Leading General Counsel have a seat at the Executive Table

12 October 2012

Leading General Counsel have a seat at the Executive Table

A comprehensive report launched today outlines the behaviours found in leading in-house legal practice. The primary characteristic identified in 89% of top legal departments is that the most senior in-house lawyer in the organisation sits on the leadership team.

The Corporate Lawyers Association of New Zealand (CLANZ) and the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association (ACLA) have launched the 2012 ACLA/CLANZ In-house Counsel Report: Benchmarks and Leading Practices.

CLANZ and ACLA surveyed 346 organisations with in-house lawyers across New Zealand and Australia. The resulting report provides crucial benchmarking data, detailed analysis and practical tips for creating a leading in-house practice.

In-house lawyer leaders reported that they were more likely to be involved early in the business planning cycle and were adequately resourced to provide strategic and proactive input. They also closely managed and measured external providers of legal advice and strongly rated their external law firms as exceeding their expectations. The leading legal in-house teams also had their priorities well aligned with those of their employing business.

The report also found that 80% of all legal teams believed they were valued as trusted legal advisors. This level of confidence contributed to 83% of in-house teams citing workload and time pressure as their most significant challenge and 81% of in-house teams expecting their workload to increase over the next two years.

“A key aspect of this research has been to identify and synthesise innovative practices from across the in-house legal profession” says CLANZ President Grant Adam. “While some factors require the organisation to appreciate the value that a great in-house lawyer can deliver, many best practices are open for all in-house lawyers to adopt and for external providers of legal advice to take to heart when thinking about what their clients really want.”

The research got 346 organisations to give detailed responses on issues such as staffing, pressures faced, how value is measured and proved , internal and external legal spend, managing workload and their willingness to innovate.

After statistical analysis, an editorial group of senior General Counsel from Australia and New Zealand reviewed the draft report to ensure the reported findings were relevant and practical. The organisations surveyed represented a range of privately owned, public listed, public unlisted, government, non-government organisations, not for profit and academic institutions.

The report is available for purchase from CLANZ at www.clanzonline.org

ENDS

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