Tim Hirsch, general counsel of CaaStle.

The new coronavirus has elevated the already important role of a general counsel to be more involved as stores close down and reopen and state and local governments update safety protocols for bringing employees back to work.

Tim Hirsch, general counsel of New York-based fashion company CaaStle, said nearly every decision the company makes is now partially a legal one, whether it is best practices to opening up distribution centers to finding ways to collect and safely handling employee health information. To combat these challenges while working remotely, Hirsch said constant communication with the two other attorneys in his legal department is critical.

Hirsch, who is set to be a speaker at the General Counsel Conference, spoke to Corporate Counsel about work beyond the legal department, challenges during the pandemic and building a resilient team. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Corporate Counsel: How does your role as general counsel go beyond the legal department at CaaStle?

Tim Hirsch: I always say that I am a member of the management team first and an attorney second. I think what makes the management team really effective is people thinking outside of their area of expertise and thinking about how they can use their area of expertise to affect business success and business outcomes.

I always try to think about what is our business objective first and how can I inform that path from my very specific vantage point. That is really the mindset that I bring to all of our conversations.

CC: What have been some of your biggest challenges as a general counsel during the pandemic?

TH: I think they are pretty similar to what everyone else's has been. For GCs, right now, I think the toughest part is that we're being thrust into every decision. I think that because of the fact that so much of what we are facing we have not faced before. Most of the things happening right now have a legal aspect to them.

I think my role as a part of the management team has been front and center. It really does feel like every decision has a legal component. Trying to get my team to be efficient and effective remotely is an added challenge.

CC: What are some of the legal issues you're focusing on right now?

TH: We operate distribution centers and we're implementing temperature checks. We have to keep up with health regulations and guidelines to make sure we walk the fine line between maintaining the most stringent standards from the health perspective. But also respecting the privacy and rights of our employees is also extremely crucial.

We went through a number of terminations and contract negotiations. The sheer volume of trying to renegotiate all of our agreements whether it is with our suppliers or our own customers has been really critical.

CC: What are the strategies you have put in place to ensure your legal team collaborates and there is a consensus of culture?

TH: I am all about informal communication channels. Slack, text, phone calls. I don't feel like as a team we get much out of big, long, formal meetings. We speak a lot, throughout the day and the week. The most important aspect of this is to create a culture where collaboration is valued, encouraged and rewarded. I try to make all successes team successes, and even more than that, business successes. When we all share the same goal and objective, collaboration becomes a natural way to operate, which furthers your overall strategic objectives.

CC: How do you build a resilient team? What do you see as your key responsibilities as a leader in cultivating resilience in your team? 

TH: To me, the key to building a resilient team and organization is transparency and trust. I find that when times get tough, transparency is one of the best tools a manager has at his disposal to keep a team together. Being willing to confront difficulties and speak about them is the first and most important step to overcoming them in my opinion. So I am a big believer in over-communicating. As a leader, I push my team to share but also trust.

CC: How do you measure diversity, equity and inclusion at your company? What are some ways you as a leader can help drive those efforts?

TH: This is obviously a very crucial topic right now, and one that I take very seriously. We as a country need to wake and do much more to fight racism against the Black community, and bring not only diversity but equality to our society, and the same is true for our company. Diversity and equality are two very different things. I think we're a really diverse company, but that doesn't translate into equality, particularly as it comes to representation of minorities at the most senior level. As a management team, we're actively looking at what we need to do to bring change to our organization. I think the first step is to accept and recognize we have a problem and commit to fixing it. Specifically, this means committing to actively guiding and developing the careers of our Black employees and making sure we reward proactive inclusion and improved diversity outcomes that increase Black professional career progression and retention rates.

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