The 3 Keys To In-House Counsel

A few fundamental concepts did not test positive for anything but longevity.

2020 has been the story of a world in flux. Though some in-house counsel would argue that their world has always been one in flux. Which is not too far from the truth.

COVID-19, however, meant that very few (if any) spheres have gone unaffected; the legal profession is no exception. Thankfully, there are still a few fundamental concepts that did not test positive for anything but longevity.

The three keys:

  • Integration
  • Optimization
  • Maximization

Integration

As in-house counsel, your primary form of integration is getting law and business to gel. It doesn’t work the same way as a traditional law firm, with billable hours. In fact, it’s not really client-facing at all. The purpose of an in-house counsel is to use their legal expertise for the betterment of the company.

Usually, lawyers are too downstream to have much of an impact on contract negotiations. That dynamic creates several problems, however, including that the very people who are most aware of possible ramifications and remedies of the contract are excluded from the drafting process. So, it is the responsibility of the in-house counsel to take initiative and make themselves more involved. They should integrate with other departments by giving input on risk profiles and emphasizing the necessary role they play in every type of agreement and at every level of complexity. Their so-called tribal knowledge could be quintessential to problem-solving, and they will be useful in documenting the correct and optimal processes of governance.

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To find out more about negotiation, tribal knowledge, and the importance of governance, check out my interview with Jeanette Nyden.

Optimization

Optimization is about making things as efficient as possible. In order to do that, counsel must be prepared to make changes and to prepare the company to adopt them more broadly. It is your chance to innovate and introduce new processes.

We have long passed the BC years. We’re now in AD, the era of Automating and Delegating. Automating leverages technology (which holds obvious benefits) and delegating enables you to intentionally build a proper legal department. In addition to lawyers, you should be hiring the likes of project managers and data analysts –- doing so will ensure your team has a diverse set of skills and will optimize the individual areas within the legal department. Data, in particular, plays a key role because it enables you to have feedback loops. You cannot optimize what you do not measure, and data collection and analysis will enable you to evaluate KPIs and quantify the ROI of the alterations.

Sponsored

To find out about the ideal (I.D.E.A.L.) legal department, have a listen to this conversation I had with Laurie Ehrlich.

Maximization

In my interview with Ken Ito (see below), we had a fascinating conversation about his journey to becoming general counsel. To sum it up: resilience and upskilling.

Ken shared how he battled to find legal work following the 2008 crash but managed to do some work for family friends for a few years. Throughout that time, he kept scouting for legal jobs and later got a position as an auto insurance defense attorney — even though it wasn’t what he wanted to be. We then talked about the importance of acquiring a broad skill set and how varying your work and interests can help you to develop nuanced skills, many of which will help you to be a better in-house counsel because they deal with virtually every kind of situation. It is imperative that you maximize both time and opportunity. If it can add to your CV, applicable knowledge base, or skills, then it is definitely worth the persistence required to achieve it.

Ken is now a GC and wouldn’t trade his unique journey for anything.

The keys to unlocking potential, progress, and performance are found in integrating, optimizing, and maximizing. Strive for synergistic relationships with other people and departments as you leverage any advantage — technological and otherwise — to better you, your department, and your processes. It’ll help you survive any flux –- and we might need it for 2021.


Olga V. Mack is the CEO of Parley Pro, a next-generation contract management company that has pioneered online negotiation technology. Olga embraces legal innovation and had dedicated her career to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology. Olga is also an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor, and entrepreneur. She founded the Women Serve on Boards movement that advocates for women to participate on corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies. She authored Get on Board: Earning Your Ticket to a Corporate Board Seat and Fundamentals of Smart Contract Security. You can follow Olga on Twitter @olgavmack.