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

This year we witnessed artificial intelligence transition from a futuristic notion to having a clear impact on the way companies work. Only last year, legal operation tools were the big buzz word, as many legal departments started to recruit legal operation professionals and sought out the right system that will allow them to scale better and work more efficiently, whether in the area of contract lifecycle management, document automation, control spend or increasing a legal team’s productivity. However, LegalOps solutions, while having the potential to be revolutionary for the work of a legal department, require significant efforts and resources for identifying and screening the various tools and then implementing and integrating it with the company’s overall operations.

In contrast, the newly created AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Midjourney, are designed to be very easy for adoption by individuals, showing value to their users very quickly, and therefore almost overnight became part of the office toolkit for software developers, marketing professionals, and designers. These tools have great potential to help scale, expedite and streamline the legal team’s overall contribution. Whereas the legal discussion surrounding AI is currently focused on intellectual property issues and concerns, the legal profession, like other creative professions, should embrace AI innovation, with realistic analysis of risks but without fear.

What would you say are the unique qualities required to be successful as an in-house lawyer in your industry?

ChatGPT lists many different qualities required to be a successful in-house lawyer, from the ability to communicate effectively or having problem-solving skills. However, beyond a generic list of qualities, although each may be important, a truly impactful in-house lawyer requires first and foremost to earn the trust of her company’s various stakeholders, and constantly be accountable to preserving such trust. This, by exercising sound judgement, creativity, and resourcefulness – in accordance with the company’s distinctive culture. Assessing and then executing decisions and reinforcing company’s values not only in view of the company’s goals but also of the company’s chosen path for achieving such goals. A great in-house lawyer cannot operate effectively without trust and will not be afforded such trust without a genuine holistic understanding of where the company is headed, why and how it wishes to get there.

What can law firms do to improve their service to the legal department?

To provide valuable services to legal departments, law firms should improve their end-to-end delivery. That is, a law firm becomes indispensable to everyday operations when it is successful in providing end-to-end support in response to ongoing recurring matters, without the need to engage the in-house department. In order to achieve that, the in-house department must first define clear playbooks and guidelines suited to the company’s risk appetite, commercial positions, and procedures, and thereafter should work closely with the external team, to familiarise it with such playbooks, enable and empower the law firm to exercise judgment within clearly defined boundaries.