Everyone likes to know the answer to questions that come their way at work, none more so than in-house lawyers. Lawyers take special pride in being able to respond to practically any question, on any topic, at any time. They can do this because they are, typically, very smart, well-read, and at ease with murky situations. However, occasionally, and usually at the worst possible moment, someone in the business will ask an in-house lawyer a question and they will have no idea how to answer it. This happened to me on more than one occasion and it was incredibly frustrating for me and whoever was asking the question – usually the CEO or a board member. Why were they frustrated? Well, because like most people on the business side they believe two things that make your job as in-house counsel even harder: 1) all lawyers know everything about all areas of the law regardless of their background or specialty, and 2) that there is a “Big Book of Law” we keep on a shelf that has all the answers to every legal question and all we lawyers have to do is take it down and find the right page. Yeah, right…. So, what do you do when you get a question you don’t know the answer to (especially when they are looking right at you across the table)? This edition of “Ten Things” set out some strategies to help you navigate this tricky situation:
in-house department management
Ten Things: Creating a “Not-to-Do” List (Learning How to Say No)
Hello again everyone! I am very excited to report to you that my next book (number six) is in the hands of the publisher and should be out by this summer.[1] The working title is The Productive In-House Lawyer: Tips, Hacks, and the Art of Getting Things Done. I think you are going to really enjoy reading this one, especially if you find yourself pressed for time to do all the things you need to do on your to-do list. Which basically means anyone reading this. The book is jammed to the rafters with different ways to squeeze more time out of your day with the goal of getting more done (and more important things done) in the time you have vs. working more. While I am not going to go into too much more detail here (I do want you to actually buy it when it’s available), there is one section of the book I keep coming back to in my head. What section is that you ask? Well, thank you for asking! It is the section on how to say “no.” In particular, how to create a “Not-to-Do” list, i.e., a set of principles that guide how you will spend your time by setting out the things you will not spend time on (or spend significant time on). I certainly cannot take any credit for the idea of a “Not-to-Do” list. The concept has been around forever, and history is full of people wildly succeeding at not doing things, such as Emperor Nero standing by while Rome burned, my law school roommate, the Kardashian family, Congress… okay, enough of that. But you get my point, and that is the blindingly obvious fact that one path to getting more done is to reduce the number of things you are doing (Hey, I never said this was rocket science). One way to do that effectively as an in-house lawyer is to create a list of things you will not do – a “Not-to-Do” list. Alas, yet another thing law school, law firm, etc. never teaches you how to do (though it is such a fantastic tool). So, let’s fix that problem. This edition of Ten Things walks you through how to create a Not-to-Do list (and how to use it):
Share this:
Ten Things: Essential Issues for In-House Counsel (2024 Edition)
Hello again everyone and welcome to 2024! If you are a long-time reader of the blog, you know that I start the new year with a list of issues I believe in-house lawyers should pay attention to over the coming 12 months. I started doing this when I first became a general counsel way back when and something I kept doing throughout my in-house career. I still do it now as CEO of the Hilgers Graben law firm. To sum it up, I spend time thinking about developments, trends, and issues that may have a material impact on the legal department/business over the course of the new year. How did/do I do this? Here are the basics:
- It starts with simply gathering information. As general counsel, that meant (over the last few months of the year) speaking with other in-house lawyers and outside counsel, reading newspapers, blogs, industry reports, attending conferences, sitting in on meetings within the business, asking business leaders at the company, asking my team what they were seeing, and just generally paying attention to what was going on around me. Information is gold to in-house lawyers, the currency of the realm. Be greedy and gather up as much as you can.
- Once I spotted a potential issue, I looked at it from multiple angles and asked this question: How might this affect the company and the legal department? Answering this question meant I had to understand the company’s goals and strategy so I could spot and manage risks and I had to be a strategic thinker, looking beyond just the legal issues that might be at stake. One thing that has helped me over the years in terms of looking at issues from multiple angles is the “Phoenix Questions” (discussed in more detail below).
- From there, I made a list of the most critical issues I spotted and worked them into the goals and activities of the legal department for the upcoming year. To assist me with this process, I created multiple checklists to help quickly analyze the potential risks and strategic implications of the items on my list. Here is a version of one checklist, and it’s a helpful filter when you look at things coming across your desk day in and day out:
- Is this something that can create or destroy value for the company?
- How does this fit into my company’s strategic goals?
- What is the quantitative/qualitative impact of this?
