By Client Legal Director, William Blumenthal
”We are transforming the way legal services are delivered by giving UK businesses access to an experienced General Counsel.”
This is The Legal Director’s purpose statement, and one of the principal reasons why I joined the business as a Client Legal Director. I believe every company should be able to benefit from a GC no matter what their size and the TLD service model of providing legal services on a part-time, retained basis makes this possible.
One of the challenges of doing things differently, however, is convincing businesses to try something new. Typically, SMEs haven’t been able to access the support of a General Counsel, because they feel they cannot justify the expense or do not generate enough work to warrant an in-house lawyer. So, they don’t always understand exactly how a GC would differ from the traditional external law firms they currently use.
So, in this blog, I am setting out the case for General Counsel and showing where a good legal generalist contributes to every aspect of a business and can help establish good foundations for growth and support a business to implement strategy, reach goals and manage risk.
In-house lawyers are solicitors/barristers who are employed by a company to do their legal work. GC (or General Counsel) is a term used to describe the in-house lawyer who heads up the legal function in the business and often sits on the Board. Uniquely, TLD’s team is made up of 40+ experienced in-house lawyers who have all acted as GCs during their careers.
Strength in breadth
The very diversity of requirements sees most companies relying on more than one law firm, having to explain their business requirements repeatedly to various lawyers, who have varying approaches to their commercial needs and appetite for risk. This is frustrating and inefficient.
In-house lawyers support businesses – that is their role. They are the perfect solution for addressing the myriad of legal concerns that arise when operating a business. And if specialist legal support is needed, there is nobody better than a GC to procure it. Framing instructions intelligently and strategically, the GC will make sure you get more legal bang for your buck.
More to a lawyer than knowing the law
Most CEOs and business owners are striving for growth and success. They understand that there are legal requirements in running a business, but they are not looking for lessons in the law. A General Counsel understands this, knows where legal issues contribute to what the company is trying to achieve and how to apply the law to support the business goals.
GCs are pragmatic and commercial experts, rather than legal specialists with lots of knowledge about a small number of things. They apply their legal knowledge to make recommendations that align with business goals. These goals are central to their advice. This approach is very different from that typically offered by traditional law firms who often provide a list of legal options, rather than practical advice and recommendations. The onus is still on the business to analyse and interpret the advice given.
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A bird’s eye view
The GC’s role is a senior management role. Acting as part of the Board or senior management team, a GC contributes to business strategy and has a holistic view of what needs to be done to implement this and who in the business is impacted. A GC knows that the sales team are trying to achieve, what the business wants, what support HR require. And a GC knows how to join up all these dots.
A business simply can’t get this perspective from an external legal resource.
A business influencer
Being close to a business enables you to have more immediate and regular conversations with key stakeholders and to react and respond to issues more quickly. It also helps you to set down foundations to avoid issues. And everyone knows that it’s far better, and far cheaper, to anticipate and avoid potential issues, than to deal with problems once they’ve occurred.
The connections that GCs have across a business make them perfectly placed to help establish good practice and procedures that reduce the risk of walking blindly into legal issues down the line.
In-house lawyers are adept at delivering internal training, so employees know what legal developments impact their roles and what to look out for in contracts. A good in-house lawyer will input into the business at every level to ensure that all teams are adopting a unified approach and ultimately, are less reliant on external legal support.
How can we help?
At The Legal Director we are a fully regulated law firm that provides businesses with highly experienced lawyers — but on a part-time, retained basis. Embedded as part of your business, even badged as such if that helps your company in negotiations, our lawyers deliver legal advice from your business perspective, not just meeting existing legal needs but anticipating future ones. Available for one-off projects, or retained for a day a week, or a few days a month, our lawyers fit in with your needs and contribute to your business at the highest level.
And, as expert generalists, our Client Legal Directors can deal with around 99% of all the legal matters that your business will encounter.
We understand that for many it’s a different way of doing things. But these are challenging times and call for new ways of thinking. Time now, perhaps, to explore a better way – the TLD way – and improve how your business deals with its legal matters.
As ever, we’re on hand and ready to help. Just pick up the phone and call us on 020 3056 8538 or send us an email.
