Legal Practice Notes

Personal branding considers not only what you deliver, but the way you deliver it and the effect this has on how you are viewed in the workplace. This Practice Note covers: why personal branding is important for in-house lawyers what is meant by the term ‘personal brand’ how to gain insight into your own personal brand how to develop your personal brand Why is personal branding important? For in-house lawyers, a personal brand is not self-promotion for its own sake. It is the lived experience colleagues have of you day to day: what they anticipate when your name appears on a meeting invite or email, and whether they feel at ease asking you to get involved. Think of your brand as your ‘offer’ to the organisation—the value people can depend on from you. Your brand also underpins your power to...

The label 'legal business person' admits multiple interpretations and resists a single, fixed definition. This Practice Note looks at: how we define a 'legal business person' in context why operating in this manner is vital how this approach can enhance your career the ways lawyers build genuine commercial awareness Some headhunters regard lawyers as sitting on a company’s fringes, yet that view jars with how most in-house counsel see their role, and it fails to capture the reality of their day-to-day position. In-house lawyers are embedded at the centre of the enterprise, orchestrating relationships and information flows day to day, and acting as 'legal business people'. They manage and leverage networks of colleagues and the circulation of information around them. What do we mean by 'legal business person'? In-house lawyers often fall into two clear groups: those who practise for the love of the law and its...

Even an in-house legal department that consists of one person needs some infrastructure However, if your organisation has never recruited an in-house lawyer before, you may discover on arrival on your first day at work that you are handed a laptop and little else. In certain workplaces, you might not even be allocated a desk and chair at all. Some people regularly balance work at ledges, or you may find you are expected to hot-desk. The organisation is concentrated on its core trade, eg manufacturing, and it relies on you to give legal advice, day to day, that supports that activity; yet without prior experience of employing in-house lawyers, it cannot reasonably be expected to understand the essential building blocks you need to actually deliver that advice. This stands in stark contrast to life in private practice, where you will have been used to having...

For many organisations, knowledge management and personal growth are high on the agenda, and mentoring is an effective way to bring them together. For an overview of what mentoring involves and how to begin, see Practice Note: Mentoring—getting started. Stepping into a mentor role can feel intimidating, particularly if it is your first time. This Practice Note explores: the advantages of mentoring the skills and experience required to mentor effectively ways to steer the conversation how to respond when issues arise Benefits of being a mentor Mentoring is more than a 'nice to have'. It can make a real difference to your personal development and future career. Common benefits include: consolidating and refreshing your knowledge, and developing soft skills needed to meet Solicitors Regulation Authority ( SRA) requirements under the SRA competence regime—for further information, see: Practice Note: The continuing competence...

This Practice Note offers guidance for mentees, outlining what it takes to be an effective mentee and helping you decide whether mentoring is right for you. For broader guidance on mentoring, see Practice Note: Mentoring—getting started. Do I really need a mentor? What can mentees hope to gain from the mentoring relationship? Alongside a trusted supporter within the business and a view of life at the most senior levels, you should expect: specialist guidance sound, practical advice motivating encouragement a candid critical friend who says what you need to hear space to discuss professional concerns greater self-awareness career development Mentoring schemes can also provide ongoing support, advice and feedback on work. This can help you actively review your learning and development ( L& D) needs and obtain knowledge, guidance and expertise to meet Solicitors Regulation Authority ( SRA)...

This Practice Note outlines how widespread stress is and the threats to mental health across the legal sector, explains why mental health and wellbeing deserve serious attention, and sets out steps you can take to safeguard employees’ wellbeing. It also examines the effect of stigma around mental health and practical tools for tackling such stigma. Mental health and lawyers A substantial and growing body of studies and commentary now documents the markedly higher rates of psychological distress among lawyers than in the general population. Illustrative sources include the 2021 IBA report, ‘ Mental Wellbeing in the Legal Profession— A Global Study’, and the 2023 Mindful Business Charter White Paper, ‘ Raising the Bar: Addressing the state of mental health in the legal sector’. The causes are complex, but are commonly viewed as centring on three areas: personal...

