy where it could be best utilized.

Hardy learned about wicked problems in 2013 when studying for an MBA. She also acquired handy decisionmaking tools. “I had been working in law for a couple of decades and had never paid much attention to the concept of legal decisions,” she says. The MBA completely changed that. “We’re lawyers, our job is to provide advice. We tend to say we don’t make decisions, that we just advise, but the fundamental thing is we do make decisions.”

Before sinking one’s teeth into an issue, deliberate if the issue at hand should be handled individually, consulted upon or delegated.

Malgosia Zietara-Miller, Director, Group Head of Legal at Personio

Becoming cost-conscious requires more specialization within the legal team. “Individuals should become experts in their areas and focus on automation of processes to allow lawyers to focus on actual legal work rather than repetitive, often administrative tasks,” says Zietara-Miller. Establishing a subject matter expert and automation balance is a work in progress. It also allows the identification of any pain points that should be eliminated from day-to-day processes.

“As for opportunities, difficult times provoke creativity and thinking outside of the box. We are continuously developing our products and are focused on how we can help our customers in this economic downturn,” says Zietara-Miller.

Leveraging the business with Faten Awad, General Counsel at MacKillop Family Services

The wider business has a knowledge base and practical experience that lawyers should leverage in any industry, yet counsel often forget this.

MacKillop Family Services provides foster care, family support, alternative education and disability services in NSW, WA and VIC. The pandemic heightened the need for support across Australia as children and families felt the repercussions of lockdowns and a health crisis.

Awad found herself in the midst of evolving regulatory changes and had to leverage her colleague’s knowledge to better equip herself with an understanding of the potential impacts of change. “Even though the rest of the organization are not lawyers, they understand the legislation they’re working in, and they understand the environment they’re working in.”

She says the practicality of talking through a situation allows one’s legal advice “to come alive, and it’s more practical for business”. Why? “Because it’s more relatable for them, and you’re giving them what they want rather than what you think as a lawyer you need to provide.”

Tapping into the wider business has fostered strong connections and created allies for Awad. For many counsel, there is untapped potential in the connections right in front of them.

Put your own oxygen mask on first

You can’t save anybody if you can’t save yourself. For leaders, knowing this is of critical importance. Managing the demands of the executive team, clients, the board, shareholders, your team and family and friends, is like real-life Jenga. If a leader is operating on shaky ground, all their metaphorical blocks can come crashing down. Self-awareness and self-care are crucial if you want to be a great leader.

Maguire’s advice is to “find what helps you burn off the crazy”. For her, it is running. Setting goals such as 10km races helps to keep her honest and lacing up her sneakers, even on busy days. She also advises delegating and not being ashamed that you can’t do everything, whether that is at home or in the office. Zietara-Miller also advocates exercise. “If I get 40 minutes cycling, the adrenaline and endorphins kick in. I’m a much nicer person and we have a better work day.” Creating time with her family that work cannot impinge on is also crucial.

Hardy is into meditation. “I have practiced 15 minutes a day for five years. As a lawyer, in complex, fast-paced environments where you need clarity of thought to make decisions there’s nothing that beats it.” Nguyen makes space for himself by not having his work emails close at hand, be that at the gym or home, and recommends having things to look forward to outside of work such as a weekend away or a theatre show.

Being a leader and a lawyer in a crisis When a crisis hits, General Counsel (GC) and Chief Legal Officers (CLO) find themselves juggling their responsibilities as a leader with trying to retain their human touch. People want empathetic leaders who prioritize their team’s wellbeing as much as the work that needs to be done, especially when the going gets tough.

Every leader has a unique way of striking the balance between being a shoulder to lean on and being a boss. GC Allan prioritizes making space for her team to open up to her. “They know I’m available to bounce things off for them to vent, and they need that support.” She also notes the importance of thinking from other people’s perspectives and says Covid really brought this to light when people were struggling to balance home-schooling young children with working from home. “Have empathy and compassion for others’ situations.”

Hardy’s hot tip is camaraderie. “Remember to have fun with your team,” she says. “At the end of the day, you’ve got eight hours a day - realistically, more like 10 to 12 for lawyers - with your colleagues, so try and have a laugh together.”

Managing the demands of the executive team, clients, the board, shareholders, your team and family and friends, is like real-life Jenga.

Memoir of a disconnected lawyer

by Chris McGavin

LawVu’s Chief Legal Evangelist knew something was up when his feet began to drag on the way to work. He couldn’t put a finger on it, he loved environmental law and all it encompassed, yet almost overnight he’d become less organized, less effective. What had changed?

Shaun Plant was jubilant when he moved in-house at an organization with a highly specialized environmental law directorate. It was his dream come true. For the first few months it was complete and utter bliss, he sat among the scientists who informed his work and there was an everpresent buzz of conversation and stimulus.

“I was surrounded by people who had really big brains, they were highly intelligent scientists. It felt right. Conversation was effortless and we worked well together. I was living the dream. It actually felt like that quite often. Life was a dream,” he recalls.

Unfortunately, his blissful hideaway got noticed and he was moved to a building full of suits and briefcases where he joined the legal team.

“It was fine, business as usual, but not as efficient as how I’d been practicing because I had to make more of an effort to go and see people. There was a disconnect in that physical disconnection.”

What started as a small stream of disconnection soon coalesced into a raging river with his previous workflows absorbed into the current.

Plant didn’t notice this - not at first. A keen litigator, he immersed himself in fighting the good fight and achieving the best outcomes possible.

Sure, he had to walk over to the science department to chat to people, but the walk did him good, it helped him think. It was natural too that his inbox was overflowing and split between archiving systems and the printouts on his desk. It meant he was too busy to focus on the small stuff.

Reflecting on this time, Plant says, “They didn’t have any systems, they were using disconnected bits of software that the wider organization was using. That’s how we worked, information all over place. It wasn’t structured in a great way, and I was getting squeezed at the end.”

He continued in this manner for a few months, unknowingly walking deeper into the gaping chasm of disorder until an uncharacteristically shambolic showing during an important piece of litigation. Plant spouted what he describes as “complete gibberish” and was laughed out of court by the other party. The cracks were beginning to show.

“I was living the dream.

It actually felt like that quite often. Life was a dream.”

“I remember this very well. I pushed back from my desk, my hands went to the side of my head, and I looked down at my feet and said, ‘My bucket has overflowed. I’ve got too much work and it’s just pooling around my feet.’”

What he previously thought was simply the frantic pace of litigation was instead the ugly face of disconnection. It had silently invaded and eviscerated his practice. He had to get out and quickly before the pressure and stress of disconnection crushed him.

So, he left.

“I wish I could end this story by telling you how I transformed that team to be a high-performing legal function. But I can’t because I quit. Don’t wait for your wheels to fall off like mine did.”

Disconnection warped a career he loved into a prison he thought he’d never escape from.

Thankfully, Plant is much happier now. He’s found a new mission, helping other legal departments by sharing his cautionary tale in the hopes they avoid the same fate.

“I’m now helping them to spend their days living the dream, and not the Freddy Krueger nightmare that mine became,” he says.

I wish I’d let myself be happier

by Chris McGavin

Relationship quality is a cornerstone of a healthy existence, surprisingly this extends far beyond just our family and friends to colleagues and even that guy or girl on the bus. Fostering these relationships will increase happiness and contentment, and that office table-tennis tournament might add eight years to your life.

Some of the greatest sources of knowledge and insight come from those in whose footsteps we follow. Bronnie Ware took this notion to its logical end in her memoir ‘The Top Five Regrets of the Dying’ where she turned to those at the end of their lives for inspiration on how we could better live out our own.

One of these learnings is particularly pertinent in this time of Zoom and doom, where it feels as if a constant barrage of ever-greater calamities are vying for our attention spans.

I wish I’d let myself be happier.

If happiness is the key to life, what is the key to happiness? Psychologist Sabina Read believes a quote by Belgianborn psychotherapist Esther Perel holds the answer we seek: “The quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives.”

Relationships are vital to human happiness. According to Read, research indicates that an unhappy relationship can increase your chance of getting sick by 35 percent and can even shorten your life by four to eight years. Astoundingly, relationships even ranked 20 percent higher than salary as peoples’ motivation for coming to work.

So, to say relationships are important is an understatement, and not just the ones we choose. Read says the importance of relationships can clash with the atypical nature of lawyers. “Lawyers are the most atypical occupation on the planet. On average lawyers score high on skepticism, a need for autonomy, urgency and abstract reasoning, and low on sociability and psychological resilience.

“The possible implications with that kind of profile are that you’re going to be trained to look for the negative. Each of us have a set of antennae on our head that scans the world. And it’s the view of the world which we see through those antennae which we inhabit. So, if your antennae are looking for what’s not working well then that is what you’re going to see and say.”

While these antennae help lawyers to be excellent at the minutiae of their work, often they close lawyers off. Being cognizant of this and consciously opening up may be the key to avoiding what is a common regret. Even if entering the staff table-tennis tournament or making time in your busy schedule for a catch-up with a colleague doesn’t feel the most lawyerly thing to do.

Read says clinical psychologists John and Julie Gottman’s key findings of what they term relationship “Masters” and “Disasters” is particularly relevant to lawyers and can offer insights into how they conduct themselves in the workplace.

than superficial watercooler chat, making a conscious undertaking to know your colleagues and what makes them tick.

The second pillar is positive engagement and about replicating the 5:1 positive exchange ratio in the workplace.

Respond and engage is the third pillar, which closely mirrors the Gottman’s theory of bids. “We’re all making bids in the workplace for each other. They’re not always overt, so we want to be aware of what those bids look like. We have a choice when anyone bids for us or our attention, we can either turn away, turn against or we can choose to turn toward each other.

