Focus on…General views on the in-house profession

Since I have not been in my current position for a very long time, and I started in this role with the task of setting up a legal department from scratch, I would like to share with you some of my thoughts about the role a legal department is supposed to fill in a company.

It was important for me to get away from the old prejudices that the legal department has the role of the notorious worrier and “naysayer”, who always raises his hand admonishingly and puts the brakes on new ideas. In my opinion, an in-house lawyer should be seen as a sparring partner and solution-oriented consultant. To achieve this, I therefore wanted my legal department to fulfill the following four key functions: (i) manage risks; (ii) gather information and raise awareness; (iii) create synergies (iv) increase cost efficiency.

Risk management is one of the classic tasks of a legal department. As an in-house lawyer, you must ensure that your business goals are achieved in a legally compliant manner. For me, this means dealing with legal risks proactively and not only acting when it is already too late. Identifying legal risks at an early stage makes it possible to find creative solutions and to keep corporate integrity in focus. This not only avoids sanctions, but also reputational damage.

This goes along with the second goal that a legal department should strive for – information gathering and raising awareness. To prevent problems from arising in the first place, a legal department must create awareness. For this purpose, you have to monitor legal developments on the one hand, and on the other hand reduce the complexity of legal issues in order to communicate legal requirements to management and employees in understandable language.

This leads to the third goal of a legal department – to create synergies. Legal issues arise in all areas of the company. This also means that in-house counsel usually have a good overall view of the current issues. If the legal department is involved in projects and plans at an early stage, it is possible to see and link (potential) problems across the board. In this way, two issues that at first glance appear to be completely unrelated can often be clarified with an overall solution.

Last but not least, cost efficiency should also be a goal of the legal department. Cost can be saved for the company, both by avoiding fines and expensive legal processes, as well as by effectively and cost-consciously managing external lawyers. With these goals in mind, I have by now established the company’s own legal department, and I am pleased to say that after only a few months, my colleagues have told me that they can no longer imagine the company without a legal department. I hope that by spreading this understanding, the still existing prejudices against an in-house legal department can be further reduced.