- Could this be a game-changer and how so?
- Is this something a regulator might care about or lead to litigation?
- Who is impacted by this – company, competitors, vendors, customers – and how so?
- What happens if I apply game theory to this?
- Who needs to know about this in the department/company?
- How can we create a competitive advantage from this?
- Have others had problems or success with this before and what are the lessons already learned?
How you answer these questions tells you a lot about the issue you are analyzing and whether it matters or not. You do not need a checklist, but it’s a tool that can help you quickly sort through a lot of information. You could also use an Eisenhower Matrix (2×2) to plot issues, focusing on the ones you put in the upper right quadrant (and understand that you may move items around over the course of the year). Regardless of what you use, It’s really all about finding a consistent framework to use to consider and think about whatever is in front of you. So, there you go. Enough theory, it’s time to get on with another year of Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel and my list of critical issues in-house lawyers should pay attention to and plan against for 2024:
Share this:
Ten Things: Asking For More Legal Department Resources (How and When to Go Big)
In my last book, Showing the Value of the Legal Department: More Than Just a Cost Center, I tackle one of the fundamental issues facing all in-house legal departments: it sucks to be a cost center. You can check if you want, but I am pretty sure that’s what I said.[1] Why does this matter? Because cost centers are places the business looks to cut when times get tough, or the numbers need “improving.” And, historically, most legal departments have had a ”cut my budget” sign taped to their backs. This is due partly to those evil bastards in finance, and in part because most in-house legal departments have not aggressively marketed themselves to the business. It’s probably more the latter, but who’s keeping score?[2] By aggressively market, I mean taking the steps necessary every day to show the value provided by the legal team, and, more importantly, showing how the department can create even more value if properly nurtured. If you have been a long-time reader of the blog, you know that I have written about how to go about showing value and how to market the department. Now I want to take on yet another task in-house lawyers often suck at (my early self included), i.e., how to ask for more resources (and not get laughed out of the room).[3]
I’ll lead off with it is not easy, but it can be done if you prepare the ground in advance of the ask. And now that most in-house legal departments are heading into “budget season.” It’s the perfect time to rip the “cut my budget” sign off your back and replace it with a “we deserve more budget” sign – or button. That’s right, this edition of “Ten Things” takes you through the process of how to ask for more resources and – on occasion – get them:
Share this:
Ten Things: ChatGPT and Generative AI (What In-House Counsel Need to Know)
Hello again everyone. I suspect a number of you out there have been wondering when I was going to get around to today’s topic. Hell, even I was wondering about it. Back in January, I identified ChatGPT as one of my top ten things for in-house lawyers to pay attention to in 2023, but I must admit that I am shocked at how quickly it has overwhelmed the debate about legal tech. To be honest, I was hoping for a moment when the pace of “new” ChatGPT information would slow down. It hasn’t. And likely won’t. But I think it’s important enough of a topic to at least try to take a snapshot of where things stand today for in-house lawyers when it comes to ChatGPT (or more generically, generative AI). Back when I was general counsel, I would have grabbed a few folks on my team and said, “Let’s jump into a conference room and whiteboard ten things we need to know about ChatGPT.”[1] As I have been thinking about and using ChatGPT, I realize we may need two whiteboards – there is a lot to cover! What I have done is read a lot about it and I have tried it out a number of times with many different asks. All to put myself back in the chair of an in-house lawyer and cut through the clutter to make sense of just what this tool is and what can it do to help me and the legal department. So, get your dry markers out, grab a big mug of coffee, and join me in the conference room as this edition of “Ten Things” tries to set out what in-house lawyers need to know about ChatGPT (and be sure to click through the links and check the footnotes for – a lot of – extra information):
Share this:
Ten Things: How to Manage People… and Lawyers
