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Key challenges in-house counsel must prepare for ahead of 2025
As in-house-legal teams navigate a rapidly evolving landscape marked by budget constraints and growing workloads, Roderick Smith offers valuable insights on how professionals in this field can effectively address these challenges in the year ahead.
Grace Robbie
Speaking on a recent episode of The Corporate Counsel Show, Roderick Smith, senior legal counsel for Novartis in ANZ and a musician, discussed the myriad of challenges in-house lawyers are poised to face as the legal landscape rapidly evolves.
He also offered insights on how legal professionals can navigate these increasing complexities, sharing strategies for staying ahead of the curve as 2025 approaches.
Smith shared that not just himself but any other legal professionals in the in-house space have observed a significant transformation in the industry and its evolving landscape.
“There are no surprises and no doubt [with] many … in-house legal [professionals] saying we got to do more with less. We have to be able to deal with budgetary constraints, and we need to be working smarter rather than harder,” he said.
For Smith, this shift has brought to the forefront the growing importance of legal operations as a critical strategy for enhancing efficiency within in-house teams and effectively addressing these emerging challenges.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of my in-house career in recent times has been focusing a little bit more on legal operations,” he said.
He explained that legal operations have provided him with valuable insights by learning from the practices of others in the field, allowing him to apply their proven strategies to identify opportunities for improving the efficiency and performance of his legal team.
“Legal operations, for me, has been a great area of interest because I’ve been able to learn from others and see if I can apply some of the disciplines that legal operations professionals are bringing to their legal practice to uncover opportunities for our legal team to become a little bit more efficient.
“[It will also] enable lawyers in our team to be practising at the top of or the height of their levels, height of their practice each and every day and each and every moment of every day so that we’re adding the most value and being strategic partners to the business,” he said.
“It’s been in recent times more of a steadfast and concerted sort of interest in legal operations and finding those opportunities that have been giving me quite a lot of meaningful moments in my in-house career of recent times.”
As highlighted by Smith, an additional challenge that in-house counsel will need to navigate in the coming year is the ability to synthesise large volumes of information and deliver concise and actionable legal advice within a real-world business context.
“In-house legal is in many respects being not only able to consume an enormous amount of information, synthesise that into bite-sized legal advice that’s actionable in a real-world context,” he said.
Similarly, Smith urged in-house lawyers to embrace a client-centric approach, encouraging them to bring their entire, authentic selves to the workplace.
“What you also need to do is cultivate that approach to your client in-house, and part of that is about bringing your whole self to work, bringing your heart to what you do and, you know, helping people to feel safe,” he said.
