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When I landed my first in-house position over 12 years ago, I believed that my role was limited to providing legal advice to my client. When presented with a legal question, I believed that it was my job to provide possible options and to provide an explanation as to what risks were associated with each option. If asked which option I would recommend, I would routinely respond by simply stating that it was a management decision and that it was beyond my purview.
As time went by, however, it became increasingly clear to me that my response was no longer acceptable. The executive level leaders with whom I worked wanted more. They wanted me to actively participate in the problem-solving process. They expected me to weigh in and make recommendations based on my understanding of the problem and the potential risk. Coming to that realization was transformative for me, and it impacted how I interacted with executive level leaders moving forward. I began shifting from more than just a legal advisor. I began to become more of a strategic business partner.
Recently, I came across a book called “A New Vision for Corporate Lawyers” written by Peter Connor, founder and CEO of Alternatively Legal Pty Ltd. Reading his book left me wondering if I needed to rethink my approach to being a strategic business partner. In his book, Conner points out that “[m]ost lawyers, and most commentators, refer to business partnering as ‘understanding the business and developing strong working relationships with … business clients.” However, as Connor also points out, “[b]usiness partnering is something you do, not something you are.
[I]t is much more than:
- being business minded or having business acumen
- understanding the business, or
- being a business partner (the noun).
You can be a business partner, as many in-house lawyers are, but not engage in business partnering at all. To put it another way, if you are business partner it means you probably have a “seat at the table” but business partnering focuses on what you do when you are at “the table.”
This is an expression sometimes used to describe a situation where you are considered part of the business team on an informal if not a formal basis.
Being a business partner is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition to engage in business partnering.
When you are engaging in business partnering, you are “[h]elping your clients to solve/prevent business problems and to create/implement business opportunities by providing business advice or input.” Examples of business input or advice that Connor provide in his book include:
- decision support
- clarifying business objectives
- commenting on business discussions in meetings or by email
- raising potential business issues with proposals
- suggesting alternative ways to achieve better business outcomes
- pointing out nonlegal risks, especially reputational ones
- identifying business opportunities
- anticipating business problems
- referring to other analogous situations
- connecting colleagues with other colleagues who have relevant input
- highlighting personnel, resource, or process problems
- recommending courses of action
The “business input or advice may be, and typically is, provided in conjunction with legal advice. In fact, it may be difficult to separate the two. However, if you have business input to offer, you can and should do so even if there is no legal issue involved.”
After I read his book, Peter and I connected for an extended conversation about it. When asked why in-house legal teams should consider reading his book and adopting a new approach, Peter responded in this way:
“[U]nlike most other books, it has the potential to be game changing at a time when ‘the game’ really is changing big time! Anyone reading your column probably doesn’t need to be convinced that the game is changing, especially since everyone can now see how generative AI will increasingly encroach on traditional legal work.
Most people would say that, in a world of dramatic technology change, the key to change the game is to focus on digital transformation. However, that overlooks one fundamental and crucial question. How should lawyers change themselves and the work that they do? I call it human transformation and it is as important, if not more so, to find a way to change the game for people, not just systems and processes.
For individual lawyers, my book is game changing because it:
- shows you what other work you could be doing if work that you currently do is outsourced and/or impacted by generative artificial intelligence
- results in your work having more of an impact and, as a result, being more valued
- will completely change your approach to professional development and learning
- offers the prospect of addressing your professional frustrations and aspirations
- helps you become more adaptable and prepared for the future
For legal departments and legal service providers it is game changing because it changes your mission, strategies, products, and services offered, who you hire and how you develop them, what technology you deploy and how you deploy it and even your culture. In short it changes everything.
The new vision I propose applies to all stakeholders and, if adopted, can move the needle for the corporate legal industry as a whole in a totally new direction. In fact, if you read my book and, afterwards, continue to work and develop yourself as usual, then I have failed to properly explain this new direction in the book.”
If you are as intrigued as I am about this idea, you should consider downloading a free copy of Peter Connor’s book. He can be contacted at peter.connor@alternativelylegal.com or on LinkedIn.
Lisa Lang is an in-house lawyer and thought leader who is passionate about all things in-house. She has recently launched a website and blog Why This, Not That™ (www.lawyerlisalang.com ) to serve as a resource for in-house lawyers. You can e-mail her at lisa@lawyerlisalang.com , connect with her on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawyerlisalang/) or follow her on Twitter (@lang_lawyer).
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