According to Anthony Wright, the founder and head of Lexvoco, a recruitment agency for temporary in-house staff. in-house lawyers, having traditionally focused on mitigating risk are now starting to find ways to generate revenue for their employers,
While Wright writes in Lawyers Weekly that it is important for GCs not to lose sight of their main responsibilities, he also says new expectations are emerging for in-house teams.
“Lawyers are smart people, but often they become blinkered in their approach in protecting risk and saving legal costs,” Wright says.
His take is that more in-house counsel are thinking about how they can align the work of their teams with the overall profit aims of their employers.
When they do start focusing on some revenue generation, he says, they improve their status and prospects.
“It gives the in-house legal team a lot more credibility and goes to this concept of having a seat at the executive table.’
He goes on to say that the two are not mutually exclusive. What he does say in an article for Lawyers Weekly is that the concepts of risk typically and revenue generation have not ever really been contemplated by in-house counsel.
“The most progressive in-house counsel are starting to think about this,” he writes.
So is Wright right?
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