A leading general counsel shares key insights from this year’s foremost summit for in-house lawyers
Key themes explored at the 2019 NZ Lawyer In-House Legal Summit in Auckland on Tuesday were trust, customer centricity, and creating a purpose-driven legal function, says Helen Mackay, Juno Legal director.
The one-day event featured panels and sessions that discussed the complex work of award-winning in-house teams, the inner workings of leading and driving legal technology innovation, the intricacies of risk and compliance for in-house lawyers, the driving force in creating legal teams ready for the future, and much more.
The event brought together in-house lawyers from across New Zealand, who gathered to hear from leaders in the in-house profession from AIA, ANZ, BNZ, EROAD, Fonterra, Kainga Ora, Kiwi Property, Kiwi Wealth, Mediaworks, NZ Compare, Silver Fern Farms, TVNZ and Zespri.
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From these panels and sessions, the former ILANZ president has shared with NZ Lawyer the following 10 top tips from speakers at the summit:
- Compliance with the law is not enough. In-house lawyers should ask themselves if the proposed action or behaviour lives up to community expectations.
- Get bad news to senior leaders and the board quickly and calmly – don’t catastrophise.
- Present in the same way that other members of the executive do – use plain language, dashboards, traffic lights and data-driven evidence.
- Focus dedicated resources on improving delivery of legal services through legal operations.
- Check in with your internal business clients – are you over-lawyering, under-lawyering or right-sizing your advice?
- The standard you walk past is the standard you accept – encourage a speak-up culture.
- Teach a person to fish – lead your internal clients towards self-service for low value, low risk work through templates, guidance and training.
- Be a good client for your external providers and support their work/life choices.
- Keep stretching your people including in non-legal areas and create future general counsel.
- Being a lawyer doesn’t mean you have to have all the answers. Don’t be afraid to show your vulnerability – it makes you a better leader.
Helen Mackay, Juno Legal director