In-House Counsel: Your Organization’s Family Doctor
“What do you do, exactly?” If you’re an in-house counsel, you’ve probably had colleagues ask a version of this question. Many people’s idea of lawyers is what they see on TV. Aside from the fact that legal dramas typically focus on the courtroom—a place most in-house counsel rarely visit—legal dramas by design portray splashy moments, not the ordinary reality of life behind the scenes: doing your part to help your organization manage risk and succeed in its mission.
When I served as in-house counsel of a global non-profit, I developed another way of explaining our work. While people weren’t always sure what to make of “in-house counsel,” they could all relate to the idea of a family doctor.
A family doctor helps take care of you when something goes wrong—but also helps keep you well. As a mom, I’ve had plenty of experiences of bringing my child to see the doctor—yes, when there’s a tummy ache or rash that needs eyes on it, so we can keep things from getting worse—but also, to receive guidance that could ensure growth is on track, or a vaccine to keep her from getting sick.
In-house counsel does the same thing for an organization. It helps treat the problems that arise to ensure minimal damage—but ideally, also helps prevent problems from arising in the first place and empowers the organization to reach its goals. These concepts of treatment and prevention correspond to key roles of in-house counsel:
Serve the people within the organization, helping them address the every-day needs and problems they bring.
Safeguard the organization itself, protecting and stewarding the mission, brand and other resources
You might go to a family doctor when something is wrong, just like your in-house customers should come to you if something is wrong. For example:
A data breach
A misconduct report
Potential legal action, like a threat from a vendor
But if that was the only time your in-house customers talked to you, you’d have your hands full managing crises and putting out fires!
Just as family doctors help families stay well, for example, by scheduling routine check-ups with children and providing preventative care, in-house counsel can play an invaluable role in promoting organizational health. For every risk that materializes or crises that occurs, you can probably think of steps upstream that might have prevented the problem. Things like:
Appropriate policies
Efficient processes
Clear decision-making authority
And of course, not all day-to-day demand for legal services corresponds to a problem. Just as we might ask a trusted doctor to help us reach our goals—what do I do now to help me be healthy and active when my kids are adults?— in-house counsel can play a critical role in helping the organization seize opportunities.
Your most valuable service may be your ability to listen, discern, and ask good questions. Your best legal guidance likely comes not in how to handle a problem that has already happened, but when you participate in strategic planning and risk mitigation conversations, and can point out issues and address potential roadblocks, saving your colleagues untold grief. How to explain to colleagues when they should come to you? We intuitively understand the benefits of seeking proactive medical help for prevention and reaching our goals—vaccines, healthy habits. It’s the same thing with in-house legal counsel.
It can be hard to make time, or get buy-in, for the kind of preventative, proactive work of helping an organization stay well, but investments here tend to pay off in orders of magnitude. Perhaps using this model of a family doctor can be a useful tool in communicating you value you add in a language your colleagues understand.
If you have any questions about this article or need counsel on the issues addressed in it, please contact Jeannie Rose Barksdale by emailing jeannierose@ch-llp.com.