REUTERS | Northern Spire Bridge lit up in yellow light, as part of a day of reflection to mark the anniversary of Britain's first coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown, in Sunderland, Britain March 23, 2021. REUTERS/Lee Smith - RC27HM9IQ77H
December 6, 2021

Working effectively across the organisation

The Centre for Legal Leadership’s final webinar of 2021, hosted in conjunction with Thomson Reuters, considered working effectively across the organisation. This post highlights the themes raised by the panellists and via questions from the audience.

Understand the business

Get out into the business so that you can really understand it. Your aim as an in-house lawyer is to become a trusted adviser who can be relied on to provide a confidential ear in challenging times. Get to know your clients and key stakeholders, and learn about their goals and motivations.

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REUTERS | David W Cerny
December 1, 2021

What’s keeping data privacy professionals busy?

As we approach the end of 2021, and after yet another rollercoaster year for data privacy, it seems a good time to reflect on what is currently on the plates of data privacy professionals and areas on which to keep a watching brief, notably the recent DCMS and ICO consultations. (For our summary of the DCMS proposals see Article, DCMS data protection reforms: summary of consultation proposals and for more on the ICO data transfers consultation see Article, ICO consultation on international data transfers: what to do now.)

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REUTERS | Mike Segar
November 29, 2021

What’s on the agenda for in-house lawyers in December 2021?

In-house lawyers should be aware of several key climate change announcements made during COP26 and of the publication of the Environment Act 2021. In addition, this month there have been noteworthy developments in diversity and inclusion, and corporate governance.

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REUTERS |
November 26, 2021

Sourcing legal services in 2021: updated legal panel review materials

Legal panel reviews are a well-established way for corporate legal teams to formally appoint a group of law firms to their panel, establish common ways of working and benefit from more competitive rates and volume discounts. While the purposes of a panel review may be well understood, panel reviews are complex projects that require thoughtful planning and handling.

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REUTERS | Tulips are pictured in a public park in Vienna, Austria, April 21, 2016. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
November 19, 2021

Notes from The Economist 2021 General Counsel Summit

At the beginning of the month, I attended The Economist’s General Counsel (GC) summit in London, which brought together a cross-section of senior in-house counsel from a range of industry sectors. Here are some of the themes discussed across the day.

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REUTERS | Ognen Teofilovski
November 3, 2021

Leading and managing in-house legal teams

The Centre for Legal Leadership’s latest webinar, hosted in conjunction with Practical Law, looked at leading and managing in-house legal teams. This post highlights the main themes covered in the discussion.

Leadership is a mindset

Being a leader is about more than simply being a manager; it’s a mindset. Leaders need to be curious and show interest in both their colleagues and clients as they set the tone for their team’s culture.

A contributor mentioned a senior executive who reminded them that they should be showing up as a leader in their organisation every day. For example, if they got into a lift in the morning, they should be saying hello to everyone present. If they were not saying anything, they needed to question why that was.

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REUTERS | Ricardo Moraes
October 28, 2021

GC100: pro bono survey results

In 2015 GC100 (the association of general counsel and company secretaries working in FTSE 100 companies) published a short guide, Overcoming the barriers to in-house lawyers doing pro bono work.  The GC100 Executive Committee is keen to build on some of the lessons learned since the guide was published and, where appropriate, continue to support pro bono efforts by the in-house community.

To help gather the insights needed, the Committee issued a short survey to build an understanding of the current landscape for pro bono work among the in-house community. The summary of responses to this poll will inform GC100’s ongoing work and potential actions to support this important aspect of the legal and governance professions. This post highlights some of the key themes from the survey, which closed on 15 October 2021.

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REUTERS | Maxim Shemetov
October 22, 2021

What’s on the agenda for in-house lawyers in November 2021?

Key developments for in-house lawyers this month focus on climate change, with the 26th conference of the parties (COP 26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) being held in Glasgow on 1-12 November 2021. In advance of COP 26, the government has published its long-awaited Net Zero Strategy.

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REUTERS | Vasily Fedosenko
October 19, 2021

Are legal playbooks right for your business?

The COVID-19 pandemic era has demanded new and evolving ways of working. But as working practices change, especially with the adoption of remote and hybrid working, some elements of an in-house counsel’s work have become even more important.

Having clear and consistent guidelines and approaches has always been important to the delivery of effective outcomes, but perhaps even more so in a world of wholly or partly distributed teams, where it can be difficult to oversee the approach to issues in person. In that context, one method of establishing such guidelines, legal playbooks, could become an increasingly important resource.

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REUTERS | Ognen Teofilovski
October 14, 2021

Current compliance pain points and how to handle them

Last week, the Practical Law In-house Consultation board met to discuss some of the pain points that are currently exercising them and their colleagues in the compliance space. The discussion led to some valuable takeaways that are summarised in this post.

All the attendees agreed that companies are struggling to keep on top of an ever-increasing compliance burden. One organisation, keen to avoid a false sense of security, is undertaking an exercise to map the strategic, business process and business operational risks it faces against the control and assurance activities it undertakes in each line of defence. Their key question is: how much reliance can they place on their controls and the assurance activities they undertake?

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