This Practice Note sets out to clarify what is meant by mental health and well-being, and to unpack terms that are often (mis)used in this context. These include: stress anxiety depression Promoting positive well-being depends on recognising the typical challenges that surface at work. The purpose of this Practice Note is to deepen your understanding of how different mental illnesses affect people, so you can identify issues as they emerge and be better equipped to put an effective well-being strategy in place. The spectrum of mental health When we consider physical health, we naturally picture a spectrum: at one end, optimal functioning where we feel fit and healthy; at the other, serious illness, with a range of milder symptoms and conditions in between. What sits at the “positive” end varies from person to person. For example, an Olympic athlete’s view of...

This Practice Note examines the importance and impact of gauging the quality of in-house legal teams. It outlines common pitfalls and shares practical lessons drawn from introducing such measures into the business. In the past, lawyers might have felt that showing their ‘value’ to the organisation was not something they needed to do, yet it is now widely recognised that employing assessment frameworks within the legal team is inevitable. Metrics enable Chief Legal Officers ( CLOs) to review and enhance the performance of their legal teams and, ultimately, manage them more effectively. Why build and use metrics? In today’s commercial environment, performance efficiency is paramount. Metrics provide CLOs with tools to: assess and improve lawyers’ performance clearly evidence the department’s value to the business usher in change reduce costs For example, measurement and matter tracking can uncover areas where a legal team is repeatedly asked the same questions by the wider...

Overview of the marketing/communications department The scope of your organisation’s marketing function will shift according to several elements, including company size, sector, and whether it operates as a large global or national enterprise with multiple sites, or as an SME. In general, the marketing team oversees all advertising and promotional activity for the business, making sure your products/services are highlighted and publicised online, across social and other media, in relevant trade publications, at exhibitions, and at events. They often manage event delivery too, such as workshops, networking sessions and industry gatherings designed to raise the profile of your organisation’s brands, alongside producing brochures, product leaflets, posters and additional collateral that supplies information for customers and prospects, encouraging first purchases and repeat business for your products/services. They typically collaborate closely with sales and with the product development function. They align plans and schedules with these teams to...

As with any other function in an organisation, a legal team creates value by matching the right resources to the right tasks at the right cost. A rising number of technology tools claim to help in-house teams handle growing workloads more effectively, for instance by standardising and automating routine matters, allocating and prioritising tasks, and tracking key deadlines. Sales narratives also suggest that moving administrative activity to software enables in-house lawyers to concentrate on strategic work that drives value and influences profitability, such as managing risk and retaining work internally that might otherwise be sent to external counsel. Although efficiency gains, tighter cost control, streamlined workflows and enhanced productivity can be delivered in various ways, persuading your board that a significant outlay on legal technology is essential may still be challenging. A rigorous review of, together with evidence for, the most...

An ideal world or fantasy? This Practice Note offers practical advice and pointers for in-house counsel to raise quality, productivity (through improved coordination of work effort and resourcing), plus transparency within their legal teams right across the board......

When you hold functional or dotted line oversight of in-house counsel who answer to leaders, building rapport with those leaders so you can discharge that remit is often tricky. Matrix reporting can be problematic and, at worst, you may end up burdened with responsibility for far-flung teams’ output, yet lack sight of their activities and have little say in their methods. In such arrangements, you might be expected to own outcomes whilst lacking oversight of tasks and limited input into processes. See Practice Note: Fostering relationships with remote ‘functional’ reports. When taking on functional or dotted line responsibility, you should consider the following: how far your influence will extend to: the recruitment and dismissal of in-house lawyers by the business boss? the terms and...

This Practice Note on global collaboration highlights five core areas that in-house lawyers should weigh up when planning cross-border projects or deals: logistics, language, trust, negotiation and teamwork. For more detail on doing business in other jurisdictions, refer to our Doing business in key global jurisdictions—overview, the Lexology Panoramic—overview series, and the International comparator tool. Building productive relationships Operating across borders is now an essential capability for modern in-house counsel. Whether you manage overseas operations, negotiate with international suppliers, or instruct legal providers based abroad, you must recognise cultural differences and adapt your approach so you can secure outcomes from people accustomed to working in ways that may differ from your own. To cultivate effective relationships worldwide, concentrate on five...

Even where colleagues in the business fully trust your judgement in choosing and deploying external advisers, frame those advisers as partners in managing legal risk, rather than distant subcontractors to the legal team, and be clear they work alongside you to anticipate and reduce exposure, not merely to execute instructions at arm’s length for the business. A strong rapport between business stakeholders and external lawyers should never be treated as a danger to the in-house legal function. Opportunities for business managers to meet external advisers during selection: make sure all senior managers can share their views on selection and meet prospective candidates. during definition of the mandate: for more complex mandates whose scope may shift at the business’s behest, the law firm benefits greatly from understanding how changeable or spontaneous certain key players can be and those players......

