Articles From the Team

How do in-house lawyers grow their ‘value’?

Wednesday 20th January saw BCL Legal's first CPD session of the year, held in conjunction with Addleshaw Goddard in Manchester. The subject was "The Value Challenge" and was run by Greg Bott, Head of the Client Development Centre at AG.

It was an incredibly thought provoking as well as interactive session. I won't run through the whole programme but one slide really resonated with me, most probably because it is so similar to aspects of my role as a legal recruiter.

Titled "Framework for engaging key stakeholders" this slide is about identifying who your key contacts are or should be in (the) business and making a plan for developing that relationship.

The slide read as follows:

Stakeholder name: Current strength of relationship (rate 1-5): Desired strength of relationship (rate 1-5): Key interests and issues: Key messages: Communication approach: Actions: Responsibilities: By when:

It was clear that the majority of the in-house lawyers in the room had not developed a framework such as the above. I am sure all knew who their stakeholders are and through their day to day actions 'get through to them' however most seemed to agree that at least giving some more consideration to the above could only be a good thing.

As Greg said 'how can you rate your value if you’re not identifying who you should be valued by'!

For me it read as follows: develop relationships with business contacts, invest in the relationship so that you both know what you can do for each other to benefit the business (and each other) and from there your value will hopefully come!

For more information please contact Mark Levine or visit our website BCL Legal.