“Think about how many bids you’ve ignored or rejected from people you work with. Stakeholders, clients, colleagues, team members. We know why we do it, often it’s because we’re exhausted or frustrated, or we’ve got nothing left in the tank. But this has an accumulative impact in the workplace and in our relational capacity,” says Read.

Perception plays a significant role, too. “Perception becomes reality, how positively or negatively you and your colleagues feel about each other is what actually becomes your reality,” she says.

“Masters of relationships show interest in their partner’s world, who they are, what they do. They respond to bids for attention 86 percent of the time. They avoid criticism and blame and instead think about how they have contributed to whatever problem has appeared. They maintain a five to one positive to negative ratio in any exchange, particularly in periods of conflict. So they are feeding the good things in the relationships all the time.”

Relationship disasters are accompanied by the four horsemen of the relationship apocalypse: criticism, defensiveness, contempt and stonewalling (emotional withdrawal). Crucially, disasters respond to bids only 33 percent of the time.

Clinical psychologist Karen Bridbord extrapolated the work of the Gottman’s to fit the workplace context, creating the sound relationship workplace, which has seven pillars. First is to develop colleague maps, essentially the extent to which you know and engage with your colleagues on a personal as opposed to professional level. More

That reality plays a massive part in how we resolve our differences. “What we know about conflict is that 69 percent of couple issues are unresolvable. That probably doesn’t bode well through a legal mind. There is no neat place of arrival where two people are going to be on the same page. How we dialogue around those differences is more important than any end point,” Read continues.

The final part of this sound relationship workplace is facilitating career advancement. In reality, this encompasses much more than just suggesting people for promotions or pay rises. It should be a supporting of each other’s dreams, goals and professional development. Read says, “That’s something you can all do for each other, support each other’s triumphs.”

As with everything in life, it always comes back to people. While positive relationships are not likely to solve all our woes, reaching out will improve your quality of life at home and at work. And may spare you that dying regret.

From connected legal to connected people.

sabinareadpsychology.com.au

or follow her on IG @sabinareadpsychology

Research indicates that an unhappy relationship can increase your chance of getting sick by 35 percent and can even shorten your life by four to eight years.

More from Sabina Read at:

KISS is better

by Chris McGavin

They say inspiration strikes in the strangest of places. For Mayo Ishigami, Senior Legal Counsel at Heritage Bank Limited, inspiration struck when she left her usual work habitat and ventured to the zoo where her approach to communication got turned on its head.

Scrolling through the internet one day, Ishigami was stopped in her tracks when she came across the following sign from a zoo: “Please do not irritate, annoy, bother, harass, badger, tease, provoke, madden toward anger, displease, bully, exasperate, rile, or vex lions.”

As a self-professed lover of words, Ishigami was at first delighted by the perplexing use of vocabulary. “I love the way this [sign] captures the narrow yet infinite spectrum of unpleasant emotions that the wrong act might provoke. But now, having read it many times, I think it would be better if it wasn’t such an exhaustive list.”

The sign sparked something of an epiphany in Ishigami and caused her to re-evaluate how she’d been leveraging her love of language in a business context. She concluded that in a sense she’d had things back to front.

“I love words, I love reading, and I think most lawyers would share these sentiments. And that’s why at work, our natural habitat is in word processing applications. The problem is that our clients probably don’t share these sentiments.

“I’ve spent far too much time writing and rewriting, agonizing over a piece of legal advice, cramming it with technical detail and what I thought was insightful analysis only to get the following response: Thanks, so can I do it? Or even worse, can you just tell me yes or no.”

Going back to the sign, its problem is that to properly adhere to the sign, you need a nuanced understanding of animal behavior. What exactly is the difference

Mayo Ishigami, Senior Legal Counsel at Heritage Bank Limited

between displeasing and vexing a lion, or provoking and maddening it? More critically, what actions would a lion find irritating or annoying?

“Consider this,” says Ishigami, “who is the audience for this sign? What’s the context in which they’re reading it? What’s the information, the level of detail that’s relevant to them? I put it to you that other than your average zoo going lawyer, most visitors probably won’t read this sign and lawyers might spend too much time reading it and over-analyzing it.”

Being one such lawyer, Ishigami spent a long time pondering the best way to simplify the sign so that it retained its message. She eventually settled for: don’t make loud noises; don’t feed; and don’t touch.

“You no longer need to stop and think, is my behavior going to enrage an animal? Am I vexing a lion? In short, you’re no longer being asked to be an expert in animal behavior. Similarly, for most operational things the business doesn’t need an in-depth analysis of the law, what they need is a clear signpost about what they can and cannot do.”

easiest of tasks, especially in areas with a high degree of regulatory complexity.

“There is, however, an art form to conveying enough,” says Ishigami. “Reframing isn’t just about simplifying your message, it’s also about presenting your advice in a way that’s easily absorbed by the business.”

As most lawyers know, adapting the law to match the pace and communication styles of a disruptive company takes innovation. For Ishigami, her inspiration is a source often regarded as the antithesis of agile businesses, TikTok and memes.

“The pace of business, the cycles of change, and the way we communicate is shorter and sharper. An effective way to achieve this is through visual representation - think memes and TikTok videos.

“Visual representation can often convey a concept more simply than a paragraph of text. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. To help those of us who are less creatively minded, there’s now a range of tools and apps that are available at our fingertips.”

What Ishigami is suggesting is that in-house counsel should make their legal advice decidedly less… legal. Recognizing that as opposed to being an opportunity to flex your intellectual muscles, communication is instead an opportunity to test your knowledge and to see how much you can convey with little.

Therein lies the epiphany. The business doesn’t need a Latin-laden, all-encompassing summary of a legal position to act or to know you’re an effective counsel. What they need is quick, consumable information which enables them to work at the pace required to deliver the value they must.

“In an environment of increasing regulatory complexity, the in-house legal team’s value is in its ability to give legal advice which cuts through that complexity. We should use our deep knowledge of the business to simplify what the law means to the business while enabling them to effectively manage their legal risks.”

Unfortunately, the act of encapsulating the full breadth of the law into an easily consumed bite of information isn’t the

Ishigami’s approach has an obvious ancillary benefit too. The more approachable the information becomes, the more likely others within the organization will be to engage with simple legal matters. Users may come to you with solutions already prepared as opposed to a list of problems waiting to be solutionized, leaving more time for you to spend on difficult and engaging tasks.

“This means users are no longer overwhelmed by the size and length of the content. They no longer have to wade through the labyrinth of rules and actually make decisions about which one might apply to them. For the legal team, it’s meant less time reworking incorrectly applied schemas.”

And much like those zoo visitors, your users shouldn’t need to understand the full extent of a lion’s emotional state to know whether or not it is safe to put their arm in a cage.

For most operational things, the business doesn’t need an in-depth analysis of the law, what they need is a clear signpost about what they can and cannot do.

Sullivan’s travels - tales of a veteran

by Chris McGavin

Should you share a campfire with a seasoned adventurer, you’re bound to hear a few stories, from fire-breathing dragons to mystic castles. If you stay awhile, you’ll hear about triumphs and woes. Pay particular attention to every lesson they learned because they’ve obviously lived to tell the tale.

When it comes to his career, James Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel at Ziglu, has had his fair share of adventures. He’s worked in private practice, telecommunications, financial services (including time as a fund director during the financial crisis) and been involved in three fintech start-ups. Oh, and did we mention he’s also found the time to complete an MBA. Travelling this varied pathway, he’s learned some valuable lessons:

Lesson 1: Trust is everything, but don’t trust everything.

Throughout Sullivan’s travels, there has been one everpresent fundamental in every team he’s been part of, and that is trust. “The one thing that underpins a team is trust. Trust is the foundation, the bedrock of a happy team,” he says. “A core component of the trust relationship is trusting your manager to be able to have full and frank two-way dialogue. A lot of managers are reluctant to do that, so you’ve got to enable people to have full and frank conversations with you and challenge you.”

Without the ability to challenge and dialogue effectively, it is likely your team will feel they are being dragged along by your whims as opposed to forging their own destinies. Not so much a cohesive unit, rather a collection of dusty marionettes.

James Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel at Ziglu

Sullivan says that integral to this process is creating an environment where it is possible to have these discussions without the threat of backlash. “Provide an environment of psychological safety. For a lot of people, it can be difficult working in an organization. You have to create an environment where people can come to you with difficult problems.

“The key thing is that the person trusts that they come to you with anything and you’re not going to blame them. You’re just going to get to the solution and then look for the lessons learned.”

people feel recognized publicly too. You’ve got to be able to show them recognition.”

The perfect time to employ these learnings is now. You take a step onto the table and regale the other patrons with the story of how, if not for one large breath of fire your team would’ve been safely off the mountain with more riches than they’d ever dreamed of. The inn erupts in cheers. Most importantly, all your team are beaming with pride having been publicly recognized for their heroics.

Lesson 3: Rising up the ranks

You’ve completed your course at knight school and are ready for your first adventure. How do you know when you’re ready to make the step up from orcs and goblins to trolls and dragons? Sometimes it is not the size of the adventurer, but the size of the adventure which leads to the greatest progression.

Lesson 2: Maintaining morale

Imagine the scene: You’ve been chased away from a pile of treasure and kicked off a mountain by a dragon. You drag yourself back to the inn empty-handed, nursing bruised bodies and even worse, bruised egos. Your usually upbeat band of merry men and women and rogues are a little down in the mouth and no one has even touched their ale. Exchange the dragon for acquisition, large purchase or any other high-complexity piece of work an in-house counsel might face and the above is undoubtedly a familiar scenario.

Sullivan uses two key tools to maintain morale within his adventuring party. The first is to check in and see how they’re going.

“Make sure you’re having regular one to ones with your team. I fall down on that myself sometimes, but I do try to make time for my teams. Conversations with the leaders of my teams need to be not just about all the things you’re working on, they also need to include how you’re getting on, how are you feeling. Lots of open questions so it ends up being a conversation rather than an opportunity to report up.”

