Legal Departments: It's Time to Show Your Value

General counsel at companies around the globe are doing more than ever before. They must support all functional areas of the business while also making strategic contributions to the growth of the organization. As a GC, how can you turn to your law firms to support you in these efforts? And how can you demonstrate the value of your department to company leaders? To answer both of these questions, we need a common language for defining value.

GCs depend on outside law firms to act as an extension of their teams. However, many GCs face a disconnect between the goals of the company and the actions of outside counsel. There is a communication gap that must be bridged in order to help law firms support business objectives.

General counsel must also be able to communicate to leadership the strategic value delivered by the legal department. As legal matters become more complex, and draw on more external resources, the general counsel must demonstrate the ROI of outside legal counsel. They must educate their CEO and their C-suite counterparts on the total value of the department in complex and sophisticated actions.