Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

Not only have we recently witnessed significant technological developments concerning knowledge preservation and sharing, task management or monitoring, but also in the field of artificial intelligence. While artificial intelligence is also concerned with streamlining legal work, it replaces the personal contact and involvement of the lawyer.

The latter, addressing artificial intelligence, is particularly relevant to law firms, which handle large masses of transactions, clients and recurring agreements. In these cases, law firms may significantly improve their billing capacity and reduce the number of personnel due to this technological optimisation.

On the other hand, as far as the in-house sector is concerned, both in the field of company secretarial work and in the area of commercial activity, our added value as in-house lawyers comes precisely in the personal contact of the lawyer involved in the work, who knows how to adapt the legal action to the nature of the organisation. Nevertheless, such technological developments are relevant in connection with the optimisation of work to manage tasks, monitor, share and preserve knowledge for the future. They can be useful for the in-house legal teams.

Focus on…The significant advantages of establishing a strong and independent internal legal department

Throughout almost 19 years of being qualified to practice law in Israel, I have been aware of the tension between establishing a strong, leading internal legal department on the one hand and using a ‘nice to have’ internal legal department, which is based on external legal advice, on the other hand.

Legal departments only interfere with the company’s business activities, and relying on the legal advice of a large reputable law firm provides surety to the company’s managers. A robust and high-quality internal legal department that matches the nature of the organisation creates an added value of ‘triple win’.

Despite my great interest in working in the international department of one of the top ten law firms in Israel, I realised very soon that I wanted to avoid becoming a partner in a law firm. This is how I found myself in the legal department of an investment house, although I wonder if I need to make a crucial professional mistake. It took me 3-5 months to understand that working ‘in-house’ can be as exciting and satisfying as working in a leading law firm. Then, after about a year in the in-house legal department, I was fortunate and was offered to replace the general counsel of the entire investment house. For the first time, I began to lead all legal work independently. Of course, at the outset, I was assisted by external law firms that accompanied the in-house legal department’s activities. But soon enough, I realised that external legal support had started to hold me back. Later on, as my professionality matured, products received from external legal firms were no longer satisfying enough. I realised that once you lead a strong, high-quality legal department that is available and can provide accurate tailor-made responses, such a legal department creates an added value of ‘triple win’; first, high-quality legal advice that matches precisely the needs and goals of the company, all in VIP time response; second, naturally, the cost of the internal legal service is significantly cheaper; and the third ‘win’ is, of course, ours, the in-house lawyers.

On the one hand, the ability to be constructive and creative while holding a high standard of assertiveness while providing legal protection to the company and its management is fundamental for allowing the work of the in-house lawyer to be as effective as possible. Therefore, for a legal department to be solid and capable of providing top-notch legal advice, the legal department must be involved in all of the company’s commercial operations rather than a disruptive one.

This involvement not only results in the optimal utilisation of the quality of the legal advice received by the company but also substantially increases the interest of the in-house lawyer in the legal tasks and their outcome. This allows excellent satisfaction for the in-house lawyer, which creates strong solidarity and emotional linkage between the in-house lawyer and the company. And if this is not a big win – what is?

Hence, if you reach the optimal level of adjustment between these two factors, there is no better, more challenging and satisfying outcome than having and being part of a leading internal in-house legal department.