His second key tool is recognition and praise. “Giving recognition and making sure people feel they are appreciated and recognized by you costs nothing. It’s easy to do. But take this one step further, make sure

“When I look back at my career, I think the thing that has progressed my career is not necessarily just changing jobs or being promoted, it’s taking on really large, chunky and impactful projects,” says Sullivan. “Things that made a big difference to the business and got me noticed by senior people within the business.”

The same also applies when you want your team members to progress. It is extremely difficult to make the pitch for promotion or a loftier piece of work if that individual isn’t recognized within the company or by the leadership team.

“You can provide people with really interesting projects, where they have access to stakeholders they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. That might mean they have to speak to someone on the board or present to the board. If it’s something so strategically important for the business, people will notice that person within the organization. That is a way you can provide progression: get people speaking in places which gets them noticed.”

Lesson 4: Off on a new journey

Having earned your stripes clearing a local farm of marauding goblins, your party is on the hunt for a new adventure, ideally one with more treasure at stake. There’s no reason to jump at the first opportunity that comes along. It would be foolish to charge in without working out what comes next, and even more importantly, after. Take time to gain information. That was a lesson Sullivan learned early on.

The one thing that underpins a team is trust. Trust is the foundation, the bedrock of a happy team.

“I’ve tended to be very opportunistic about my role changes, I don’t come with preconceptions. If something gets passed to me, I will look at everything and have that first conversation. I’m very open-minded. When I do look at a role seriously, I think about what comes afterward. I don’t think about that role being the end game, I think about it as a stepping stone to my career.

“What comes next if I do this role? What does it unlock for me that I wouldn’t have access to if I didn’t do that role?”

Interestingly, people’s drivers tend to change over time. When first starting out, you’re happy to rid a farm of goblins, not for what it brings next but because it provides you a handful of coins and a story. But a true adventurer is always looking towards what is to come.

“When you’re younger, earning a bit less and in nonsenior roles, you’re looking for more money, progression and a senior title,” says Sullivan. “But once you’ve pretty much achieved many of these things, it’s more about do I believe in the mission, are these people I want to work with, can I make an impact, do I have the opportunity to have a voice, and can I influence decisions? Those things are much more important for me now.”

Lesson 5: From adventurer to juggler

After many quests, you’re now one of the most venerable adventurers in the land. You’ve fought dragons and trolls, found treasures great and small, and even managed to rescue a princess (or prince). The question is, how do you

manage your family and your land while continuing your great journeys? According to Sullivan, the key in a word is prioritization.

“Ruthless prioritization. I’m very keen to find the things not to do. I’m not a slave to the business, just reacting to everything that comes across my desk. I am very ruthless about the things I will do.

“Other than that, I think carefully about what the things are I can focus on that will make the biggest impact. Where can I add value that others can’t? Where are the opportunities to really move the needle, rather than grinding and being a slave to the work that comes in?”

For young adventurers who don’t as yet have the same luxury to ponder such points, Sullivan’s advice is the same but different.

“It’s about stakeholder management. It’s about understanding what’s a priority and what’s not in everyone’s mind. Everyone’s own work will always be their priority, and they also want their work done first. It is about having a conversation with your stakeholders and making them understand how you see priorities for the business. We are one person and we have only a certain number of hours in a day.”

Sullivan’s lessons are for adventurers’ brave, new and old. If you apply them next time you come up against a dragon, you may be able to slay the fire-belching beast and claim the gold.

The power of vulnerability

by Connor Amor-Bendall

As humans, we are afraid of being hurt and feeling shame or rejection. Although these feelings are valid, our fear hinders our ability to be vulnerable with others, which in turn hampers our ability to truly connect.

“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” These are words written by American professor and author Dr Brené Brown, who is widely acclaimed for her research on the power of vulnerability and its role in living a wholehearted life.

Through her research, Brown has found that human connection underpins vulnerability, more specifically our desire for it, and she debates the idea that being vulnerable leads to harm. In fact, her research shows vulnerability to be an incredibly powerful tool that can lead to us living more authentic, meaningful and connected lives.

As Aristotle said, “Man is, by nature, a social animal.” We have always created communities, our nomadic hunter-gatherer ancestors lived in groups due to a need for kinship and a reliance on each other to survive. Relying on anyone is inherently vulnerable. In today’s individualistic society, where money can buy you anything you need, our reliance on others to survive is lessened. We are less connected.

Brown notes that many of us are afraid we’re not worthy of connection and so put up our guard - doing this stops us from connecting - and she says vulnerability is the birthplace of joy, creativity and love and that our society tries its hardest to avoid it. “The research shows that we try to ward off disappointment with a shield of cynicism, disarm shame by numbing ourselves against joy, and circumvent grief by shutting off our willingness to love.”

More bluntly, she highlights the fact that the current US population is the most in debt, addicted, medicated and obese generation in history. Our lack of connection and tendency to numb negative feelings consequently impacts our ability to feel positive.

Essentially, we live a life with an aversion to risk (particularly in Western culture), but this is stopping us from ever reaching our potential or feeling true happiness. Why? Because we can never truly connect with others if we aren’t completely open ourselves.

Being vulnerable is a radical act in this day and age, but it has the power to transform our lives. Being willing to fail, willing to show our humanness, and willing to reach out to someone first, all constitute acts of vulnerability. When applied to both our professional and personal lives, the potential for connection and reward is immeasurable.

The human desire for connection also translates into the workplace. As humans, we favor those who we trust, and I’m sorry to break it to you, but the statistics show we don’t trust lawyers. A Princeton study by Professor Susan Fiske and associate professor Cydney Dupree, asked people to rank professions by their perceived competence and warmth. The results are predictable. Lawyers are seen as highly competent and incredibly cold, efficient, capable but ruthless.

Vulnerability

Lawyers are not encouraged to be vulnerable. In fact, it would be fair to say they are encouraged to be the opposite: defensive. For in-house counsel, changing this mentality is key to their ability to excel in their job. Counsel want to become strategic advisors, to be holistically involved with the business and to have a seat at the table. There is no way this can be achieved without trust, which requires, yes, vulnerability.

Imagine if lawyers applied vulnerability to their work. How would their relationships with their clients change? How would their relationship with the law change? How would their role change?

is the birthplace of joy, creativity and love and our society tries its hardest to avoid it.

Richard Susskind, President of the Society for Computers and Law

The pace of change is accelerating

by Connor Amor-Bendall

Richard Susskind, OBE, is President of the Society for Computers and Law, Technology Advisor to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, and author of 10 books. We discuss with him the inevitability and evolution of technology in the legal profession.

At the foothills of change

It’s 2045, you wake up to a personalized newsfeed in your peripheral vision (thanks to your augmented contact lenses), a list of what you have on today, and intricate metrics about your sleep, pulse and other health indicators. You eat breakfast looking out the window, the landscape is decorated with your favorite digital art, and a notification pops up – you have one hour till your first meeting with the legal team in the metaverse. You choose the outfit your avatar will wear today and run through your notes so the digital you that gets to run around the internet is prepared.

This scenario is purely hypothetical, but it could be possible. Technology is developing at an exponential rate, and although we do not know what the future will hold, we can be certain it will be further changed by technology and its evolution.

“We will experience more change to our personal lives and legal services in the next two decades than we have in the past two centuries,” says Susskind.

We are witnessing the real-time commoditization, industrialization and digitization of the law. The legal market is already experiencing a metamorphosis as new competitors make themselves known, and humans are no longer the only ones who can solve legal problems.

Driving this change is the exponential development of technology. “Processing power, hard disk capacity,

memory and bandwidth are all growing at an exponential and explosive rate,” says Susskind. He adds that rather than leveling off, the pace of change is accelerating to a point greater than humanity has ever seen. “Our systems are becoming increasingly capable.”

It is now commonplace to hear of technological breakthroughs, with new apps, systems and start-ups pushing the boundaries of what we historically thought could only be undertaken by humans. This capability leads to pervasiveness.

“By pervasive, I’m not just referring to handheld phones and laptops, rather the internet of things, chips embodied in everyday objects, humans becoming more linked and connected to one another,” says Susskind. The more people who are online, the more pervasive our connectivity is.

Pondering the reality of more capable, pervasive and evolving technology may scare people, lawyers in particular. One only has to look to the countless apocalyptic sci-fi films such as ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Dune’ to appreciate humanity’s uneasiness about technological development. Yet accepting this truth and focusing on how we can use technology to our advantage is the way forward. Burying one’s head in the sand isn’t.

Reflecting on the past two decades alone, society has been transformed by technological developments. Social media has redefined how we interact, generated entire new professions in content creation and given marketing a direct line into our minds. Remote working has

In years to come, AI systems in law will be relentless, rigorous, and won’t suffer from hangovers or Friday afternoon syndrome.

redefined how white-collar workers can do their jobs. The internet has become an online market of virtually anything you need, from groceries to outsourcing work to cheap offshore resources. And apps are a part of our everyday lives.

“It’s safe to assume that our lives in 2030, both personal and in legal services, will be changed by technologies that do not exist yet,” says Susskind, noting that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have a significant role to play in these new developments. “I want to make it very clear that this is a defining era in the evolution of humanity that is happening on our watch. We have to take it seriously in the law.”

What makes AI so powerful is its ability to absorb and make sense of data through machine learning. Susskind likens this to learning a language in school versus by immersion. When learning vocabulary and grammar, it can still be hard to speak and absorb a new language. On the contrary, when one immerses themselves in the culture of a new language, they subconsciously absorb huge amounts of data - from hearing others speak, watching television, listening to the radio and even reading shop signs and navigating foreign grocery labels.

“As humans, we have a huge capacity to absorb huge amounts of data and make sense of it,” says Susskind. “This is what machine learning does.”

