Last month, we hosted an engaging panel discussion at The Lawyer Events General Counsel Strategy Summit.
The subject in question was ‘how to make your team more commercially minded’.
Thank you to our insightful panel members Ailsa Longmuir, Luis Martin and Gavin Walles.
1. To speed up the adjustment from private practice to in-house, legal leaders should be investing time and support in new employees to help individuals take risks, develop business acumen and become part of the team. Give them time and the opportunity to observe.
2. In-house lawyers should aim to be viewed as business people rather than just legal professionals, and this can be achieved by aligning language to the business, being proactive, and having lawyers run broader projects and sitting with the business.
3. Creating a B2B relationship between the legal team and the business involves understanding the business’s needs, communicating the skills of the legal team and collaborating effectively early on in the process, to avoid any confrontation later. Lawyers should not tell the business what they know but what they need to know.
4. Use feedback and the quality of business relationships to measure the legal team’s commerciality.
5. In interviews, determining if someone is commercial involves assessing their curiosity, flexibility, risk appetite, ability to navigate difficult situations and approach to decision-making. You could include case studies and get someone from the business to sit in on interviews.
6. Hiring individuals with the right motivations and attitudes from diverse backgrounds, who have a willingness to learn and develop, is crucial for successful transitions from private practice to in-house roles.
Is there anything you would add to this list?
Jun 2024
