There are two major elements to the first pillar of a law department -- quality legal advice timely. First, businesspeople want quality legal advice on which they can rely. Second, they want it timely.
Quality -
The easy part of quality is that internal customers want
the legal advice to be correct and the result of the lawyer’s knowledge,
expertise, understanding of the business objective, and best judgment applying
the law and expertise to the facts.
There are other elements as well. There is becoming a partner to the
business. There is making sure the
advice is understandable and actionable by the business; the advice must be useful. There is having a reputation as a problem
solver and solution seeks, not just the person who calls balls and strikes like
an umpire by saying -- “yes, you can do that” or “no, you can’t do that”. There
is clarity in communication – both written and oral communication – and
effective listening to understand the business objective, constraints, and
opportunities.
Timely –
No one wants a tortoise for a lawyer. So, the in-house lawyer must understand the
demands of the business and the time-constraints. The lawyer must set reasonable expectations
as to what they can do and by when. But
the bottom-line is that business moves fast.
Opportunities present themselves and then are gone. Good in-house lawyers, particularly those
working with commercial groups, must understand that their delay could cause
the business to miss the opportunity.
And that isn’t good.
It's not enough to provide quality advice late. And its not good to provide bad advice on time. Both are musts.