After graduating from the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Minneapolis, Minnesota, William was a law clerk for the state of Minnesota for three years.
He also worked as a sole practitioner in criminal defence before joining Thomson Reuters in 2010. William hosts the 2025 Legal Leaders webinars provided by CLL and Thomson Reuters.
Tell us a little more about your career journey so far
My degree is in political science with an emphasis in judicial politics and a minor in public relations. After working in the courts in Minnesota and then as a sole legal practitioner, I had the opportunity to join Thomson Reuters in a frontline customer-support role.
In the fourteen and a half years since, my role has evolved enormously. At the Thomson Reuters Institute (formerly the Legal Executive Institute), the focus has shifted from legal professionals to a diverse range of audiences. Within that, my responsibilities include curating thought leadership for all our law firm and corporate legal customers globally.
The Institute has been on a fascinating trajectory over the last decade. We’ve had the opportunity – and the trust of our leadership – to innovate and produce some exceptional work, which in turn has positioned us very strongly in the market. My key strength is turning data into meaningful narratives and usable content for our audiences across the world.
What major events have shaped the legal profession over the last decade?
Brexit and the US Presidential election brought a seismic shift to the global landscape in 2016. Then, between 2017 and 2019 we saw large law firms growing very aggressively. They increased their rates faster than everyone else yet still picked up the lion’s share of work.
The Hayne Royal Commission’s report into trade union governance and corruption had a significant impact on demand for legal services in the Australian market. Also, at that time many Chinese law firms were growing their global presence and forming tie-ups with major players in other regions.
And then, of course, you hit 2020 when everything goes pear-shaped thanks to COVID-19. It was a sort of V-shaped dip in many respects where economies went down sharply and then recovered quickly. However, what was interesting was that the law firm market didn’t really dip at all. This is because whether things are looking up or down, people turn to their lawyers in uncertain times. Following the pandemic, many businesses were flush with cash due to governmental responses to the pandemic and low interest rates, leading to a surge in transactional work.
In 2022, however, inflation soared, leaving many law firms flat footed as they hadn’t built sufficient allowance for inflation into their annual rate setting exercises. They lost buying power for the first time in this period according to the data that we track.
We’ve since seen them looking to correct that with rate increases. Simultaneously, many law firms have also been engaged in aggressive lateral recruitment. Remote working has also had a profound impact on recruitment. New York law firms, for example, started recruiting people from areas they never recruited from before and base compensation for associate lawyers has risen exponentially. Now, the current spate of global economic uncertainty is creating additional challenges in the market for legal services.
How will AI affect in-house legal teams?
AI will be an incredible force multiplier. At the Thomson Reuters Institute, one of the annual projects we run is an annual survey called the Legal Department Operations (LDO) Index. It looks at matter volumes, budgets and headcounts in corporate legal departments. Roughly three-quarters of respondents to the most recent LDO survey told us that matter volumes and complexity are increasing.
At the same time, between half and two-thirds report that their budgets and head counts are either flat or declining. Inevitably, this means more work going to external counsel, which is expensive, so in-house law teams are looking for ways to get creative and find new ways to achieve more with less.
AI can alleviate a lot of that pressure by taking over select administrative tasks and freeing people up to do higher-level strategic work. It’ll take away much of the work involved in getting up to speed with a matter and drafting a good quality first iteration. This will then reduce the time a senior lawyer needs to review work and correct somebody else’s mistakes.
How should junior in-house lawyers position themselves for career progression?
Technological competence is vital. Go beyond getting familiar with the tools and learn how to use them to improve outcomes. The focus on outcomes is far greater for in-house teams than at law firms, where inputs are the billable currency. If you can show that you can produce a high-quality outcome in a short period of time, that will be highly significant for your career.
Similarly, show that you can work with autonomy and independence. The less supervision you require, the more time you’ll save your manager. That said, you should most definitely seek out mentors and sponsors.
And finally, for in-house progression, develop and demonstrate a high degree of commerciality. The Thomson Reuters Institute often references a framework we developed that we like to call The Four Spinning Plates. It describes the critical focal areas of the General Counsel’s office:
- The effectiveness at which you operate;
- The efficiency with which you achieve outcomes;
- How you protect the business; and
- How you enable the growth of your business.
By fully understanding your organisation and its strategic goals – and applying the principles of The Four Spinning Plates - you’ll be in a good position to progress your career as an in-house lawyer.
How do you switch off from work?
I love playing golf with my twin daughters and I spend a lot of time volunteering for their school. I love music and play five different instruments. I actually own 12 guitars including several acoustic guitars, a couple of electrics, and a bass, along with a few other sundries like a banjo and a mandolin.
