05 Nov
As a prosecutor, I sometimes see first-time defendants hiring their family`s business lawyer to represent them for a crime. The lawyer identifies the legal issues, knows the legal rules and can apply them to the facts. But the attorney has no idea what usual pleas for this charge are made, or how to use factors such as clients` willingness to attend A.A. meetings, get a substance abuse score, etc. The lawyer often gets a worse situation than a more experienced defense lawyer. In a company, the business unit is also informed of the identity of the substitute lawyer in case of emergency – just like general practitioners in the medical community. Relations lawyers make it their duty to anticipate the nature, scope and demand of all legal work in their areas of activity, whether part of this work is then outsourced to another member of the legal department or to an external consultant. This type of alignment with business units is essential for competence in building and maintaining relationships. Brief descriptions of each competency can be tailored to the overall strategy of each legal/compliance function and the key risks to their organization. Here are some examples: You might call it a specific lack of skill, but I think the business lawyers defending this offense believe they are competent, in part because we emphasize the RAIC as the gold standard of competence in legal work. An Advocate General cannot do his or her job without having the ability to reduce and avoid various potential crises.
A general counsel must be able to lead and work together to contain, resolve and resolve the many problems that may arise in a crisis. There are at least three skills that management consultants should master by Grade 10. The first is efficiency. Here you will find ways to make the most of the time and resources available. It should be proven that things can be done faster with less money and fewer employees, whether resources are in-house or in preferred law firms. Senior counsel should be able to organize their professional practices to achieve multiple objectives or tasks simultaneously. Efficiency, relationship building, and legal project management skills are three core and essential skills for business consultants. Knowledge in the early years depends on operational protocols, training, and the frequency of opportunity to practice the three competencies. Multidisciplinary project teams and the volatility and pace of business require business consultants to demonstrate this type of knowledge and skills at all levels. Richard G. Stock, M.A., FCIS, CMC is a partner at Catalyst Consulting. Since 1996, the firm has advised on international corporate and public law as well as procurement services.
For the procurement of legal services and management consulting for the legal department, which is working, Richard can be contacted at rstock@catalystlegal.com. View www.catalystlegal.com Lawyers, including in-house counsel from around the world who advise organizations, corporations, associations and governments, share commonalities that transcend geographical and jurisdictional boundaries. These commonalities create a competency profile that includes unique skills, knowledge and attributes. This competency profile defines what an in-house counsel does and who is an in-house lawyer. Two key competencies addressed in interviews for the Global Counsel Leaders Circle 2017 Benchmark (a biannual peer-reviewed study) were not mentioned by any respondents in the 2015 benchmark. They are: leaders and technically savvy. In the normal course of my consulting practice, I meet many competent in-house lawyers between the ages of 8 and 10 who are responsible for important issues and portfolios of legal work for a legal department. Sometimes they act as primary relationship managers for a number of business units. Sometimes they are the experts for a legal specialization such as regulatory affairs, tax law or health law. The big challenge is staying on top of things, as business units don`t always provide the legal department with a lot of advance notice or documentation. The internal “customer” is undisciplined.
In short, the relationship as such is not “managed”. Each legal function of the company will have different definitions of business acumen expectations depending on the corporate culture, history and regulatory situation. A thorough understanding of the business and its structure is important, as is the ability to demonstrate this understanding in order to improve relationships within the organization. It is a good discipline to develop a legal project plan for matters that should only last 50 hours. Good plans will detail the phases and tasks for the questions. They will detail the planning assumptions for all phases and most tasks and suggest the probability (percentage) of these valid assumptions or assumptions. The LPM plan divides tasks between lawyers and technical staff and includes a timetable for each element. Legal departments should start by having their professional firms share LPM techniques and tools. They can ask their preferred law firms to train members of the legal department at LPM. We are all so busy that we rarely take enough time to hone the skills needed to run a legal practice within a legal department. By the way, the senior corporate counsel does not invest enough time to acquire the administrative, technical and managerial skills necessary to lead a legal department. Too little preparation, too much improvisation and only on-the-job training.
Nevertheless, there are many legal departments with legal specialization as the main organizational criterion – competition, commercial law, litigation, etc. I saw 4 legal departments consisting of 2 business lawyers, 1 labour lawyer and 1 litigator with responsibility for up to 16 business units divided between them. The third competency requires formal training in Legal Project Management (GPL). Project management, long practiced by engineers, IT and some clinical professions, is now recognized as a core competency for the delivery of legal services. Law firms have specialized training partners and LPM employees. They invested in software and research capabilities to ensure consistency and affordability of plans and related budget estimates throughout the lifecycle of individual legal cases. #RichardGStock #corporatecounsel #businessdevelopment #legalprojectmanagement #efficiency The second skill of senior counsel is relationship building. Competence recognizes the importance of positive personal relationships in business.
Senior Counsel builds mutual trust and credibility with business units and other stakeholders through a track record of reliability and results. Some legal departments formally tailor individual lawyers to specific business units in order to deepen relationships. Here is a list of key competencies required by Global Corporate General Counsel today. Listed alphabetically, not all skills are always necessary, but most will be needed sooner or later. It is important to clarify what legal knowledge and skills are required for different internal roles. The skills required evolve as organizations, products and services evolve – in-house counsel must be versatile. Social and digital media, increased transparency and new channels for distributing information make media awareness an important skill for today`s General Counsel.