Lucy Endel Bassli, former assistant GC of Microsoft, founder of InnoLegal Services and chief legal strategist at LawGeex, saved the best – or at least the most provocative – for last in her eight-part series on the key players in the legal ecosystem, “Boulders, Hurdles & Glass Ceilings In-House.”
That’s when Bassli put the hammer to some “myths” about the role of corporate law departments in the legal ecosystem. “It is easy to claim that without the corporate legal teams forcing law firms to behave differently, law firms and other providers would never change,” she writes. “While there is obvious merit to the old notion that ‘money talks,’ I believe that it’s somewhat of an easy out to lay all the responsibility on those corporate legal teams. . . . [C]hange will come about one lawyer at a time . . . indeed, maybe one unicorn lawyer at a time.”
Myth #1: In-house lawyers are all innovative
Nothing magical happens that transforms a law firm lawyer into an innovating machine just by virtue of of changing jobs and going in-house.
Myth #2: Legal ops is more successful in-house
Convincing lawyers to change is just as hard in-house as at law firms – even at some of the best tech companies with the latest innovative gadgets.
Myth #3: Panel programs influence the market
Whether DuPont, Cisco or Microsoft, no panel program can bring the sort of game-changing innovation we all seek. It comes down to the people.
Myth #4: In-house legal teams are open to tech
Implementing tech in-house is as much of a boulder up a hill as it is at law firms. Tech-enabled practice is not intuitive to most lawyers.
To see all eight installments, visit Thomson Reuters’ Legal Executive Institute.
Published January 14, 2019.
