Hi there,
Want to know the most common excuse I hear to bringing data and transparency (not to mention a bit of healthy competition) to legal sourcing?
“It will ruin our law firm relationships” and…
“Our lawyers operate on the basis of strong relationships with our firms. We know who we like.”
The problem with this kind of thinking is:
(1) It’s not true (you can hear it from the source in our upcoming webinar with Shell’s legal ops).
(2) When “excuse” focused GCs overly rely on personal relationships — rather than data or objective measures — in selecting which law firms for which matters, or allow their teams to do so, they introduce a new kind of risk that I don’t think many of them are thinking about.
Because they and their teams take those firm relationships with them...
To their next position. To retirement. To the grave.
As a result, GCs who are stuck doing things the “old way” and keep their firm relationships to themselves — and allow their team to do the same — risk their team’s ability to manage risk when they move on and take those relationships with them.
At best, it’s lazy.
At worst, it’s leaving their in-house team and the entire organisation at a serious disadvantage.
So GCs.
What kind of legacy are you leaving?
Good leaders help ensure their people, teams (current and future), and organisations are equipped to survive and thrive beyond them.
The rest, if they’re lucky, are forgettable.
Too harsh? I don’t think so… but feel free to let me know if you think I am.
Cheers,
