Focus on: How to stay relevant

Every in-house lawyer knows this: while the resources in the organisations and in the legal and compliance teams have been streamlined in recent years, the number of new challenges continues to increase. The constant streams of new laws and regulations are evolving, and there are endless lists of emerging topics. Holding control over the multiple legal risks in the business operations while reducing costs but still providing comprehensive and efficient legal services is the main challenge for many legal teams. If the legal team cannot successfully master this challenge, they will become irrelevant over time.

Let’s not fool ourselves: having an in-house legal team is not a given. Justifying our existence solely with the ‘Director’s duty of care’ and the corresponding obligation to provide for an adequate internal organisation and risk management does not do the trick anymore. Instead, we need to prove that we add value to the organisation, and to the balance sheet every day.

This is where strategy comes into play; not the overarching corporate strategy of the company but a tailored legal and compliance strategy. How do we do more with less? How to provide better, relevant, and business-enabling level advice with less resources? The answer for this is to provide proactive not reactive legal services and to prevent the problem from happening in the first place, instead of repairing the damage later.

To achieve this, first the legal and compliance team must have the right mix of legal and business expertise with a hands-on ‘can-do’ attitude. This also applies to our external advisors, as the right advisor is not necessarily the best law firm or the most cost efficient one but the one that best fits into our team and our strategic goals.

Second, digitalise and standardise time-consuming daily routines: simplify processes and use legal tech tools where sensible. Inform the business, what the legal and compliance team is responsible for and what not. This also means saying ‘no’ to the low risk profile matters of the company. The potentially better way is to train and to empower the business colleagues to make informed decisions on low risk matters in a legally aware manner. Also, ensure that you have a sound basis for everything you do by strengthening the corporate governance, processes, and policies of the organisation.

Finally, use your ‘saved’ time to focus on what truly matters: providing detailed and individualised legal advice on all strategic projects and the management of risks.