Webinar report: How do you demonstrate your worth?

‘Think like a business person or you’ll waste time and money’

Huma Allanna van Reesch

‘As a trusted adviser, you can drive strategy’

Sheronda Rochelle Blackburn

As non-fee earners, in-house legal teams often struggle to demonstrate their worth in a commercial setting. Research by the Thomson Reuters Institute has revealed a gap between what legal teams achieve and how they’re viewed by the rest of their organisations.

A great topic then, for the third of our Legal Leaders 2025 webinars in conjunction with Thomson Reuters. 

Lizzy Duffy, Senior Director, Client Engagement at Thomson Reuters Institute, who has spent several years gaining insight into this area, moderated the session. Joining her were Huma Allanna van Reesch, GC, EMEA at Starbucks and Sharonda Rochelle Blackburn, most recently Assistant GC at Microsoft.

Listening in was an online audience from locations ranging from the US and Canada, through Bermuda to eastern and northern Europe.

On positioning legal as a business support function

Brands of all sizes need to consider their reputation. For the GC, this goes beyond providing mere legal advice. It’s about how you understand your wider role in the business – and how the business understands legal. Are both parties on the same page? Instead of asking, ‘Are we saying yes enough?’ ask, ‘How and where will we add value?’

This begins with understanding the business’s strategic goals and direction. Think like a business person to be an effective business lawyer, otherwise, you’ll waste time and money. 

On demonstrating value through the Four Spinning Plates model

Through its research, Thomson Reuters identified four key categories of the in-house function’s strategic priorities:

• Effectiveness;
• Efficiency;
• Protection; and 
• Enablement.

All these spinning plates are indispensable to the worth of in-house teams. However, our panel felt that effectiveness, efficiency and protection work together to drive enablement - and that enablement is legal’s greatest value.

When legal has covered all the regulatory bases, carried out the necessary risk assessments and ensured contracts are watertight, the business is enabled to grow revenues. Anticipation around upcoming regulation and preparing the organisation for legislative change are also part of the visible support models legal can provide to internal clients.

And remember, your business partners will want you to talk their language when it comes to value. So wherever possible, present your contribution in revenue terms. It’s not always natural for a lawyer to blow their own trumpet, but there’s no harm in showing off when you make a meaningful contribution.

On building the Enable mindset

In many cases, legal has a reputation for saying no. Changing that perception means reversing the legal-as-blocker perception. Two great ways to achieve this are to:

• Help the business assess risk. Unless a proposition is inherently illegal, avoid saying no straight away. Instead, regardless of whether you agree with them, help the internal client make an informed decision by setting out risks, while acknowledging the potential gains. This averts a negative experience and empowers colleagues to assess both sides of a decision calmly; and
• Help your lawyers ask the right questions. This way, the business will see that legal is genuinely looking to be a partner, not a blocker. Sometimes, you’ll know that your answer is no, but engagement with your internal client (without your legal hat on) will give you insights into their ultimate goal. In turn, this will enable you to suggest better options. Operating as a collaborator makes you a trusted advisor who others are comfortable being around.

On working out how you define legal’s value

Firstly, the in-house legal function is in-house for a reason: it needs to be close to the business strategy. When you align your department KPIs to those of the organisation, your priorities and achievements will fit seamlessly with those of finance, marketing, HR, operations and other functions. You can then demonstrate, for example, how you’re accelerating business objectives, protecting the brand and meeting its compliance obligations.

Equally, you’ll be able to identify if you’re doing work that falls outside, or against, the strategy and stop doing it. Stay aligned by making a point of understanding the strategy as it evolves in the light of geopolitics, a changing economic climate and evolving regulation. Don’t expect this to be easy as you’ll need to be horizon scanning, listening constantly and in the room for strategy meetings.

On the question of time recording for in-house lawyers

Leaving time recording behind is one of the great escapes when departing private practice for an in-house role. However, an adapted version of the process on one or two projects a year can be valuable for an in-house team. It helps leaders see which issues are taking up the most resource, where any gaps in knowledge or technology may lie and where investment in training will be most valuable.

This is especially relevant at a time when AI is an increasing presence in legal teams and budgets continue to be squeezed. If you make significant changes as a result of time tracking, repeat the exercise to measure improvements in efficiency, cost-effectiveness, protection and enablement. This is a great way to demonstrate your worth against your Four Spinning Plates model.

On tools and attributes for demonstrating your worth

Technology has brought new ways for lawyers to enhance and project their value in recent years. From video calling and online career development resources to advances in AI, modern in-house lawyers have options at their disposal that their counterparts from only a few years ago could never have dreamed of.

As technology continues to evolve, keep an eye out for new opportunities to enhance and communicate the value of legal.
Perhaps less obvious, yet no less vital, is an awareness of your leadership style and its impact on the people around you. Authenticity is a superpower. It’ll go a long way to developing your team and building the stature of legal across your organisation.

You can access the webinar recording here.

Next session: Horizon scanning, 3 December 2025
Our fifth year of the CLL/Thomson Reuters Legal Leaders webinar series concludes with a deep dive into techniques, tools and skills for effective horizon scanning. Pre-register now.