I have written a lot about delegation, both in the blog and in my last two books, Showing the Value of the Legal Department and The Productive In-House Lawyer. Specifically, I write a lot about why delegation is important and how to do it. This past week or so it has dawned on me that I have not really spent any time talking about what to delegate other than a few asides thrown in here and there. That is an oversight I would like to correct. Like many of my blog posts, one of the first things I do is search to see if anyone else has already written on the topic. I really couldn’t find anything written on what in-house lawyers should delegate. This generally means I have a pretty wide-open field to play in, which I plan to take full advantage of![1] I decided to do what I almost always do and that is reach back to my past and think about the things that were delegated to me as a young in-house lawyer (some), things that I asked to have delegated to me (a lot), and things that I delegated to my team once I was in a position to do so (plenty but should have been more). All of what you read below is pretty specific to my in-house experience – though I suspect they are universal to any in-house lawyer in any legal department anywhere in the world. So, fill up the coffee mug and get ready to go deep into the world of delegation as this edition of “Ten Things” takes on the task of setting out things in-house lawyers can (and should) delegate.
KPIs
Ten Things: How to Create a Strategic Plan for the Legal Department
Running an in-house legal department is not an easy job, regardless of whether you are a legal department of one or a legal department of 200. To start, there is never enough money, people, or time to get everything done. Second, priorities change frequently so prioritizing where to focus your scant resources is a challenge. Third, the business often considers (wrongly) that the legal department is simply another cost center and/or necessary evil, meaning the legal team is ignored or marginalized – treated like outsiders vs. an integral part of the business. And fourth, the legal department often lacks strategic direction, reacting to problems vs. planning for them. I have dealt with (including failing at) all of these issues – and more – as an in-house lawyer, especially as general counsel for multiple companies over the course of a long in-house legal career. I wish I could tell you that solving these problems is easy, but it is not. The biggest hurdle is that it’s hard to plan in advance when most of your day is spent frantically trying to dig out from under the incredible amount of work dumped on your desk or when cleaning up the latest catastrophe brought on by the knuckleheads in [insert business group name here]. Still, in order to be successful as an in-house lawyer and create a legal function that fits snugly within the cloak of the company’s strategic goals and plans you must make time for planning. It’s that simple. Sure, you can mutter curses at me under your breath or chuck imaginary (or real)[1] rocks at your screen as you read this, but I am just telling you what you need to hear – not what you want to hear. The good news is that creating a strategic plan for the legal department is difficult but pretty straightforward and something you can accomplish if you set your mind to it (and let others help). So, hold the rocks and creative profanity for a few minutes as this edition of “Ten Things” discusses how you go about creating a strategic plan for the legal department:
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Ten Things: Business Skills All In-House Lawyers Should Master
In my 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:
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Ten Things: Ten KPIs All In-House Legal Departments Should Track
I have been struggling to write this post about KPIs. It’s taken way longer than it should have – with several starts and stops. First, should it be KPI or KPIs? Just like the debate over RBI and RBIs in baseball, passions run hot on this point. I think “KPIs” sounds better, so I’m going with that. Second – and slightly more important than the KPI/KPIs controversy – KPIs don’t work particularly well for in-house legal departments. Actually, I had this eureka moment a long time ago when I was first asked as General Counsel to provide “SMART”[1] objectives for the legal department for an upcoming calendar year. I literally had no clue what they (HR) were talking about. And when I asked them for some examples, it was clear they had no clue either – at least when it came to developing SMART objectives for the legal department. For other parts of the business, SMART objectives seemed obvious and worked great. For legal, not so much. But, I (and my team) eventually figured it out and designed goals that were a little squishy – “SMART-ish” – but to which no one objected. You can see some examples of this in an older post titled “Setting Goals for the Legal Department.”
Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel® 