There are several things that I rarely, if ever, expect to hear in-house lawyers utter. These include, “Hey, I’m really excited about that new ‘Rocky’ movie!” and “Is $1,500 an hour enough for that Big Law third-year associate?” or, my favorite, “This suit from Sears fits perfectly!” Right up there on the Mount Rushmore of “No One Said Ever” is this, “I really love managing people – it’s the best part of my day!” Okay, that may be stretching things a bit, but, in all seriousness, managing people in an in-house legal department (like anywhere) can be a… umm, taxing job (yeah, that’s the right word, taxing). For sure, there are days when managing people – even lawyers – can be very rewarding and enjoyable. The challenging part is figuring out how to make days like that the majority versus the minority. This is difficult because – like many things I discovered post-law school – no one teaches or prepares in-house lawyers for managing people. There seems to be an assumption that if you are a good lawyer, you are automatically a good manager. As you probably know by experience, that is not true. Many great lawyers suck at managing people. It is just not the way their brains are wired. And when you put bad people managers in charge of people, it can be a disaster. I have had the benefit of having many terrific managers, both in-house and in private practice. And I have had a few duds. I learned important lessons from both types in terms of how to manage people, i.e., things to do and things not to do. Regardless, if you want to get ahead in the in-house world, especially if you aspire to sit in the general counsel chair, then it’s something you will need to learn to do and do well. This edition of “Ten Things” shares my experience with what works best when it comes to managing people in an in-house legal department:
Share this:
Ten Things: Alternative Fee Arrangements – What In-House Lawyers Need to Know
I had a different topic in mind for this post and then someone sent me a screenshot from a fee request filing on Pacer (the federal courts’ e-filing system). Here’s just a snippet:
This is not a joke. You are reading this correctly – $775.00 per hour for first-year litigation associate lawyers. $1,205.00 per hour for a third-year! In a world that often feels insane, we’ve reached a new level of rate insanity when it comes to legal fees, especially those demanded by the mega firms. If you are like me, you looked at this chart and then fell out of your chair, unconscious and involuntarily flopping on the floor like a dying fish. Or maybe that’s just me? Unconscious or not, there is a lot wrong with these numbers, but I do not want to spend 3,000 words bashing the business model of the mega law firms. I know you all get it. Hell, even the folks at Big Law get it – they just can’t change the trajectory. But, the bigger questions to me are: (1) is this rate insanity sustainable, and (2) what can in-house legal departments do about it? Personally, I believe that the number of clients who can afford these rates (or have matters justifying these rates) is shrinking, like George Costanza at the beach house coming out of a cold swimming pool.[1] In other words, is a reckoning coming?
I have no idea. These rates may, in fact, be sustainable. The legal services marketplace seems to be immune to pressures other businesses face. So, let’s just set that question to the side. Instead, today I want to talk about – once you stop flopping around and get back into your chair – what in-house legal teams can do in response to rates like this. In particular, I want to discuss alternative fee arrangements as I have been asked about these numerous times over the past month or so and they are likely to be (if done correctly) one of the most promising ways legal departments can get some control over the cost of legal services, especially when economic times appear to be as uncertain as they do here in the first half of 2023. This edition of “Ten Things” will tell you what in-house lawyers need to know about alternative fee arrangements:
Share this:
Ten Things: How In-House Lawyers Can Survive and Thrive in Times of Uncertainty and Change
I do a lot of speaking with and presenting to in-house lawyers and legal departments. It’s something I really enjoy doing because I get to share my “wisdom” with everyone (which is just a fancy word for “oldness”). By this I mean I have been around a while and have spent most of my working years as an in-house lawyer. And, like anyone who has completed the solar elliptical as many times as I have, I’ve dealt with a lot of different things as an in-house lawyer – some good, some bad, and some still defying categorization years later. On the bad side of the continuum, I was there for the first internet tech bubble (and the second), along with the mortgage meltdown crisis. I was in the travel business right after 9-11. I have been through natural disasters, multiple layoffs, budget cuts, reorganizations, mergers, acquisitions, sales, going private, going public, and all the rest of it. I oversaw bet the company litigation, where literally the livelihoods of 10,000+ employees depended on my team not losing a piece of litigation. And most terrifying, I had a front-row seat for the incredibly shitty ending to Game of Thrones. That is a season of television I can never get back. Damn you, HBO. Damn you to hell! Sorry, I got off on a rant there. Allow me to (cough) refocus.
