Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Directors definition

What does Directors mean? directors are the individuals who, acting as the company’s board, manage the company’s business and make decisions for it. They set strategy, authorise significant transactions and oversee compliance, often delegating day-to-day operations to executives but retaining ultimate responsibility. In England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Companies Act 2006 defines a director broadly to include anyone occupying the position (including de facto and shadow directors). Ireland’s Companies Act 2014 adopts a similar definition. Directors act collectively through board meetings or written resolutions and may bind the company within their actual or apparent authority. Key legal features include statutory and fiduciary...

Starting as an organisation’s first in-house lawyer: a practical roadmap for your first weeks, stakeholders, contracts, auditors, IP and policies

Published by a LexisNexis In-house Advisor expert

Practice notes

Practice Note

Congratulations; you’ve landed your first post as an in-house lawyer. It’s day one, and everyone is warm and welcoming—a positive start. Yet the business has never had in-house counsel before, and you have come straight from private practice—so where should you begin?

This Practice Note is the first in a series created to help you quickly become an effective part of your organisation. It sets out practical actions you should make time to complete in your opening weeks, together with longer-term projects to keep in mind and for which you should start preparing. Each of those actions is developed in more detail across related Precedents, Practice Notes and Checklists to support you as you get started in your new role.

This Practice Note is intended for a new in-house lawyer joining an organisation that has not previously had anyone in an in-house position. If you are taking up your first in-house role but are replacing someone who has held it before, see Practice Note: Taking up a new role in-house—replacing a previous in-house lawyer. If you are joining an existing in-house legal team within the organisation, see Practice Note:...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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