Like many other in-house counsel, I found myself in a difficult position earlier this year. Given the looming recession, my (now previous) employer was engaging in a reduction in force (RIF) in order to control expenses. As the GC, I was proud of the high-performing legal team we had built, and it was difficult to imagine losing any one of them, especially because while our budgets had shrunk, our legal needs had not. If anything, they had grown in both volume and complexity.

Unlike many other leaders facing this same situation, I was fortunate—if you can call it that—as one of my lawyers found a new career opportunity. While I didn't actually have to go through a difficult termination, I was faced with the painstaking task of dividing up and allocating her work to a team already at capacity.