How to build an in-house legal team

Building your own in-house legal department is both a challenge and an investment. Get it right, and it could transform and streamline your business, workflow and operations.

Every legal team is going to be different, as it will need to fit in with the wider organisation to provide efficiency and success. Remember, the ultimate goals of a legal team is to ensure the smooth operations of the business, supporting everyone: whether it’s entering into new client and supplier arrangements; dealing with HR issues; compliance; managing disputes; supporting on strategy, or ensuring the business is correctly operating in accordance with local laws and regulations.

The team needs to be tailor-made to accommodate the business and its broader regulatory environment. That’s why it’s important to fully understand and set the right goals and the scope of work that is needed.‍

Building the Team‍

Once you know your client, you can then start to build the team around you to fill in the capabilities.

Hiring the right people is vitally important. Not only should they be able to manage the projects and be able to technically jump into different tasks to bring them to an efficient close, but they also need to culturally fit in with the broader team. Communication is key here, being able to work effectively as a team and independently. You can especially see this in smaller businesses where the wrong hire can greatly impact the rest of the team, its culture, and the operations as a whole.

Don’t forget to have junior or paralegal support for your legal team. The experienced members will need support as the business grows and there are more tasks to do. Whether these come from direct hires or secondees from external counsel, this also gives an opportunity to help teach and empower the legal teams of tomorrow.

Resource and Support

Having the right balance and relationship between your in-house team and external counsel is another important factor.

For the larger and more complex tasks, or for where you need specific technical knowledge, you can always outsource and lean on external counsel to support. To ensure efficiency, speed and good work, look to establish a panel of firms which is periodically reviewed. They should cover a broad range of capabilities while ensuring they stay competitive against each other to keep costs down and to avoid complacency in work.

And don’t forget to sign up for conferences, trainings, events and news alerts. You need to build and maintain your legal knowledge and be a good lawyer. Set out yearly targets and goals for training and development. But also listen and get feedback from the wider business. At the end of the day, they are the client and need to be satisfied!

Talking Tech

Having the right legal tech is vital. Not only for efficiency and productivity, but to ensure a successful business. How would businesses have survived during the Covid lockdowns without the access to connectivity between team members or cloud-based solutions to facilitate the growing need to work from multiple locations?

Gone are the days when paper ruled the legal world. In today’s industry whether it’s small in-house legal teams or large legal firms, the ever-evolving legal technology sector has fundamentally transformed the business. This doesn’t just make for an efficient business; it provides improvements to teams as well as opportunities to save budget and better utilise employees.

Implementing good technology and AI can now help free up a lawyer’s time and at the same time, increase document safety and cyber security. The benefits can pay off in improving mental health and wellbeing and supporting a better work/life balance.

In the legal team at BTV we’ve ensured we have implemented to most up to date legal tech to help us with our everyday workloads.