Top tips from last year's In-house Rising Star

Leanne Hammell was awarded the In-house Rising Star Award in 2017 while working at IT Consultancy ECS. Here, she discusses her three top tips she picked up for succeeding in-house and what being named Rising Star meant to her. 

When I started my in-house legal career, I was often seen as a 'legal blocker' and met with copious amounts of sighing and rolling of eyes… sound familiar?

As any in-house lawyer will know, in-house work requires more than just talking a good game and knowing the law, it requires you to live and breathe your company's values, culture and long term strategies. And, most importantly, it requires your company to place trust in you as their legal adviser – something which won't happen overnight!

Here are just a few things I learned:

1. Get stuck in!

Roll up your sleeves and get stuck in! When I first started as sole in-house counsel, I was met with a lack of styles (by 'lack', I mean there were none). Coming from private practice this should have daunted me, however I saw this as a chance to step outside of my comfort zone and create a legal platform that would work collaboratively with the wider team.

In addition to collating a styles bank, I also put in place a soft skills programme to educate key stakeholders and the wider team on how to get the most out of their legal team. By connecting with the wider team and demonstrating the positives of engaging with legal early on in a tender process, I was able to align legal objectives with commercial objectives maximising my value to the company.

The focus I had to drive transactions through allowed me to have sight of agreements earlier on in the process, meaning we were able to negotiate and conclude transactions quicker, generating revenue for the company earlier than had been forecast. Seeing the whole life cycle of a transaction was incredibly rewarding and allowed me to have a better understanding of the needs and requirements of the different stakeholders. It is only by immersing yourself in your company that you will develop solid commercial awareness.

2. Stop speaking legal!

A fundamental rule of thumb for every in-house lawyer is to know your audience and stop speaking legal. Stakeholders will not appreciate legal jargon or long winded legal advice, trust me.

What your company really wants is proactive risk management. Toughen up your risk aversion feelings from your days in private practice and provide quick, succinct advice that highlights the main risks so that your company can make an informed decision. 

3. Take control

Take control of your own needs and development within the company, be resourceful and never doubt your own ability.

Your colleagues within the organisation will look to you for advice, inevitably in an area of law you have never dealt with before and sometimes in an area of law you've never heard of.

Be a problem solver, even if you don't immediately know the answer. Working in a large organisation with numerous central functions, it would have been easy for me to become a wallflower. Instead, I decided to stand up and be counted, adding value outside of the day-to-day expectations of the role.

Don't be afraid to re-invent the wheel. If a procedure or process isn't working between legal and the wider team and you feel you can streamline it, do it.

What the In-house Rising Star award has meant to me

I was delighted and overwhelmed to have been shortlisted and to have won the Rising Star award. For me, this was recognition from my company that I had truly integrated as their trusted legal advisor and that I was able to add value that in turn made me valuable.  

Winning the award has created numerous opportunities to further my career. I'm very lucky to have been asked to attend some wonderful events and to have met some lovely individuals over the past year and hope I continue to do so for many years to come as my legal career progresses.

This award celebrates the talent of junior lawyers, working in the in-house environment allowing them to be recognised and rewarded for their hard work and contribution to the legal sector. I would urge anyone who knows of an in-house rising star to complete a nomination form.