Hoil Kim (from left), Vivian Kim, Anne Lee Benedict and Michael Wu.

Over three months recently, Latesa Bailey traded in her heels for some steel-toed boots and safety goggles.

For Bailey, the head of the human resources department and senior corporate counsel at Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, getting into the plant and observing the work done there was the best way for her to truly understand the business. It was a theme many at a general counsel roundtable at the International Association of Korean Lawyers conference last week in Atlanta agreed with.  

“I learned how to put doors on a car and how everything works together,” Bailey said while moderating a panel discussion at the conference. “If I had done that early on, when I started out in the legal department, I would have understood the language when advising on workers' compensation claims and ADA” issues.

Michael Wu, senior vice president, GC and secretary at Atlanta-based Carter's OshKosh B'gosh subsidiary, had some additional recommendations: read your company's Form 10-K filings or during the on-boarding process, meet as many of your clients as possible.

“You have to get to know the nuts and bolts of your business,” he said.    

Doing so, the panelists said, affords GCs the opportunity to sit at the table with executives, have a say in strategic business decisions, get in before, rather than after, problems arise, and help ensure that the legal department isn't viewed as the department of “no.” But these advantages require trust and partnerships with members of the business side, they added.

“You have to be communicating with your clients, building that trust,” said Anne Lee Benedict, executive VP, chief legal officer and secretary at Denver-based construction materials company Summit Materials. “There's a little bit of marketing that you have to do internally where maybe people haven't had a good experience with the law department or view it as the place where things go to die. We have to ask, 'How can we help you achieve what you want to do?'”

Vivian Kim, SVP, GC and secretary at Korean-American bank Hanmi Bank, said the key to building that trust is “all about the relationships,” which she said she nurtures by regularly touching base with all of the company's divisions, and letting them know that she is always available.

“My most important role is helping the business units see problems before they start, and the only way I can do that on the front end is if they see me as a trusted business adviser,” she said. “It takes time to build the relationship and let them know that you really are there to help.”

And it's not just the in-house lawyers who need to understand the business and its intricacies, the panelists said. Outside counsel also are well-served to do so, they added.

The most effective outside counsel are those “who understand your situation and what's driving the company in the particular situation, whether its litigation or transactional,” said Hoil Kim, CLO at health technology company Ciox Health. “You have to be able to distinguish between a bet-the-company litigation where the sky's the limit on the cost versus a situation where there is a distinct budget.”

Other pointers from the panelists for outside counsel include:

• Get things done in time within budget.
• Be flexible, particularly in billing matters.
• Do not send memos brimming with legalese but rather provide practical advice that can be presented to the business partners.
• View the relationship as a partnership to help ensure that both business and legal objectives are met.
• Be responsive, recognizing that a GC would not be asking for something to be done urgently if it were not truly urgent.