Machine learning systems absorb vast amounts of data, and clever algorithms make sense of that data to discern patterns and trends. What is remarkable is that if we have enough past data, we can make very accurate predictions about the future. “In years to come, AI systems in law will be relentless, and won’t suffer from hangovers or Friday afternoon syndrome.”

Some lawyers may be perturbed by this faith in technology, but as Susskind says, it all comes back to

client outcomes. People don’t want to buy a lawyer’s (rather expensive) time. They want the best and most cost-effective legal result. Chief Executives and private practice clients will always be interested in legal alternatives that offer faster, more accurate and cheaper services than their human counterparts can produce.

“There’s no finishing line. No one in Silicon Valley, China or South Korea is saying the job is done,” says Susskind. “Rather, they say the pace of change is accelerating, which leads me to what I find to be the most exhilarating and disconcerting aspect of all of this - what I call uninvented technologies.”

Awaiting the alpha attorney

Susskind believes that when we ponder the future of law, we should focus on legal issues and outcomes. He implores us to consider the developments in the medical field when considering developments in the law and asks, “Do sick patients want neurosurgeons, or do they want better health?”

The answer is obviously the latter. Neurosurgeons, although invaluable given the work they do, will hopefully become obsolete as more preventative forms of medicine are developed. No one wants to undergo open brain surgery; it is often a last resort to a huge problem. People want intelligent healthcare systems that can detect and prevent issues from escalating into a major health scare. The same goes for the law.

As preventive medicine and non-invasive surgery are the future answers to many health issues, innovative legal services will most likely have a lot less to do with lawyers and more to do with machine learning that can predict and prevent issues from arising in the first place.

In a Thomson Reuters article addressing the nexus of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and law, author Sterling Miller notes “much like how email changed the way we do business every day, AI will become ubiquitous – an indispensable assistant to practically every lawyer”.

The reality is AI can and will continue to outperform humans in many tasks, particularly work that requires the compilation and analysis of data to predict and argue

“There’s no finishing line. No one in Silicon Valley, China or South Korea is saying the job is done. Rather, they say the pace of change is accelerating.”

future decisions. “The brute force of machine learning will exceed the bounds of what we can predict,” is how Susskind puts it.

For readers dubious of the inevitable relationship between law and AI, Susskind refers to the game of Go to illustrate just how capable it is. Go is an extraordinarily difficult and complex game invented in China over 2500 years ago, which it is thought to be harder than chess as it relies on intuition and abstract thinking. In 2016, AlphaGo, a program invented by Google, shook both tech and Go communities by defeating Lee Sedol, one of the world’s best Go players, with an unknown move.

Susskind says that if a human made the move AlphaGo did “we would have called it creative, imaginative, perhaps even genius”. However, he elaborates that the move was none of these things. “It was brute force computing, the use of lots of data and clever algorithms.”

Susskind believes the success of AlphaGo demonstrates that we are entering an era of increasingly capable nonthinking machines. Which isn’t necessarily bad. Humans invented AI to serve our societies, and lawyers will play a pivotal role in creating legal technology that better serves their clients.

The burgeoning justice-tech sector is a prime example of how AI and law can work together to create more equitable outcomes. Thomson Reuters describe justicetech as technology-enabled innovation that creates legal solutions to support self-represented parties in the US criminal and civil justice system.

Legal technology will continue to encourage the disaggregation of traditional labor models in the law. As AI and robotic process automation are both more efficient and accurate at handling routine legal grunt work, lawyers will find themselves with more time on their hands. This will allow lawyers to be more creative, epitomizing the role of trusted advisor and extending the typical legal remit.

Rather than being bogged down in discovery and contract review, lawyers can adopt a more client-centric role, providing a tailored service to nip legal issues in the bud before they have a chance to blossom. Perhaps rather

If machine learning can create better legal outcomes than humans, we’d be remiss not to prepare for a digitized legal machine.

than idolizing litigation lawyers, we will place more value upon the intricate art of mediation.

Is it feasible to consider an Alpha Attorney? Realistically, yes. If machine learning can create better legal outcomes than humans, we’d be remiss not to prepare for a digitized legal machine. In truth, no one can predict what the future of law will look like, but we do know it will be tech-centric and will change clients’ expectations of lawyers.

More for less

An inveterate worry that plays on the minds of General Counsels (GC) is the increasing pressure to do more with less. It’s not difficult to imagine them lying awake at night, crunching numbers as they attempt to conjure a way to reduce their spending on external counsel. Or dwelling on how to reduce internal headcount whilst compliance and legal work mount up and dreaming up ways to work faster despite strained resources and bulging workloads.

This mounting pressure begs the question: how will we come together to create solutions that deliver legal services efficiently and at a lower cost? Something has to give, as the equation of less time plus fewer resources and more work does not equal feasible or sustainable.

be on the same technological playing field as the industries they serve.

“Innovation is where the real excitement will begin in the world of legal technology for lawyers, not automating the way we work today,” says Susskind.

Solving the imperative issue of doing more with less requires shifting the legal industry’s mindset to embrace innovation. To achieve this will require a greater understanding of how technology can enable us and the demystification of tech. Susskind notes that humans, and lawyers in particular, harbor a suspicion of technology. It’s worth emphasizing that technology is not a living entity with sinister intentions, humans developed it to improve our lives.

Lex Machina is a prime example of technological innovation designed to better legal outcomes. Developed by Stanford University and bought by LexisNexis Group in 2015, Lex Machina is said to predict the outcome of patent disputes in the US more accurately than patent lawyers. It uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to mine data from millions of pages of litigation information, discovering insights about judges, lawyers, parties involved, and the subjects of the cases themselves.

“It turns out that if you have enough objective data about the past behavior of the courts, you can sometimes make a better prediction of likely court decisions in the future than using the legal method,” says Susskind. That is innovation.

Understanding the difference between innovation and automation is stumping many in the legal profession. Susskind explains: “Automation is the optimization of existing ways of working to give us efficiency gains, while innovation is the use of technology to do things that weren’t previously possible.”

Susskind, believes technological innovation is the key. He is adamant that the reigning era of Big Law will soon end, that law firms must pivot to focus on innovative legal solutions rather than sticking to traditional ones. If they don’t, they may find themselves becoming redundant in the face of new technologies that will better serve the demands for legal services.

Linking technology with lawyers will produce a powerful combination, one that can better serve clients and the mounting demands than current arrangements. It would be a mistake to ignore the fact that our world is an increasingly digitized and industrialized world. It is essential legal services

Many of the existing ‘innovations’ in the legal tech space are just automation. Think contract review systems, e-discovery, matter management systems and e-billing. Moving offline systems to the Cloud falls into the same category. The legal industry has fallen into the trap of dressing up the familiar in automation’s clothing and lost sight of innovation.

Simply digitizing paper processes is not enough to meet the increasing demands for legal services in this technological age. To revolutionize legal services, we must strive for solutions that are smarter than our current processes, not just faster. The demand for legal services is exponentially growing, which presents an opportunity to dream up creative and intelligent new ways to service clients’ needs.

“Innovation is where the real excitement will begin in the world of legal technology for lawyers, not automating the way we work today.”

The Goldilocks approach to legal operations

by Chris McGavin

Too hot, too cold, just right. The Goldilocks concept is a simple porridge-like recipe of two ingredients, a vision statement and a roadmap. When applied to legal ops it can result in an output that’s neither too onerous nor too complex but just right for the needs of your organization.

The key to good legal ops is having a plan, says Stephanie Stevenson, Director of Legal Operations at TripleLift. “A team without a plan is reactive. Being in-house, we are often reactive. Having to react to what the business wants. We’re providing a service and we need to be flexible.”

The two competing needs of a legal function, having a plan and the flexibility to match the speed of other business functions, led Stevenson to a piece of work by English poet Robert Southey. First published in 1837, ‘The Story of the Three Bears’ is today known as ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ and it was where Stevenson found her inspiration.

“It brings us the Goldilocks concept,” she says. “On the one hand, there’s no point going through a grand multiyear, 50-page document plan because it’s never going to stand the test of time. But equally, you need more than nothing, which leaves you at the smallest bear if we’re going to the ‘80s version of the story. We’re looking for sufficient yet achievable.”

Stephanie Stevenson, Director of Legal Operations at TripleLift

Much like making porridge, a sound and effective legal ops strategy requires only two key ingredients, a vision statement and a roadmap.

It is Stevenson’s opinion that a vision statement is a brush broad enough to stand the test of time and rise above corporate and macroeconomic changes that occur, while the roadmap is the practical reality of how that vision can be achieved.

“You have to start at the end. It’s on all of us to try to drive this concept of vision and roadmap, or however you want to articulate your strategy forward, because we’re all trotting off in one direction, hopefully the same one, but often with no idea where we’re going.”

Starting with the end goal in mind makes it easier to ideate a process to reach that end point rather than floundering around, wondering in which direction you are aiming.

grand multi-year, 50-page document plan because it’s never going to stand the test of time. But equally, you need more than nothing.

Thankfully, for both our porridge and implementation, we can rely on the work of our forebears in much the same way. Stevenson believes that utilizing ready-made or prepackaged vision statements or roadmaps is the best way to ensure your team makes that first step towards building out these plans.

“We might think of ourselves as wordsmiths, but probably not in the context of visionary aspirations for our team. Once you’ve got something down on paper, and remember it doesn’t have to be original, you have to socialize it.”

Pragmatism always trumps perfectionism at this early stage; it is always better to have something rather than nothing. “I would say this isn’t meant to be perfect. Anyone that’s trying to come up with a perfect vision is going to fail immediately,” warns Stevenson.

There are a few rules to guide this imperfection. You wouldn’t mix steak and chocolate in porridge (well, most

people wouldn’t), so it makes sense that both the vision statement and roadmap are informed by logical congruity. For instance, there is little point in melding your corporate objective and vision statement unnecessarily.

