Webinar report - Legal Leaders: Horizon Scanning

Changes in the regulatory framework. Geopolitical developments. The evolution of your market sector and the competitive landscape. Just some of the ever-moving parts that affect your organisation and its outlook on risk.

Horizon scanning matters: it helps you avert risk and, potentially, transform your organisation’s direction.

‘When you’re spotting and mitigating risk, the c-suite wants you back in the room’
Alex Smith

‘Horizon scanning is a critical part of my job when planning for the future, making sure we deliver cleverly by harnessing wider developments'
Kate Means

Joining Elizabeth Duffy, Senior Director Client Engagement at Thomson Reuters Institute, to discuss this skill in our final 2025 Legal Leaders webinar were two senior in-house lawyers. 

Alexandra Smith is Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary for QBE Insurance Group’s International Division. Alex leads a team of 45 across London, Leeds, Continental Europe and Asia, overseeing legal and governance matters across multiple markets. 

Kate Means is Deputy Director of the Managed Migration and Nationality Team at the Home Office. An alumna of the Civil Service’s Future Leaders Scheme, Kate works across Whitehall to oversee the delivery of high-quality legal advice that informs public policy and mitigates legal risk.

On exactly what horizon scanning is

In a nutshell, horizon scanning is about reading the signals of change. In highly regulated industries, for example, its value lies in buying time to prepare for legislative and regulatory change and keeping the organisation compliant. Internally, horizon scanning helps the in-house legal team track what’s happening across the organisation and, in turn align legal to the wider strategic goals. This could mean, for example, assessing what skillsets the legal department will be needing in the months and years ahead. 

On approaches to horizon scanning

In large organisations, business functions only loosely connected to legal may be horizon scanning across their specific vertical. In this scenario, internal networking is vital to catch important developments across different sectors and jurisdictions. Similarly, leaning into your external network and law firms is a great way to be alerted to relevant news.

AI apps such as Copilot can also be a big help in horizon scanning - subject to the usual warning to fact check every piece of information AI offers you before acting on it. Don’t feel that, as Head of Legal or GC, you are solely responsible for horizon scanning – make it part of everyone’s role and block out time say, once a month to meet up and share what intelligence you’ve gathered or remind your team to focus on their horizon scanning, sharing some ideas of what they might like to look at or listen to (Podcasts!).

On communicating insight back to the organisation

Use a combination of strategies to share your findings from horizon scanning. Informal, everyday networking is one great way to spark conversations about upcoming developments. Another is through formal governance as, here, you can add real value and shape the future of big projects. In large organisations and government bodies, risk planning and long-term strategic thinking are big priorities, so being part of those formal processes gives you a good opportunity to put forward your ideas.

On acting on insights

Enthusing people to take action related to horizon scanning is an art. Who needs to know? Will they care about the issue as much as you? How do you persuade them to care? Use the tools at your disposal such as meeting agendas, linking your findings to specific projects or business functions and relevance to your industry-specific regulatory framework. Expect colleagues to have a degree of tunnel vision about the relevance of your insights to their role and be ready to explain the wider ramifications if necessary.

You could find that when looking to act on some of your insights, there’s no previously followed route for you to go down. You may, like Wallace and Gromit, find yourself laying the track as fast as you’re hurtling along it toward the solution to a new challenge. However, identifying a problem, finding a solution and putting it in place are the important benefitsof horizon scanning.

On demonstrating the value of horizon scanning

Showing the value of horizon scanning is extremely difficult. Like proving a negative, it’s hard to display in vivid terms how you helped the organisation avoid a penalty or produce solid data on how you mitigated a risk that few other people knew the existence of. Where you have no metrics to drop into formal reports, take every opportunity to share your successes anecdotally and informally.

You may also be able to secure testimonials from third parties to support your case. If you’ve managed to achieve compliance with new regulation ahead of your rivals, for example, your external law firm – or the regulator itself – may blow your trumpet for you.

On how far ahead to scan the horizon

For business planning, up to two years is usually the sweet spot for meaningful insight. Much further than that and things become more speculative – or even shocking! Look for trends that are the most concrete in dimension and package them in ways that colleagues will digest and understand. Be aware too of how much time you can put aside for horizon scanning and prioritise accordingly.

On embedding horizon scanning across the in-house legal team

Anyone can horizon scan. Encourage your whole team to keep their eyes and ears open and share new information formally or informally. Help them see this as an important part of their job. Many people are probably already doing it, so make them aware of go valuable their inputs can be. Indeed, for some people, horizon scanning has led to people developing a new specialism and furthering their careers in new areas within their organisations.

We hope you can join us for our 2026 series!

The CLL/Thomson Reuters Legal Leaders webinar series kicks off on 12 February with Developing yourself and your team for in-house success and recognition. Register here.