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‘Significant transformation’ is a phrase oft used to describe the major changes occurring within the legal profession, and in keeping with the reforms, in-house lawyers are finding themselves referred to as ‘legal business people’ or ‘business people with legal skills’. According to Plant, these descriptions are not new, because the original in-house lawyers were engaged to be exactly that. “It was at the end of the American Civil War when industries such as mining and railroads were starting to grow and develop. They employed reputable lawyers to do strategic work, and these lawyers sat next to the chief executives and advised them on a range of business and industry issues.”
Plant explains that these lawyers weren’t employed solely because of their legal skills. While their legal knowledge was important, it was their other attributes that appealed to the business world: strategic nous, industry knowledge, creativity, and entrepreneurial flair. Organizations recognized that this combination of skills was what they needed to help steer them towards a successful future.
“First-generation GCs didn’t adapt to the changes that were occurring in the industry – and over time the void was filled by others who could offer the skill sets that their organizations so desperately needed.”
Times have changed, however, and Plant believes that both he and most other in-house lawyers are now employed for very different reasons than they would have been in the 1880s. The type of work 21st century in-house lawyers undertake bears little resemblance to that of their general counsel (GC) predecessors and, importantly, the seat at the top table and being able to influence businesses has become an opportunity denied. The in-house function has become an operational tool, a cog in an organization’s wheel rather than one of its main drivers.
A reluctance to change outdated ways of working was the major reason behind the gradual ‘demotion’ of in-house legal. “They lost contact with the changes that were happening in the business, and they started to speak a different language,” says Plant. “The counsel they gave became outdated – it wasn’t meeting the needs of the organizations. Those first-generation GCs didn’t adapt to changes that were occurring both within the industry and in business practices, and over time the void was filled by others with the skill sets that their organizations needed. Legal focused on legal issues, and over time receded into more operational work. Which is where many of us continue to operate today.”
Plant issues a warning, saying that due to the rapidly changing and evolving global business landscape, if in-house legal doesn’t change, innovate, and adopt new processes and better ways of working, the profession will continue to fall further behind. “We’re going to become even more disconnected and further voids will start appearing which will be filled by others. If legal doesn’t keep up, we’re going to find ourselves focused more narrowly on even more narrow legal issues. The in-house function of the future needs to embrace change: they need to be trailblazers when it comes to innovation. Rather than pondering over the risks, they need to embrace technology and become accelerators for their businesses.”
The way forward includes accommodating the variety of roles that have become an adjunct to the legal profession. Among them is legal ops, now well embedded among many in-house functions, and legal futurists (people concerned with the future of law, legal practice, and legal education) who are a more recent arrival to the scene.
With innovation and technology creating a wide range of opportunities, Plant says in-house legal teams of the future will be about more than just legal. “They’re going to be business people who all have one focus, which is about using their broad skill set to enable the business to achieve success. Teams will be proactive rather than reactive – which, unfortunately, many of us are today. Everything we do, how we behave and all our processes, will be about actively heading off issues before they arise. We’re going to be seen as enablers – the ones removing roadblocks for the business – and we will use our legal skills as a sword to drive our businesses forward.”
To effect such change, a mindset recalibration is called for. Instead of in-house personnel seeing themselves as advisors, they must become the deciders – those telling the business what they need to do. Plant says the mental shift already underway will become commonplace, and coupled with it will be a change in the type of work carried out by the legal function as it becomes more complex and of higher value. All of this will result in legal being seen as a value driver within the business and not a cost center.
The singular most significant transformation affecting today’s in-house legal profession is technology. By adopting processes that eliminate the need for the legal function to engage with low-value, repetitive work, lawyers will have the time to develop their business skills and expand their legal knowledge so they have the capacity and capability to deliver high-value, complex work – the type of work that will continually challenge legal minds.
“We’re going to have streamlined enabling processes. Instead of having to answer routine questions that the business frequently asks, we’re going to be putting processes and tools in place which will enable the business to continue doing its business and find its own answers without having to engage with legal. We’re going to be getting rid of this quagmire of intake, the frustration of work coming in from a multitude of channels, and start creating the time and capability to focus on the issues that drive the organisation’s business strategy.”
Strategically triaging work means it can be assigned to the right people at the right time based upon certain criteria, which include capacity and capability. And using data collated by tech systems enables legal functions to track their metrics and report them to the business, thereby demonstrating where they are adding value.
“We’re going to be leveraging our legal assets, so we can start to use AI to recreate a lot of the work we need to do and to get it done,” says Plant. He stresses that having tools, processes, and data in one place is paramount as it will help legal respond more quickly to issues as they arise and as organizations scale. And when times get tough, and when the volume of work is overwhelming, rather than throwing more lawyers at the problem as is typically done, legal will find ways to work through issues by utilizing the processes and technology that have been put in place.
Also, if there’s any outsourcing required, the new model of operation means that less complex work will be earmarked for external providers (a cost saver in itself) with the high-level work staying in-house – encouraging the perception that it is the in-house function which delivers strategically important work while external law firms provide operational legal support.
“You don’t necessarily need a massive transformation program in its own right, but by making incremental changes over time, you’re going to become more proactive.”
Plant says identifying change initiatives is a good first step for in-house teams wanting to adopt new ways of working. “Even the smallest of incremental productivity changes are going to have a massive impact. As soon as you start to make one change, you’re creating time you can spend looking for other changes, and you can build this out.
“It doesn’t necessarily need a massive transformation program in its own right, but making incremental changes over time means you’re going to become more proactive. You’ll have more time to focus on the business so will become better connected to the organization, which will give you more time to connect with your team and the people you work with, and to do more impactful work.”
It’s time, he says, to start building yourself the in-house powerhouse your organization is going to need you to be in the near future.
Shaun Plant is the legal evangelist for LawVu, the all-in-one legal workspace. To learn more, check out Shaun’s book,
To watch the full recording of Shaun’s session at InView Sydney 2024, click here.