“The corporate objective is normally something along the lines of make money and be a successful business, which the legal team can only contribute to indirectly. We want a vision statement the legal team can connect to and feel like they can contribute to,” says Stevenson.

Having crafted a not-quite-perfect but just-right legal ops integration strategy, it is now time to generate buyin. According to Stevenson, the best method to aid the socialization of your strategy is the addition of data to ground and inform some of the more abstract elements.

“Don’t forget about data. It’s been my experience that data is really helpful, an objective lever to push for change. Everyone can spin a story, right? But if you can back it up with data that makes it much easier.”

Once again, that pragmatic porridge approach wins outnot too much data or too little, just the right amount - and it must be matched with a story.

“Data alone is not compelling, no one has been persuaded by an endless list of charts. The two must go hand in hand, the story backed up by data,” says Stevenson. “The data in the story is what’s motivational and what inspires people to do things differently. Data is just numbers in a place that is kind of measurable, that gives you some insight.”

The perfect legal ops implementation strategy doesn’t exist, but one which is just right is readily achievable using the right process. Keep iterating and implementing and soon you’ll find an approach that is not too barebones or too onerous, not too hot or too cold.

And if you’re in need of guidance, take note of what Stevenson says. “You don’t need a three-day offsite, a 50-page document or an MBA to produce a strategy for the legal team. Equally, having no plan is a missed opportunity and a sure-fire way to just sit in that reactive state.”

Having a plan is always better than no plan. Or as Goldilocks would say, “This is just right.”

There’s no point going through a

A communication masterclass

with Shadé Zahrai

by Connor Amor-Bendall

Communication is the root of connection, It builds trust, a key tenet of any healthy relationship. It’s well known that lawyers aren’t the best communicators, that they’re often lacking in emotional intelligence. Behavioral strategist Shadé Zahrai tells how to evolve one’s communication habits.

“Self-awareness is the root of good communication,” says Zahrai, former lawyer turned award-winning peak performance consultant. Perception and awareness go hand in hand. We all perceive things differently; recognizing that and genuinely trying to see things from another point of view is what makes a great communicator.

As Zahrai shares, cognitive appraisal is the term used in cognitive science to describe our conscious and unconscious processing of information that determines our interpretations. She points out that although the subconscious is not present in a situation, it influences our emotional response and decision-making. Essentially, it stores screeds of memories that impact how we consciously react to something.

“The subconscious loves to give you answers, typically based on default processes that were formed through previous experiences, creating biases. But those answers aren’t always correct, or they don’t give us the full picture,” says Zahrai.

The core of emotionally intelligent communication is tapping into your subconscious. Zahrai implores us to analyze how we interact with others and to ask how well we really know ourselves. She says being self-aware of how we are wired, how we react, and paying attention to that, requires conscious effort. “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

The hard truth is that lawyers score low when it comes to emotional intelligence (EQ) which is an essential skill for success in business and life. EQ is crucial to our interactions, our ability to communicate authentically and to persuade others. So how does one change or improve their EQ?

Listening is a crucial aspect of EQ and communication. And while most of us assume we are fine at listening, it seems we couldn’t be more off the mark. As the late American author Steven R Covey said, “Most people do

not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

Zahrai believes today’s fast-paced world bears some responsibility. We are always thinking ahead to the next meeting, project, event or commitment, and instead of genuinely being present with someone, we are formulating our response in our heads and waiting for a space to interject. We might think we’re having a conversation but in reality, we’re not.

The dream team formula

Zahrai believes there is a formula to create the ultimate team environment, one

The humanness factor is what Zahrai identifies as compassion, consideration for others, and genuine care. Whereas the courage factor constitutes directness, candor, and the ability to speak up.

The empowered, high-performing team = high humanness, high courage. Have you ever attended a team meeting where people laugh and respect each other’s company? Where they actually ask multiple questions about presentations and give constructive feedback?

Zahrai is adamant we need to change this. “If you really want to improve your ability to communicate, to influence, to drive outcomes, the most important thing you can do is actually listen to people. It’s a basic element of emotional intelligence.”

Rewiring neural pathways or old unhelpful habits is her solution to becoming a better listener. “When you consistently have a particular thought, you create a new neural pathway, a brain-based pattern. By changing thoughts, we can unwire old patterns and create new ones.”

She recommends conducting a communication selfassessment, taking notes for a week or two about how you reacted to others, how you addressed them if you asked questions, and what kind of questions were they? A selfassessment can show where your biases lie: you can then begin working to undo them.

Zahrai suggests acting like an investigative journalist - be curious, ask people questions about themselves and their situations - you will eventually gain their trust. Empathy is also key to being a good listener and communicator. Genuinely caring completely changes the nature of a relationship, be it professional or personal.

It’s important to see our work relationships as more than transactional and to put in the same effort with colleagues as we do with our families.

This is the optimum team environment - one where people are open and empathetic with each other yet not afraid to be honest about work, keeping outcomes in mind.

Yet getting to this place takes work; most teams operate in one of three other states, where humanness and courage aren’t balanced.

The apathetic team = low humanness, low courage. Chances are you’ve experienced this kind of toxic team environment. One where people don’t feel valued or heard, resulting in a deep-rooted fear of speaking their minds.

The happy, under-performing team = high humanness, low courage. These team environments are like a mirage. At first glance, everything is fine, but then you realize that open discourse and genuine relationships are stifled by the fear of honest feedback.

The volatile, frustrated team = low humanness, high courage.

Raised voices, unrealistic expectations, and ruthlessness are omnipresent in these types of teams. An environment where courage is ripe but empathy is absent is a recipe for a never-ending argument.

If you really want to improve your ability to communicate, to influence, to drive outcomes, the most important thing you can do is actually listen to people.

based on humanness and courage.

From Counsel to GM

by Heather Kidd

Michael Green, GM of Partnerships, UK and EMEA at Xero

At the core of every organization lies people, and any attempt at leadership should begin with not only an understanding of these people and their shared humanity, but a celebration of it. This realization has informed much of Michael Green’s ascendancy from junior solicitor to general manager.

Before Michael Green, GM of Partnerships, UK and EMEA at Xero, ventured into a commercial role, he was a solicitor at one of New Zealand’s top law firms. One fateful night would change that, the clear path towards partnership giving way to the exciting unknowns of the start-up world. Green was invited to attend the Xero Christmas party as a plus one, and by the end of the night had been persuaded by the CFO and Sole Counsel to join the company.

Always ambitious, Green thrived on every new opportunity that came his way, and it was opportunity that eventually saw him move to the UK as the sole lawyer in the London office. There, Green found himself shaking hands across the full suite of business functions and the exposure to the commercial side of things planted a seed in his mind. Could he transfer to a non-legal role?

At a crossroads, he pondered the question: “Do I love the law, or do I want to use my skillset elsewhere in the business?” As that fateful night at the Xero Christmas party had shown, Green was predisposed to adventure.

His move to the UK in 2017 was timely in that it coincided with Brexit and the GDPR, which largely reshaped the legal landscape. Effectively navigating not only the legal complexity of these two events, but the sociopolitical complexity as well, proved Green could not just work but excel in ambiguity. A particularly good thing for a business to know about you.

This experience shone the spotlight on the plethora of transferrable skills lawyers have. Skills they’re not necessarily aware of, says Green. “In-house lawyers grossly underestimate how amazing their skillset is.”

These skills often transcend mere technical expertise and expand into creative and critical thinking, emotional intelligence, resilience and leadership. The skills of the human condition.

To further cultivate his idea, Green embarked on a factfinding mission to find out exactly what other business units did. “I spent lots of time with senior leaders around the business across sales, marketing, product and partnerships, diving into what they did on a day-to-day basis.”

His intention was to gather information and insights as to the realities of various commercial positions and to understand where he would best fit. However, the more fact finding he did, the more he realized that leadership was defined not by technical ability but by intangibles.

“Building up trust is crucial,” says Green. Given that lawyers are already valued and trusted members within their organization this wasn’t too difficult, so he focused on building his credibility in other areas. “I aimed to become a go-to person on all business issues, not just the legal ones.”

Trust is reciprocal, and an essential element of becoming trusted by other functions within an organization is learning to trust them as well: shifting from counsel to colleague and working together to forge a community of achievement.

“I’ve always loved the idea of almost transcending individual accomplishments and moving into a role where you create an environment where people want to perform and do the best work of their lives,” says Green.

His metamorphosis can be described as having a desire to understand the human aspects in his work more readily. Green began as a lawyer embracing business and has evolved into a lawyer celebrating the humanity in business.

“I love the idea of togetherness; I love the idea of working together to solve problems. That is probably the biggest learning that I’ve had as a leader; you can’t do everything yourself. And even if you can, you’re not going to do the best job at it because good results come from collaboration and diversity of thought. I call my move to leadership over the past 10 to 15 years a move from IQ to EQ to WeQ.”

“In-house lawyers grossly underestimate how amazing their skillset is.”

Demystifying legal ops

by Heather Kidd

Legal operations should not be seen in isolation, it’s a collaborative way of working. While many view it as ground-breaking for in-house legal teams, others feel we are becoming a victim of our own success, tantalized by the bright lights of technology instead of giving ourselves a solid base with which to operate. Are we trying to run before we’ve even walked?

The recent explosion of legal ops has turned what once was quiet tinkering into something of a gold rush, with a veritable plethora of developers and professionals attempting to optimize every conceivable aspect. While legal ops should be a vital consideration for every legal function, it is not a panacea and should not be treated as a silver bullet to be fired at every conceivable issue. Instead it is something which has potential to exponentially increase the value-add of your legal function, given a thoughtful and well orchestrated implementation.