So, here we are again. Things feel shaky with the economy and there is a good bit of unease out there in the business world and, therefore, in the in-house legal departments that serve those businesses. I wrote about some of it last month in my post on things to watch out for in 2023. But even more so, over the past few months, I have been consistently asked to talk about/present on how in-house lawyers can succeed in an environment of change and uncertainty. So much so that a couple of nights ago (as I was NOT watching HBO), I started putting some real thought into the question and realized that I have a lot to say about it (shock!). So, this edition of “Ten Things” will discuss some of the things in-house lawyers (and legal departments) can do to survive and thrive in times of change and uncertainty:[1]
Share this:
Ten Things: Essential Issues for In-House Counsel (2023 Edition)
Hello everyone and welcome to 2023! Here we are well into year nine of the “Ten Things” blog. I checked recently and see that there are over 12,000 followers of the blog. Holy #$^%! I never in my wildest dreams imagined that would happen. So, thank you all for reading and sharing my posts. I truly appreciate it. And, as we start a new year, many of you know that my first post of the year is typically a list of issues I believe in-house lawyers should pay attention to over the coming 12 months. This is something I started doing when I first became a general counsel way back when and something I kept doing over the course of my in-house career. I still do it now as CEO of the Hilgers Graben law firm. In short, I spend time thinking about developments, trends, issues that may have a material impact on the legal department/business over the course of the new year. It starts with simply gathering information. As general counsel, that meant speaking with in-house lawyers and outside counsel, reading newspapers, blogs, industry reports, attending conferences, sitting in on meetings within the business, asking business leaders at the company, asking my team what they were seeing, and just generally paying attention to what was going on around me (see Ten Things In-House Lawyers Should Read Every Day). If you didn’t know already, information is gold to in-house lawyers, the currency of the realm. Stock up when you can! Once I spotted a potential issue, I looked at it from multiple angles and asked this question: How might this affect the company and the legal department? Answering this question meant I had to understand the company’s goals and strategy so I could spot and manage risks (see Ten Things – Spotting, Managing, and Reporting Risk) and I had to be a strategic thinker, looking beyond just the legal issues that might be at stake (see Ten Things – The Strategic In-House Lawyer). From there, I made a list of the most critical issues and worked them into the goals and activities of the legal department.
To assist me with this process, I created checklists to help quickly analyze the potential risk and strategic implications of the items on my list. Here is a version of one checklist, and it’s a helpful filter when you look at things coming across your desk day in and day out:
- Is this something that can create or destroy value?
- How does this fit into my company’s strategic goals?
- Could this be a game-changer and how so?
- Is this something a regulator might care about/criminal?
- Who is impacted by this: company, competitors, vendors, customers?
- What happens if I apply game theory to this?
- What is the regulatory regime around this?
- How can we create a competitive advantage from this?
- Have others had problems or success with this before/lessons already learned?
How you answer these questions tells you a lot about the issue you are analyzing and whether it matters or not. You do not need a checklist, but it’s a tool that can help you quickly sort through a lot of information quickly. You could also use an Eisenhower Matrix (2×2) to plot issues, focusing on the ones in the upper right quadrant. It’s really all about providing a consistent framework to consider whatever is in front of you. All right, enough yapping and background. Time to get on with another year of Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel. Here is my list of critical issues in-house lawyers should pay attention to and plan against for 2023:
Share this:
Ten Things: Business Skills All In-House Lawyers Should Master
In my newest book, Showing the Value of the Legal Department, I include a section on the evolution of the role of in-house counsel. I walk through the “dark ages” (lawyers in the basement alone and ignored) all the way to the current phase of “leaders/strategic thinkers” (using our lawyer superpowers to become valued partners to the business). As I see it, the part of the role that has changed the most over the course of this evolution is the need for in-house lawyers to bring more to the table than just good legal skills. Those are just your ticket to get into the circus. To be successful, to be viewed as a partner to the business, and to get your seat at the big kids’ table with the filet mignon, you must also possess a set of key business skills. How do I know this? Well, I fumbled and bumbled my way through the process the hard way, i.e., I had to figure it out mostly on my own (but certainly – and thankfully – with the help of some key mentors along the way). But I did figure it out and had a seat at the table as general counsel three times where I learned that the business had its own language (numbers) and way of doing things (business school) that were foreign to me given my legal background. After thinking about it a bit, I realized that almost everyone at the table had a background in certain business skills that I did not possess. Moreover, while everyone was more than happy to explain things if you asked; if you didn’t ask, they just assumed you were playing the same game they were playing, and it was on you to keep up with the class. And, of course, like most lawyers, I was too proud to just up and announce that I had no clue about half the shit they were talking about. Fortunately, I was smart enough to know I had to level up or I was soon destined for the little kids’ table and a nice Happy Meal of chicken nuggets. So, level up I did. And over the course of eight years of writing this blog, I have mentioned a wide assortment of business skills you need to succeed in the role. But what I have not done is list all those skills in one post. This edition of “Ten Things” corrects that oversight and sets out the ten essential business skills you must master to succeed as an in-house counsel. And thanks to Marco Bijl, Head of Legal at Philips, for the idea:
Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel® 