Five ways top General Counsel show the C-Suite their value

In-house legal teams can and do provide incredible value to companies. Do not let that work go unseen and underappreciated. You want the full attention of the board when you need to deliver difficult messages and when discussing legal resourcing.

This is your quick refresher on ensuring your voice is not just heard but actively sought by the board.

1. Think like the business.

   Firstly, perhaps most importantly, think and act like any other part of the business.  What lawyers do is special; it is different to other parts of the business. But (duties to the court aside) if you act like different rules apply to the legal team then the c-suite will treat you differently and not in a positive way.

   Thinking like the business means framing legal concerns in the context and language of business, and gets much more traction.

2. Be visible
   If the business sees the legal team only in moments of crisis or when ‘blocking’ the deal everyone wants to win, it creates a negative relationship. Lawyers might prefer to hide away, but the General Counsel needs to be much more visible than that. Arrange regular 1-2-1 meetings with the business leaders to find out what matters to them, their challenges and aspirations. Ask the business for regular feedback on legal work, arranging post-deal service meetings with business colleagues to generate improvements that can be carried into the next deal
   
   Use the rest of your legal team too, putting them into regular business meetings and kick-off meetings. The lawyers should feel like an ordinary, integrated part of the business team. No lawyer should hear about a deal for the first time when the contract lands on their desk for review.

3. Speak the language of the board
   Uncover not only the challenges and goals of the c-suite but the frameworks and language they use to discuss them. Reflect that language and framework back to the board. Who talks mainly in terms of profit, who is more worried about timescales or risk? Which team thinks in diagrams, who thinks in numbers, and who, probably legal, thinks in words.
   
   Read the business strategy and build a legal strategy which delivers it. Of course, legal has a key role in protecting the bottom line; but be proactive in helping the business pursue it’s goals too.

4. Put legal into the everyday processes of the business

   Most businesses will have a risk process and or a strategy team. Ask to contribute or attend their meetings. Getting legal issues early attention at the best point in the process when the risk matrix or corporate strategy is being prepared. The business will have a lot of processes for running business operations, integrate the legal team into those processes.
   
   For example, Chief Financial Officers care about numbers but also reporting. If every other team in the business agrees key performance indicators with the CFO or CEO, then get some legal KPIs agreed. Even better if you can be proactive about it. Choosing KPIs showcasing your strengths makes the value of the legal team highly visible, and makes it easy to report on success.

5. No surprises

   The above steps integrate you into the business in different ways and at different levels. Embedding yourself in regular processes and conversations means everyone knows you; issues can be socialized early and informally.

   Raising concerns and risks at a late stage to virtual strangers makes legal look like a blocker.  Participating in early kick-off meetings, including raising risks and ideas on managing them, makes the lawyers into key team members.

The value and quality of work isn’t necessarily different between the General Counsel that take these five actions and the General Counsel that don’t. But the General Counsel who does will find it easier to get their job done and grow a strong team.