Asim Khan, a Senior Legal Counsel and Legal Ops specialist, has found a particularly human way to explain the misgivings. “Recently, I was speaking to a product engineering colleague at work. We both have daughters and were discussing My Little Pony toys. He mentioned the variety of toy products, how you can buy one that’s just a pony but then there’s the accessories and toys that morph into unicorns or Pegasus or whatever. It’s like, which one fits your needs?” Trying to understand and determine the difference between a feature and an actual product.

And much like that child in the abovementioned toy store, the sheer weight of choice can be paralyzing for legal departments, and provide a couple of novel problems. The first, how do you know which vendor to go with? Surely not all are made equal, and no doubt none are perfect, but how do you discern which best suits your situation. Second, how do you know which solution to go for? Is it better to opt for several specific solutions or one which attempts to encompass them all? Should you opt for the most basic, or the downright flamboyant? Are you careering past your skitips attempting to solve problems you don’t yet have?

Ummu Fallon, Legal Ops Manager at Camunda, an open workflow and decision automation platform, acknowledges that time is a big issue for most organizations. “There are so many single-point solutions out there and it’s a timeconsuming and complex business trying to understand them and to work out what is right for you.”

Khan concurs. “The challenge with point solutions is they can have limited future prospects and it comes down to what you as a team value as your biggest challenge and where you’re looking to change things.”

Fallon says it vital to pinpoint and prioritize your pain points and align them with your competence, OKRs and goals before starting your search. Set out your requirements, ask for a demo, build up a good understanding of the products available and ensure your preference fulfils your requirements before committing fully.

Proceed, but with caution, is what Khan advises. “Too often the view is to throw technology at something. It’s like technology is the answer but we don’t really know what the question is. It’s important for teams to take a step back, to understand where their challenges are.”

Too often the view is to throw technology at something. It’s like technology is the answer but we don’t really know what the question is.

Fallon says that due to the current high demand for KPIs, a significant part of legal ops is being able to produce data that will show the GC and the company that the technology implemented is providing ROI, and that staff are spending less time on mundane tasks and focusing on high-level work. Helping to better attribute value to a legal function.

“Have a clear overview of what your goals are as a team, because a lot of people expect legal operations to come in and solve your problems,” she says. “While adopting legal ops is about trying to improve the process, it’s also a continuous improvement which is done over time.”

The process of progress

by Heather Kidd

“Courage is the fairest adornment of youth.” Those are the sage words of German Novelist Erich Maria Remarque. In the same vein, the wisdom of elders is derived from their experiences - triumphant, dire, and mundane. Combining courage with wisdom is a recipe for success, and it is exactly what the inhouse industry needs.

When we began InView a couple of years ago, in-house was the underdog. Now it is a hot commodity. There a three viable career paths for lawyers - private practice, in-house, and new law. Gone are the days of in-house lawyers being looked down upon; more lawyers are aware of the opportunity, the potential and the openness of working in-house. While the private practice world is still figuring out how to unstitch itself from burdensome

traditions, in-house lawyers are dreaming of crossfunctional, tech-enhanced legal futures. In essence, I like to think of in-house like the tech industry to the business world - it’s where the real change is at.

At our London InView Conference last year we sat down with the next generation of in-house counsel to unpack what change they want to see, and perhaps the change they want to be too.

A new dawn

“The in-house market has picked up massively, and I’ve seen more roles for in-house lawyers than ever before,” says Sam Horsfall, Senior Legal Counsel at global juice and coffee bar JOE & THE JUICE. The opportunity to foster an admirable, exciting and innovative profession is ripe, and Horsfall implores us to realize that. She also says it’s important counsel make sure their business values

Barbara Dealey, Junior In-house Counsel at Peak

them for what they offer from a proactive rather than a reactive perspective.

“I’ve come from private practice quite recently which is very linear, the career progression obvious, whereas inhouse is about taking more control over what you’re doing and focusing on getting the most out of the job,” Horsfall explains. “Career progression doesn’t have to be linear; it doesn’t have to mean that you’re going to move from head of legal to GC in one company after set periods of time, you can explore different areas, you can even explore not being in the law anymore.” Her point is important as many in-house lawyers are naturally business-savvy folk drawn to the commercial world. A step in-house can be a step into an array of business roles, continuing to drive for the synergy of the legal function with the wider business facilitates cross-functional legal.

Creating the future Barbara Dealey, Junior In-house Counsel at Peak AI, wants to see more technology integrated into our legal practices. “There are datasets available that could be used to power what legal teams do, for example, in due diligence, funding and investment rounds that would speed up that process and give us more time to think and advise.” The next generation of in-house counsel truly does see legal tech as a norm, the skepticism and questioning of the potential threat of AI to a lawyer’s work is long gone from their minds. In fact it may never have been there to begin with. lawyers will be regarded as agents of change. While that philosophy is encouraged at OakNorth, he says it’s important for in-house lawyers to modify their way of thinking within what he terms a shifting landscape. “The legal industry is currently going through a massive shift and the expectation of commercial clients is changing. At OakNorth we always want to see ourselves as agents for change and that thought process is pushed on all teams within the organization, including the legal function. It’s about legal not being just processors for whatever external suppliers and law firms provide us, simply checking their work, it’s about using our external lawyers as an important resource. We are there as strategic advisors to bring ideas to our CEO.”

Horsfall dreams of a proactive legal future, where litigation is a rarity. “My expertise is not best placed when we’re in litigation, it’s best placed when we have a project that might end up in litigation if we don’t do it right in the first place,” she says. “That’s what I want to see the inhouse legal profession recognized as – a proactive team that helps with the commercial decisions. That we’re there from the beginning and not an afterthought when everything goes wrong. And it’s on us to push that story.”

Being a strategic advisor plays into the concept of an embedded legal function, which in turn means lawyers with more than just legal acumen. Bonavia stresses the importance of relationships with non-lawyers and that in-house counsel should prioritize them to make great future decisions.

Fabien Bonavia, Senior Director of Legal and Transaction Management at OakNorth Bank, believes that in-house

That we’re there from the beginning and not an afterthought when everything goes wrong...it’s on us to push that story.

Fabien Bonavia, Senior Director of Legal and Transaction Management at OakNorth Bank

“As we progress our careers, it’s important to ask questions and meet people from outside our workplaces. In my case, some of the most important and gratifying conversations I’ve had are with people who are not lawyers. It enables you to bring all these ideas to the table and in an innovative organization, people place value on the fact that you don’t have a one-track mind. Always be thinking of how you can be the best version of yourself.”

A new culture

Our next generation believes that the future in-house culture is well to be frank, not typically legal. Gone will be the days of a hierarchical, competitive and conservative legal culture, rather collaboration, innovation and humanness will triumph.

Danny Pamma, In-house Counsel at Fluro, believes at the root of this is upskilling hard and soft skills. Placing weight on the non-technical will transform the way counsel interacts with the business. Pamma is also an advocate for mapping out one’s own career path rather than focusing

on job titles and encourages lawyers of the future not to get caught up in hierarchy. “Job titles will come at some point though you may have to move away from your organization to have progression.”

Being open and accepting of failure will be the norm in the new legal culture. “As you’re building your career, it’s not unusual to get things wrong. You must be open to making mistakes, having that openness within the team, and, more importantly, within the business. It’s not about always having the perfect solution.,” says Pamma. “Businesses move fast, you’re never going to have the right solution to the right problem for very long. In law school, and even for most of your training, you’re taught to think there’s a solution to a problem. Day-to-day, I don’t think that’s realistic.”

The work environment is also key to performance; a supportive and open workplace is one in which employees can thrive. Bonavia says a positive environment allows employees to bring their whole selves to work. “What that means practically, is don’t think of yourself as just a lawyer: you’re there as an inquisitive individual, to ask questions and build your network, both within the organization and externally.

Organizational alignment

A supportive environment, which includes not just team members but encompasses the entire business, is imperative when people find themselves in stressful situations. These days, a company’s genuine interest in the wellbeing of its workers and a good work environment are crucial and this will only become more pertinent. “The world is changing; we are on the cusp of a recession,” says Bonavia. “In terms of the globalized changes, there is the increase in interest rates, supply chain issues and geo-political risk. For people to thrive in these uncertain times, they need to be given the space to be creative –independent but supported. The best in-house lawyers get the chance to prove themselves and are then pushed.”

Gone will be the days of a hierarchical, competitive and conservative legal culture, rather collaboration, innovation and humanness will triumph.

Samantha Horsfall, Senior Legal Counsel at JOE & THE JUICE

which she says have revolutionized the teams. Prioritizing wellbeing is another issue she places importance on.

Personal pathways to success

In the new legal future, climbing the ranks to partnership or GC won’t be the only way to success. Our next generation believes that those who will succeed are those who are fulfilled by their work. The opportunity to work within one’s values and business they are inspired by creates a genuine passion for their work. “When you think about career progression, you must also think about what is important to you and how that sits with what the business needs from you. You need to identify what it is that you enjoy doing and what you’re not so keen on,” says Bonavia. “And that’s not unique to the law, that is all professions. Individuals at a certain age, at a certain point in their lives, need to have honest conversations with themselves to help guide them through their careers.”

Knowing what kind of company culture works for you is vital, says Horsfall. “When I left private practice, I wanted to be part of a culture and to provide value without being a cog that no one cared about.” She also stresses it is incumbent on companies to play their part, to make sure they find the right people to fit into their culture. “At JOE & THE JUICE we have a super-strong culture, it’s young, lively, social and progressive.”

Pamma agrees. “Picking the right company culture is important. Working at a fintech company, often the commercial teams just want to get a deal done. As a lawyer, you want to not just create a good environment for yourself but also across the business to ensure your advice is valued – even if you are quiet.”

Horsfall says she is fortunate to have a GC who is a supportive team member. “I know he will back me up, that he will be on my side whatever I do. Because of this, I can do my best work without fear of being left out on my own or thrown under the bus. Working in such a supportive environment allows me to be me and to do my best work.”

