When Minh Service provider stepped into her first common counsel function, she didn’t simply sit down on the desk. She grabbed the pen.
“One of many first issues I did as common counsel was to take the pen on the earnings script,” she recalled in a latest dialog. “It’s not often one thing that’s owned by authorized, but it surely’s a forcing perform. It requires you to know the industrial aspect, the monetary aspect, the event pipeline, all the pieces that’s driving the enterprise.”
That selection is a masterclass in how in-house counsel can embed themselves into the enterprise in ways in which pay dividends far past the authorized division. By drafting the script, Minh pressured herself to study what actually mattered to traders, how the corporate positioned itself in opposition to rivals, and the place the operational ache factors had been.
From Authorized Lens To Enterprise Lens
Minh is evident in regards to the mindset shift required. “Earlier than this function, you might need been taking a look at all the pieces purely by a authorized lens,” she mentioned. “As common counsel, you might be in the beginning a enterprise companion and a strategist. You set your self ahead as a enterprise particular person first and a authorized particular person second.”
For a lot of legal professionals, that may be a difficult transition. It means searching for alternatives, typically unconventional ones, to see the enterprise from the within out. Minh factors to gross sales ride-alongs as one other instance.
“I’ve all the time requested to be on a ride-along with the gross sales group,” she defined. “It’s extremely insightful to listen to how they’re promoting, what resonates with prospects, and what lands flat. You can’t get that perspective from behind a desk.”
Why This Issues For Authorized’s Affect
When legal professionals see firsthand how merchandise are bought, guarantees are made, and prospects react, they’re higher outfitted to form insurance policies, compliance applications, and processes that align with actuality, not assumptions. It’s one factor to advise on a advertising declare from a convention room. It’s one other to sit down within the area and listen to a buyer push again or ask for one thing the product doesn’t but ship.
Minh acknowledges that there could be a chilling impact when a GC exhibits up on a gross sales name, however says it wears off shortly. “I attempt to be approachable and accessible,” she mentioned. “I would like folks to come back to me early and sometimes, even to ‘spam me’ with points, so I can assist earlier than one thing turns into an issue.”
The Takeaway For In-Home Legal professionals
The simplest in-house counsel don’t simply reply to points. They place themselves to anticipate them. Meaning deliberately getting into initiatives and areas the place authorized will not be historically current. It means volunteering for work that forces you to study the enterprise at a granular stage. And it means constructing relationships throughout features in order that authorized recommendation is grounded within the operational and industrial realities of the corporate.
As Minh put it, “The extra you understand in regards to the firm, the higher you are able to do your job.”
For in-house legal professionals who need to enhance their affect, the lesson is easy. Don’t simply learn the earnings script. Write it.
Olga V. Mack is the CEO of TermScout, an AI-powered contract certification platform that accelerates income and eliminates friction by certifying contracts as honest, balanced, and market-ready. A serial CEO and authorized tech government, she beforehand led an organization by a profitable acquisition by LexisNexis. Olga can also be a Fellow at CodeX, The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, and the Generative AI Editor at legislation.MIT. She is a visionary government reshaping how we legislation—how authorized techniques are constructed, skilled, and trusted. Olga teaches at Berkeley Law, lectures extensively, and advises firms of all sizes, in addition to boards and establishments. An award-winning common counsel turned builder, she additionally leads early-stage ventures together with Virtual Gabby (Better Parenting Plan), Product Law Hub, ESI Flow, and Notes to My (Legal) Self, every rethinking the observe and enterprise of legislation by expertise, knowledge, and human-centered design. She has authored The Rise of Product Lawyers, Legal Operations in the Age of AI and Data, Blockchain Value, and Get on Board, with Visible IQ for Legal professionals (ABA) forthcoming. Olga is a 6x TEDx speaker and has been acknowledged as a Silicon Valley Girl of Affect and an ABA Girl in Authorized Tech. Her work reimagines folks’s relationship with legislation—making it extra accessible, inclusive, data-driven, and aligned with how the world really works. She can also be the host of the Notes to My (Authorized) Self podcast (streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube), and her insights usually seem in Forbes, Bloomberg Regulation, Newsweek, VentureBeat, ACC Docket, and Above the Regulation. She earned her B.A. and J.D. from UC Berkeley. Comply with her on LinkedIn and X @olgavmack.
