REUTERS | Luke MacGregor

MOSAIC: mentoring and wellbeing

MOSAIC stands for Mentoring Opportunities Amongst In-house Counsel and is the global mentoring programme for in-house legal professionals. Our fourth and final post on mentoring looks at mental wellbeing in the legal profession and considers how having a mentor, or being one, can help emotional health and mental wellbeing.

MOSAIC tackles mental wellbeing in the in-house legal profession head on. To understand what we mean by this please watch our short video. We show this video wherever we go to talk about MOSAIC and the benefits of mentoring because it speaks for itself. The video resonates with most viewers, either because they have been there themselves or know a colleague or friend who has been there.

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REUTERS | Luke MacGregor

With the UK due to leave the EU on 31 October 2019, Brexit planning remains top of the agenda for in-house lawyers this month. Other developments of note concern the supply of statutory audit services and Good Work Plan proposals to help working parents.

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REUTERS | Vasily Fedosenko

Practical Law’s compliance training survey is still open [survey now closed]. Enter by 8 October 2019 to benchmark your organisation’s own approach and (for UK residents) the opportunity to enter a prize draw for a chance to win one of ten £25 Amazon vouchers (subject to terms and conditions).

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REUTERS | Luke MacGregor

Since our last quarterly horizon scan, attention for in-house lawyers is inevitably returning to Brexit and those focused on privacy and cybersecurity will now need to be gearing up seriously for a no-deal outcome. As many will not need reminding, following the agreement to extend the Article 50 period, if the withdrawal agreement is not ratified by 31 October, the Article 50 period will end at 11pm on that date and the UK will leave the EU with no deal unless a further extension is agreed or the Article 50 notice is revoked. Continue reading

REUTERS | Navesh Chitrakar

MOSAIC: the mentee

MOSAIC stands for Mentoring Opportunities Amongst In-house Counsel  and is the global mentoring programme for in-house legal professionals. The third in our series of posts looks at the importance of getting a mentor, why mentoring shouldn’t be reserved for the select few and how to make the most of a mentoring relationship.

The concept of having a mentor is usually reserved for the upper echelons of senior management. Built into MBAs and executive leadership programmes, mentoring is an absolute right of passage and an essential tool in professional development. However, if it’s that important to senior executives and the next generations of leaders, why don’t we start mentoring much earlier? And why is there an even more notable absence of mentoring in the in-house legal profession? Here are a few thoughts that might answer the question.

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REUTERS | Jason Lee

How is your organisation discussing and describing the current climate situation?  Is it a climate change or a climate crisis?  Are you even discussing it at all?  Over the last year there has been a radical shift in public opinion on climate crisis. Extreme weather events, the rise of the school climate strike movement, Extinction Rebellion and yet another devastating David Attenborough television programme – ‘Climate Change – the facts’ have all contributed to this shift.  The facts have not changed, but public opinion has.  It is likely that legislation will swiftly follow – is your company ready for the shift?  How do we take corporate action on such a large and complex issue?

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REUTERS | Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Despite the Parliamentary recess, Brexit still dominates the agenda as the new Prime Minister grapples with his role and sets out his strategy. The deadline of 31 October 2019 is fast approaching, with many analysts indicating that a no deal is now more likely than ever. As such, no deal planning remains the key risk for in-house lawyers in September. Other news of note this month includes the release of a new version of the Incoterms® by the International Chamber of Commerce.

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The In-house blog has published numerous items on aspects of whistleblowing over the past few years, but whistleblowing’s geekier cousin, training, has received less attention.

Training is like rewiring your house when you move in: it costs a lot of money and, when it’s done properly, nobody really notices. It doesn’t generate the headlines that compliance breaches do, but it’s a crucial way of reducing the likelihood of those costly events. Continue reading

REUTERS | Nikola Solic

MOSAIC: the mentor

MOSAIC stands for Mentoring Opportunities Amongst In-house Counsel and is the global mentoring programme for in-house legal professionals. The second in our series of posts looks at how our mentoring matching works, the different types of mentoring relationships, who makes a good mentor, and also provides tips on how to be a good mentor.

How our mentoring matching works

The decision to move to smart technology to match legal professionals was a game-changer for MOSAIC as the programme is no longer limited by human capability. Time, resource, geography, knowledge and familiarity of other jurisdictional challenges are no longer constraints and in-house legal professionals all over the globe can connect with each other.

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