Support comes in different forms. For Dealey, it’s about equipping teams with the right tools to do the job. Peak AI recently supplied employees with electronic notepads,

“Build advocates and have friends within your organization,” advises Bonavia. “You can set yourself apart by being vocal. Telling people where you want to go means you’re raising your profile. Don’t hide your weaknesses. People are drawn to those who are comfortable in themselves and who are self-aware. They come across as secure and possessing the ability to build trust. “At OakNorth, our CEO is surrounded by people who are completely different to him, from diverse backgrounds and with different skill sets. You always want to surround yourself with people who are different to you in terms of your educational and cultural background, your own incentives and your personality. Personality is the key –personality and culture.”

In-house lawyers are already at the coalface of the commercial success of modern agile business, developing and using their legal skills and strategic nous, embracing these often-challenging environments. In the future their value will be magnified as the next generation of counsel fosters a culture that creates value.

Don’t think of yourself as just a lawyer: you’re there as an inquisitive individual, to ask questions and build your network, both within the organization and externally.

Danny Pamma, In-house Counsel at Fluro

The people vs legalsplaining

by Chris McGavin

The lawyer persona is a sometimes-vital part of life as a counsel. Especially if you’re strutting around a courtroom pontificating to a jury or perched on an oak table discussing the minutiae of a colossal deal. Both are apt situations for a grandiose air and an elegant stream of Latin.

Often, the same lawyer persona that is so vital to other areas of the law is a hindrance to in-house counsel and those who deal with them. It turns a business function that should pride itself on its ability to provide cross-cutting and easily applicable advice, to one which prides itself on its ability to espouse the full extent on demand - albeit in a single sentence.

From an alacritous business enabler to a fumbling handbrake: a legalsplainer.

Legalsplaining: noun informal, the over-explaining, overanalyzing or encroaching into a matter, typically by a lawyer, in a manner which greatly increases complexity.

Shira Sacal, Senior Legal Counsel at Rivalea Australia, believes legalsplaining is one of the principal areas in

which in-house counsel need to improve. “It really boils down to understanding your audience, the relevant stakeholders and what they need and how they want you to communicate, because there are some people in the business who don’t want a longer, broader analysis. They just want to be told yes or no; this is the risk. Short, succinct, clear advice.

lot, particularly

industry for 20 years,” she says. “You

to not legalsplain to a person who has been in that industry for a while. It’s about learning where we fit in and making sure we’ve developed ourselves without necessarily overstepping the mark.”

Legalsplaining: noun informal, the over-explaining, over-analyzing or encroaching into a matter, typically by a lawyer, in a manner which greatly increases complexity.

“Legalsplaining can come up a

when we’re new to an industry and we’re working with people who have been in that

need to be careful

Sarah Farmer, Corporate Solicitor at Queensland Airports Ltd

Kiri-Ana Libbesson, Senior Legal Counsel at Settlement Services International, believes that legalsplaining is the antithesis of what businesses want from their counsel. “They don’t want legalese; they don’t want me to complicate things,” she says. “Sometimes all they want is legal advice so they can make that informed decision. They want to be trusted with their experience and knowledge. It’s important to delineate that or work out if we’re going to give that commercial advice and how we go about it.”

While our knowledge and insight are integral to the efficient functioning of an organization, almost more important is the form in which that knowledge is communicated. And this is where that legal persona falls down. You are in a sense communicating in the way you think the organization or an individual expects you to communicate as opposed to communicating in a manner which best serves that individual or organization.

Furthermore, wading unnecessarily into an area in which you are comparatively less of an expert than the person you’re speaking with is a sure way to cause that person to lose trust in you.

Sarah Farmer, Corporate Solicitor at Queensland Airports Limited, believes it is important to be selective about when you’re the thorn in the side of the business. “Projects and infrastructure would come to me with something they thought was quite simple. They were

working to deadlines, and I’d complicate it. I’d raise things they didn’t regard as important or relevant. I got the impression they didn’t want to come to me because they knew it wasn’t going to be a straightforward process.

“I’ve worked around that by showing them real-life examples of why I’m raising what I’m raising. I’ll draw diagrams, write notes in front of them, speak to them in the language they understand. They’ll then be ‘okay; she actually knows what she’s talking about.’”

Tailoring your information to the individuals you’re communicating with is a sure-fire way to create buyin, clarify thinking and improve working relationships. Fostering an environment of trust whereby each party feels they are both able to communicate and, most importantly, that their communication is valued.

Remember, an organization doesn’t need the full history of tort law. It just wants to know whether it can act, and how speedily while remaining within the law.

Tailoring your information to the individuals you’re communicating with is a sure-fire way to create buy-in, clarify thinking and improve working relationships.

Kiri-Ana Libbesson, Senior Legal Counsel at Settlement Services International

Shira Sacal, Senior Legal Counsel at Rivalea Australia

When is a mistake actually a mistake?

by Chris McGavin

This is a lesson Khan believes is particularly pertinent for junior counsel. Their first error usually sticks in their gut like a knife, then every time it is mentioned or recalled that knife is given a little twist. Figuratively speaking, more senior lawyers generally have a small stack of said knives piled in a desk drawer.

Creating a culture where mistakes are embraced as learning opportunities as opposed to rods for self-flagellation, is an important next step for those in the legal industry. Having such a culture may help to erode the so-called lawyer persona, which does more harm than good.

a way to resolve and learn from it. The key is not to dwell on your mistakes.”

“There is a misconception around the dynamics of a team; everybody expects a legal team to have a culture of perfection. Studies have shown that effective teams are those that admit to errors, learn from them and move on. Teams achieve this by creating a culture where there is no risk to owning up to a mistake.

“Any culture shift begins with an individual. Whether you are the head of legal, senior counsel or paralegal, add the topic to your next team meeting and get the conversation going,” Khan advises.

His advice for juniors feeling the pang of that first big mistake is simple: “Keep calm and carry on.”

You can’t change the fact you’ve made a mistake, but you can impact your response. Take a breath, assess the situation and seek help; learn from it.

The mark of a good lawyer is not about taking pride in making no mistakes. Rather, it is about acknowledging that mistakes happen and taking pride in finding and correcting them.

Studies have shown that effective teams are those that admit to errors, learn from them and move on.

Legal Debate: Do you need your

Eight legal pros battle it out over whether it’s necessary for you career progression to do a stint in private practice before moving in-house.

TEAM: “YES, YOU DO NEED YOUR PRIVATE PRACTICE STRIPES”

MAIN ARGUMENTS

REBUTTALS

Head of Legal

Exposure to the good, the bad, and the ugly

Working in a law firm is a perfect encapsulation of what it is to practice law. High stakes, high stress and high quality apply equally to expectations, clients and work. You’ll be required to provide high-quality outputs in niche areas with rapid turnaround times. On the plus side, you’re exposed to some of the top minds in each area of the law, from Magic Circle partners to Barristers and High Court Justices. Minuses include being yelled at by top-tier clients if your work isn’t up to scratch.

Natural networking

Private practice lawyers gain access to people who are on track to become top litigators, judges and partners. It is likely you’ll share some collegiality with these highflyers, albeit through your shared suffering. You’ll be able to access them for informal, off-the-record advice if you’re faced with difficult problems or need highly specialized information.

You might love it!

You may love life in private practice, in fact you may well become a High Court Justice or a brilliant barrister. But you won’t know that unless you give private practice a go. If you try it and it’s not for you, the transition inhouse will be much smoother than going the other way,

moving from a restrictive environment to one offering more freedom and expression.

Investment and training is incentivized

Unlike in-house, private practice is a profit center. Their ability to output profit is directly correlated to the level of investment the firm places in them. Firms like to build up and polish their profit centers because the ROI is exponential, as long as they are continually invested in, coached, mentored and tested. The training you receive should be of the highest quality, presided over by some of the best minds in the business, because long-term it will benefit the firm.

Law is a service industry

Private practice gives you the opportunity to focus on the art of client service. There is a clear delineation between yourself as a service provider and the client. You need to be aware of that, just as you need to be objective, independent, and able to give good counsel. Furthermore, your client incurs a cost for each sixminute interval of your workday, so you must maximize your productivity within those billable units. The productivity and quality you bring with you from private practice to an in-house environment will set you apart and enable you to add massive value from the off.

Tricky training

Training in-house is highly reliant on your legal team and general counsel. If they’re not good, you’re left in the lurch. Private practice firms have structured training programs, CLAs and engagements with experts. At worst you’re engaging from the best through osmosis, at best you’re being molded by the brightest minds in the field.

Unlearning

It is easier to move from private practice to in-house than vice versa. The loss of freedom and autonomy, the billables and the suits can be jarring to say the least.

Ryan Zahrai

Christina Hardy General Counsel

Danh Nguyen General Counsel

Matt Vaughan Former GC

your private practice stripes?

Dukadinovska Senior Associate

Holistic commercial advice vs top-down legal interpretation

Stevenson Director of Legal Ops

Pamma In-house Counsel

Information overload

Working in-house requires that you fully understand the organization you’re in and its goals as opposed to optimizing your work for a profit structure. Your advice needs to be bespoke and consider not only a strict legal interpretation of a matter but also take into account a holistic understanding of the organization’s objectives. You’ll develop a keen commercial awareness and be able to apply that to a wider variety of practice areas and matter types compared to private practice.

Eating what you kill

As the billable hour is at the core of private practice firms, there is a greater focus on individual achievement compared to in-house as your worth is intrinsically linked to your ability to produce billable units. This leads lawyers to work harder not smarter and in a more isolated manner. It can contribute to ill health and burnout. Additionally, these lawyers have trouble adjusting to life in-house and tend to further silo themselves due to their unfamiliarity with such a teamoriented environment.

