In-House Counsel

The Road Not Taken: I Don’t Want to Participate. How Can I Support?

What’s worse than not participating in a corporate-wide initiative? Not participating. What's worse than not participating? Not participating and complaining about it.

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Get on board with company policy!

Get on board with company policy!

The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. -Captain Jack Sparrow

A big difference between working as a lawyer in a law firm and working as an in-house attorney is mandatory participation in corporate initiatives to improve productivity, organization changes, or achieve an overall corporate objective. Often, it doesn’t matter that the initiative is not compatible with a legal department’s activities. Everyone, including the legal department, is expected to enthusiastically support the directives from on high.

This expectation of enthusiasm from management and our corporate colleagues applies to everyone in the organization. For larger organizations, most divisions will have similar complaints: the directive does not completely fit with the work they do, it is inefficient, and any changes will be superficial. These company-wide initiatives can vary from requiring signoff from multiple departments in order to move forward with an opportunity to requiring meetings conform to a specific structure. And, just like us in the legal department, our colleagues in other divisions may not see the benefits of the initiative. In fact, none of us may ever see the purported benefits, but we go through the motions anyway.

We can think it is stupid. We can think it is a waste of time, but we must go through the motions. In most organizations, participation in such initiatives is required. At a law firm, you may have to suffer through a change in billing software, but overarching strategic or operational changes are generally not priorities for law firms. For businesses, if it is a company-wide mandate, it is a priority and if you aren’t on board, those tasked with implementing the initiatives will notice. So we go through the motions.

We go through the motions because those for whom these initiatives are important are usually in higher levels of management. We go through the motions because as soon as we take the position that because the requirements don’t apply to us, we don’t have to participate, the corporate hierarchy weakens. Besides, as I noted above, the legal department is seldom the only division that may feel this way. What’s worse than not participating in a corporate-wide initiative? Not participating. What’s worse than not participating? Not participating and complaining about it.

When you mutiny against management’s organizational goals, and push against change, it marks you as an outsider from the corporate team. Legal departments in particular are frequently seen as resistant to change and lacking the creativity to find ways to implement improvements. Because of this, corporate legal departments have to be mindful of their response to such directives. This is where the enthusiasm comes in. Since you are going to have to go through the motions of implementing the change anyway, you can perpetuate the stereotype of a curmudgeonly legal department or you can be an ambassador of progress.

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When it comes to the inevitable, and change in a corporate environment is inevitable, our attitudes are often more important than the change being made. Furthermore, sometimes the benefits of the change don’t come from the change itself, they come from how we supported the change — the camaraderie with colleagues, the goodwill with management, and we may even get something from the change as well.

Celeste Harrison Forst has practiced in small and mid-sized firms and is now in-house at a large manufacturing and technology company where she receives daily hugs from her colleagues. You can reach Celeste directly at C.harrisonforst@gmail.com.

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