They Aren’t Rainmakers, But In-House Counsel Need to Build Ties

When lawyers hear about “relationship building” and “business development,” many think of law firm rainmakers attracting clients and establishing a book of business. But relationship building isn’t just for attorneys trying to secure and retain external clients.

Even absent the need to bring in business, it’s critical for in-house lawyers to master the art of connection, too. As relationship-minded lawyers already know, strong connections with internal clients and other support functions can drive tangible business results.

Connection as a Catalyst

Many in-house legal teams are overworked and under-resourced. They face pressure to take on more, often with less. It may seem counterintuitive, but investing in connection with internal stakeholders can actually help conserve legal resources.

That’s because when strong ties with internal clients exist, in-house legal teams better understand the true needs of the organization and can align work and limited resources to those needs. In doing so, relationship-focused lawyers pour resources into the tasks that matter most to client teams and deprioritize or automate others.

Strong cross-functional bonds can also drive efficiency because legal teams with healthy internal relationships can solve complex problems faster. Imagine a widespread crisis affecting an organization’s supply chain. Perhaps it involves procurement, operational, legal, tax, and regulatory issues, requiring external communications on high-profile delivery delays.

If the legal team already has a well-established internal network including representatives from each of these teams, it’s easier to assemble stakeholders, rally support, and collaborate quickly across functions. As they say, establish your network before you need it.

Strong internal relationships ultimately benefit the legal team, too. Interconnectivity creates an environment where lawyers can see that their efforts matter within the broader organization. This can be welcome, or even necessary, when a resource-strapped landscape threatens to erode attorney satisfaction.

Relationship building can interrupt the perception that the legal team is a roadblock. By investing in understanding needs and interests of other teams, lawyers can break down siloes, end an “us versus them” dynamic, and recenter focus on collective business goals.

Nurturing connections with internal client teams ensures the legal team is top of mind when the client team begins creating business strategy. In turn, this increases the likelihood that the legal team is proactively brought in earlier in the process, rather than being forced into a reactionary position, post-strategy.

Building Bonds

These key actions can help build stronger bonds with client teams and other support functions:

Understand the ‘Why.’ Empathy is at the core of any strong relationship. Building empathy starts by having conversations with individual business and cross-functional players. Approach these conversations with curiosity, aiming to uncover what the other person’s day-to-day work is like, the processes they use, the standards against which they are measured, group and individual goals, and internal and external pressures.

Relationship-focused lawyers nurture these connections over time and dig deeper to uncover best practices, valuable insights, and pieces of corporate history that might predate their tenure. They draw on these insights to craft legal advice and solutions that mitigate risk, reflect the organization’s journey, and fuel its aspirations. Simply put, relationship-focused lawyers earn a seat at the table by providing context-infused legal guidance.

Inch Closer. Relationship-focused lawyers don’t advise from afar. They strive to be more than a voice on the other end of a negotiation call or a name at the bottom of an email. They find ways to experience and observe others’ work. Job shadowing, listening to sales calls, attending industry events, volunteering to support non-legal workstreams, and serving on a business unit leadership team all provide opportunity to develop stronger bonds and gain deeper understanding of the broader business.

Establish a Feedback Cycle. Creating a cycle of feedback and improvement helps relationship-focused lawyers solidify connections. Start with an open conversation with internal stakeholders about whether the legal team is successfully partnering with other teams and ask for feedback on what could be better. Then make adjustments to address pain points. Over time, a cycle of feedback and improvement opens the door for feedback to flow the other direction, as well.

Create a Foundation of Trust. Being a “trusted adviser” with deep internal relationships requires modeling transparency and accountability. Model transparency by clearly defining roles with internal stakeholders. Depending on the practice area and industry, the legal team’s role might be to provide guidance on available options within the bounds of the law, make recommendations on how to effectively exercise those options to meet business goals, and share information on potential risks and consequences.

The client team’s role might be to weigh the options and consequences and choose the path forward. Note that the purpose of role clarity is to set expectations and streamline action, not to establish uncrossable swim lanes or create a shield to deflect responsibility.

Model accountability by committing to accept mutual responsibility for the outcomes achieved—both positive and negative. Proactive accountability creates an environment that empowers decision-makers to take well-informed risks, knowing there will be no finger-pointing when things don’t go as planned, and assuring that negative outcomes will be navigated collectively.

By prioritizing transparency and accountability, relationship-focused lawyers create a foundation of trust that stands strong in times of success and failure.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

Author Information

Brittany Johnson is director, corporate counsel, at Starbucks Corporation. She and her team lead legal support for the company’s domestic and international expansion through brand licensing. Her views in this column do not necessarily reflect those of her employer.

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