The New Corporate Counsel

Sally Gunz's book, "The New Corporate Counsel," is an insightful resource for lawyers and business professionals looking to enhance organizational effectiveness in utilizing legal services. It explores the role of corporate counsel and provides valuable analysis of their work in-house.

One noteworthy point highlighted in the book is the importance of metrics (pg. 205). In order for the law department to be accountable to the corporation, it is necessary to have an effective performance evaluation system. However, it is often the case that the law department is subject to the overall performance evaluation system of the corporation, which is primarily designed to measure the corporation's business goals rather than the specific practice of law.

The challenge for the law department is to make this corporate evaluation system applicable to the work performed by the law department. They must communicate their performance to senior management in order to demonstrate the value they provide to the corporation. Corporate counsel needs to "sell" itself to senior management by highlighting the services it offers in a cost-effective manner (pg. 206).

Simply performing well is not enough; corporate counsel must also be perceived as providing value to the corporation. They need to continually justify their existence within the organization and showcase the valuable services they provide, similar to other service departments in the corporation.

How? In leveraging regular reporting as an ongoing practice, corporate counsel should also:

• understand the organization's strategic goals and align the provided legal services to actively contribute to achieving those goals
• provide practical legal advice that is communicated and understood in terms of business outcomes, like risk mitigation, cost savings, regulatory compliance, or competitive advantage
• identify potential legal risks that might accompany business objectives and develop proactive strategies to mitigate them
• leverage technology, streamline processes, and manage external legal costs to demonstrate cost-effectiveness
• establish measurable metrics to track the impact of their work
• build relationships throughout the organization to collaborate effectively to address business priorities and legal challenges

The New Corporate Counsel  Sally Gunz  1991, Book , 313 pages     ISBN: 0459359819