Dick Senior Legal Counsel

In-house lawyers pride themselves on their ability to provide just enough information to enable their organization to act speedily. Clarity and effective communication are lauded in-house. There is much less pressure to adopt a lawyer persona or stun your clients with an unhelpful flourish of Latin to justify your expense. In-house lawyers use their communication skills to help their organizations navigate ambiguity as opposed to the oft black-and-white world of private practice.

Institutionalization

The longer you stay in a private practice environment the more you become institutionalized in doing things the law firm way. Your ability to provide creative solutions to novel problems is stunted as you must focus on billing as opposed to building relationships and providing genuine value to your client.

Innovation

As in-house counsel work in cutting edge organizations, they’re embedded in a culture of innovation; encouraged to adopt technology and find outside-the-box solutions or improvements to workflow. Private practice means you’re a slave to precedent files as long-established ways of working.

Thrown in the deep end

The budgets for in-house legal teams can be small. This means they must do more with less and figure things out they’d otherwise send to external counsel. You get a great variety of work, and can’t rely on templates or a partner to find answers for you. Best of all, because you’re thrown in at the deep end you don’t have to photocopy, do discovery or type your partner’s notes.

Tiresome tropes

You can be an outstanding lawyer if you haven’t trained in private practice; no standard specifies in-house trained or private practice trained. All lawyers are lawyers, held to the same standards and accountable to the same things.

Which side are you on?

Stephanie

Danny

Courtney

Marija

Sometimes it’s about the legal hug

by Connor Amor-Bendall & Heather Kidd

The legal profession is being challenged on numerous fronts these days. Young lawyers are leading the call for more enriching and positive experiences, and happier work environments.

The late American entrepreneur Jim Rohn was onto something when he said, “Happiness is not by chance, but by choice.” It’s a point of view shared by Demetrio Zema, the founder and director of Law Squared. Zema has voiced his concern about the number of people in the legal profession who are unhappy, and he is urging lawyers to look for ways to change the profession and its perception by the public for the better.

“Why is it that the legal profession has such a bad reputation and how, as a profession, have we got it so wrong?” he asks.

Zema is very open about his own experience, of how in 2015 he was working in private practice where he was a disgruntled and sad litigation lawyer, burned out, exhausted and bitterly unhappy. He dreaded social situations where he might be asked what he did for a job, which would invariably lead to someone chipping in with a tasteless joke about lawyers or comments about financial greed.

Zema recognized that to give himself the future he wanted he had to break away from the hamster wheel that is private practice. The desire to change the profession for the better was a key driver for Zema as was being happy –professionally and personally.

“I had a clear mission when I started Law Squared to change the conversation people were having about lawyers. Rather than the negative comments and bad jokes, I wanted people to be talking positively, about how they knew a good lawyer or a law firm, where it wasn’t about the money, the billable hour, but about the outcomes achieved.”

Zema also talks about lawyers inadvertently being the handbrake to happiness for their employers. How a lack of technology equates to a lack of efficiency which in turn means playing a less satisfying role within the business. “The value of you as an in-house counsel is not in reviewing contracts, it’s not being a handbrake to happiness, it’s about being a key strategic commercial partner and helping the business to achieve its end goals. It’s not reducing the amount of money the firm spends on externals or trying to replace that, it’s about understanding from a partnership perspective what the executive are trying to achieve, what the shareholders want to achieve, and what your role in that is going to be.

“Our role as lawyers is not to make the decision for the business. Where we see legal teams get it wrong is where they become the handbrake to happiness. The value you add to a business is not being that handbrake, the value you add is in finding the solution so the business can achieve its objectives.”

As well as handbrake to happiness, Zema uses the term legal hug. “Sometimes it’s about the legal hug, people just want the hug. What is your legal hug going to be?”

When it comes to lawyers’ wellbeing, statistics make painful reading. A study in the 2016 Journal of Addictive Medicine revealed that 20.6 percent of lawyers had a serious problem with alcohol, 28 percent suffered from depression, 19 percent from anxiety, and 23 percent were in a state of stress.

Happiness and hugs are words that have positive connotations, as does value add. Zema says a key driver for any lawyer should be a desire to be a practical and commercial partner for the business they work for, it should be about the business saying make sure this goes to legal rather than how do we avoid sending this to legal. Imagine a work environment where people were happy to willingly engage with legal.

“I wanted people to be talking positively, about how they knew a good lawyer or a law firm, where it wasn’t about money, the billable hour, but about outcomes achieved.”

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CHANGE I (youshouldtoo)

Dear lawyers, it’s change speaking

by Connor Amor-Bendall

Change and humans - we don’t always get on well. Change and lawyers - we’re at loggerheads with one another. I’m aware lawyers are time-poor, overworked, and being asked to do more with less. Embracing new ways of working is the last thing you want to deal with. But perhaps you should.

Hello, how’s it going? I’m about to ask you a favor… please don’t say no. I need your full attention – it won’t take long –but it will require you to tear yourselves away from whatever you’re working on right now and listen up. I want to talk about that dirty six-letter word, the one that causes so many of you to dive under your desks (just kidding) when it’s mentioned – change.

I understand that for those of you already juggling incredibly full plates, it’s easy to liken change to that last variable that sends everything crashing to the ground. I know what you’re picturing right now, broken crockery scattered at your feet. It’s like an analogy for what happens to your brain when the word change is mentioned; an explosion occurs. Which is why I thought writing this letter could be helpful. Fear not, I’m not about to list a thousand reasons why you should change, but instead show you what can happen if you do.

But first, let’s rewind. Let’s address that stubborn little voice in your head that says, “No, no let’s just stick with the old way!” What you’re feeling is perfectly normal; most people feel the same. Think about the saying, “back in my day,” humans love that one. Do you know why that is? I’ve got the answer (I’ve got all the answers actually), it’s because fundamentally you fear change.

There’s a good reason for this fear of change. Part of your brain, the amygdala, sees change as a threat. The amygdala releases hormones and triggers the sympathetic system, intimating fight or flight when you face change. It goes without saying that lawyers must have a very active amygdala. I jest, although I’m fairly sure most of you know there’s some truth to this.

Change can be awkward. Did you know that it can take six or seven times of doing a new task, workflow or process before we become comfortable with the new way of working. Lawyers must hate that. It’s anathema to you guys and the time-poor, pressure, pressure environment you inhabit.

I know you are creatures of habit, it’s your nature, it’s your job to err on the side of caution. You are literally in the business of risk, so it makes sense that compared to most people you are uber-hesitant about change. Do you need facts to support my claim? Got one right here for you from Thomson Reuters.

“While it is relatively universal to be resistant to change, the legal profession has been particularly resistant.” Ouch!

Believe it or not, there are people who make a career out of helping people navigate change. Deanna Hinde, Senior Client Success Manager at LawVu, is one such person. She believes building individual desire is key to successful change management journeys. I agree with her.

Change management journeys. Ha, I bet a whole bunch of you banged your heads diving under the desks just reading those three words (just kidding, once again). You’ve come this far, hear me out. It’s a fact of life that people have not only the power to enact change but to also block it.

Individual desire is truly the be-all and end-all when it comes to the adoption of new technologies. As I mentioned earlier, don’t tell people why they should change, instead paint a picture of what will happen if they do. If stakeholders believe the future way of working is better than their current way, the chance of building a willingness to change is greater.

So, let’s get to the what. From my point of view – and is there any other? - embracing legal tech and change is what sits between counsel and a better work-life balance. Burnout is a common theme with you. A 2021 Gartner study found that 54 percent of lawyers are exhausted, with an additional 20 percent highly exhausted. This is madness. Improving these stats simply must be a priority.

I understand that the law is a super-stressful profession with high levels of responsibility. But – newsflash - there’s tech out there designed to ease your burden. Why aren’t you jumping to embrace it?

I don’t want to scare you off, but are you aware that legal tech creates more accurate processes and better legal outcomes by harnessing cloud-based computing, AI and machine learning? From what I’m hearing, counsel often forget that and get themselves caught up in the nuts and bolts of the implementation process. I implore you to think of the bigger (prettier) picture, the one that shows you what your life could look like once you embrace change.

Imagine your legal team equipped with AI to automate and standardize your contracts. Picture an intake system that directs legal queries to the right person or a self-service platform that answers frequently asked questions, aka no more frustrating back-and-forth emails with the wider business.

Or think about how efficient your team would be if you used a matter and contract management system that allowed real-time collaboration. In other words, no more receiving PDFs with red-line comments (yes, I know how that makes your blood boil). Not to mention the risk of having multiple versions of one contract or document.

Having an up-to-date dashboard of your legal team’s current work ensures collaboration between your team and drives structure around your intake process, ensuring you’re working alongside the goals and objectives of the business.

Take the plunge, commit to change and you will see the automation of your low-value, high-frequency tasks and create a lot more time for yourself. I know counsel want more juicy work; you are sick of the BAU, of outsourcing mergers and acquisitions to external counsel.

The weird thing is, you want change (it’s true, I know you better than you know yourselves), but you don’t want to deal with the process of adopting it. It’s time to change the mindset people, shrug off the defeatist and pull on the cloak of optimism. Break change up into digestible milestones (good tip that) and embrace a brighter future. It’ll be worth it.

“If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” I can’t take credit for this saying of course, some human bright spark got there first, but it makes sense. And if it makes sense to me, it must resonate with you. It’s worth investing time in defining what success looks like so you can communicate future ways of working that will foster a desire to change within your key stakeholders.

Well, that’s it. I’ve had my say. I just hope you’ve stayed with me ‘til the end. It’s time to wrap things up, to offer you my final words of encouragement. Transitioning to a new normal takes a crystal-clear vision and significant energy. Create a digestible change journey with landmarks that celebrate wins, no matter how small. Doing so will foster energy and a genuine willingness to participate in your journey. Sometimes I wish I were human… undertaking a journey of change sounds super exciting.

There is tech out there designed to ease your burden. Why aren’t you jumping to embrace it?