This Practice Note This Practice Note compiles a single list and links to the clause bank subtopics available on Lexis+® UK that in-house lawyers may find helpful. It serves as a signpost to the comprehensive contracts clause bank (found across multiple Lexis+® UK Practical Guidance practice areas) and to any clause banks specific to individual practice areas. Many, though not all, Lexis+® UK Practical Guidance practice areas include a dedicated clause bank topic. This is because: clauses are not pertinent to that practice area a practice area only needs a limited selection of clauses, so a separate clause bank isn’t justified, eg Lexis+® UK Arbitration, or a practice area contains many clauses spread across different subtopic areas, which would make one consolidated clause bank unwieldy, eg Lexis+® UK Employment, Lexis+® UK Private Client In the second and third...

This guide was first created in partnership with Cranfield School of Management and later refined by Beth Pipe, On Live Learning. Starting a project can be thrilling, bringing fresh ideas and reinvigorating ageing systems and processes, yet it must be managed. This Practice Note provides guidance on: kick off: launching your project safely managing risk: what is it and how could it impact? using tools such as Critical Path Analysis and Gantt Charts project implementation: how to stay in control closing the project: what to do when it is all over Kick off: launching your project safely The aim of this phase is to become far more precise about how the project will be implemented, and to use that output to launch the work and keep it moving. The approach and management needed to achieve the objectives should be defined in a...

In this Practice Note, we will navigate the five principal stages of legal project management ( LPM) through an illustration drawn from an in-house legal team at a multinational drinks manufacturer. It may initially feel long‑winded; however, the virtue of LPM is that once the process is set and the tools are in place, everyone can follow the same process and rely on the same tools, scaling up or down to suit projects of varying size. Stage 1: Defining the scope This stage is the point at which you should devote time to gaining a complete understanding of the project’s scope and to mapping all relevant stakeholders. You can find further guidance on this in Practice Note: Project management: Project lifecycle and set‑up. Example: Suppose the marketing team come to you wishing to launch a limited‑edition flavour and have teamed up with a celebrity for...

In recent years, the idea of Legal Project Management ( LPM) has gained real momentum within the legal sector. This Practice Note offers an introduction to LPM and explores: what LPM is and how it can assist in-house lawyers the phases of legal project management and what occurs at each stage how to begin with LPM This Practice Note can be read alongside Practice Note: Legal project management: A step-by-step guide, and further guidance on project management generally is available in the Project management subtopic. What is Legal Project Management ( LPM)? Put simply, it is the application of project management principles to legal work. Project management first emerged in the 1950s, with roots in engineering and construction. Over the decades, its value was recognised beyond heavy industry, and it was taken up across numerous business sectors, including IT, finance and professional services. Today, project management is regarded as an...

L& D encompasses all learning opportunities across the organisation. It includes, though is not limited to: taking part in training courses completing online tutorials watching webinars on-the-job coaching mentoring reading researching Regulatory requirements SRA The Solicitors Regulation Authority ( SRA) views learning as vital. Solicitors no longer have to tally continuing professional development ( CPD) hours each year. Under the SRA’s competency regime, they must reflect on the quality of their practice, identify any learning and development needs, and then address them to ensure their knowledge and skills are current and they are competent to practise. For more information about the competence regime, see: Continuing competence—in-house lawyers—overview. Before the SRA competence statement, the SRA made no distinction between technical legal skills development and personal development. The competence statement addresses this, defining what solicitors must be able to do to...

This Practice Note explores whether organisations ought to run training contracts within their own teams, weighing up the pros and cons. There’s a paradox: moving from private practice into an in-house role can be tough, yet there appears to be little appetite for training would-be lawyers in-house to mitigate those hurdles. Developing trainees internally can deliver advantages over hiring lawyers shaped by firms, and the tally of in-house training contracts seems to be on the rise. So what, then, are the benefits and drawbacks of training in-house? And how can an in-house legal function set up and deliver such training? Advantages of providing training in-house A lawyer trained in-house is already used to the mindset and behaviours required once qualified and operating in-house. Growing within a non-legal environment—whether in a business, charity or the public sector—shapes how the lawyer perceives situations, and helps them tailor their...