The legal service to your organisation and your part in it

Once again we welcomed in-house lawyers from different organisations and sectors to discuss issues relevant to the provision of legal services in an organisation. Our delegates shared their experience around some of the issues that arise in providing a relevant, prompt, accurate and high quality service to their in-house ‘clients’.

It can be comforting to learn that many of the same issues arise regardless of the nature of the organisation and whether you are a sole lawyer or part of a large in-house legal function (perhaps heading a team or the function itself). The ‘service challenge’ is wide ranging, covering such important matters as:

• How you get buy-in from your client (particularly senior management) about your role and function;
• The degree to which the lawyer is (or should be) a decision-maker or should only facilitate the decisions of others;
• How you determine what work the legal team should be engaged in and how to close the door to non-essential work;
• Ensuring that you have the right skills in the legal team to meet current and future needs;
• How to avoid advice-shopping and ensuring the quality and consistency of advice;
• The process(es) by which legal advice is requested from the legal team and how it’s given;
• Finding the time to think and plan strategically rather than just fire-fighting;
• Implementing change and handling the cynics in your team.

We will explore some of the key themes under this topic in more detail in a forthcoming article on our website.   

The sessions in our Development Programme allow small groups of invited in-house lawyers to discuss areas of interest, other than the law itself. So far, we have held sessions on Personal Effectiveness, Career Development, Recovering From Setbacks, The Lawyer as Manager and The Legal Service to Your Organisation: Your Part In It. The next session in the series is on Recruitment and Induction in the legal team. 

If you would like to know more about our Development Programme, our Events or about the Centre for Legal Leadership generally and what we offer, please do not hesitate to get in touch.