Are lawyers taking the opportunity to lead?

Having spent the past 20 years in the law, initially in private practice and since 2005 as an international general counsel and now in a purely commercial role, I have been fortunate to work with many superb lawyers. But, do lawyers need to be leaders? I would argue that, for the legal profession to be centrally positioned at the heart of industry, we need to lead more and lead better.

Many lawyers are already leaders – within law firms, as GCs and, in some cases, in C-level roles within business. The risk, however, is that the legal profession falls behind accountants and management consultants in positioning for the CEO’s ear and forming part of the talent pool.

At a time when managing business risk and integrity are key issues, the reverse should be happening. Lawyers, whether in-house or private practice, should have a key seat at the top table and be able to deliver against the highest expectations.

Leadership is clearly a very important characteristic. By any standards, it allows a vision to be created and clear plans to be executed to deliver that vision. Leading invariably involves people and culture, communication and collaboration. Leading is about performance, whether it is measured in financial terms, the achievement of targets or in other ways.

It is not necessary to be leading a team or an organisation to be a leader,
but having a leadership mindset is vital. This means that experts can be leaders, whether in their area of expertise or by being acknowledged and respected as experts. Having that mindset also makes a lawyer more inclined to seek out leadership mandates and develop the skills necessary to be an effective leader.

So what practical measures can be the legal profession take to deliver on this?

First, private practice and in-house lawyers should work together to develop a more effective communication, collaboration and learning system, of which leadership should be an emphasis.

Second, we should celebrate leadership and better understand the qualities of those who have a track record of leading.

Third, legal leaders should willingly act as mentors, helping to bring through the next generation of leaders.

Finally, we should play to our signature strengths as lawyers and focus on what we do best. It is much easier to lead in those areas where we naturally excel, given our professional training and experience. The trick is to take those strengths and develop them into areas which external stakeholders recognise as leadership.

Ultimately, we have to be better at articulating the value which we bring to business. That is not always easy and lawyers are invariably categorised as executioners rather than originators.

However, with financial institutions under the spotlight, what better time is there to position our profession at the centre, take the lead and redefine the boundaries within which we operate?

This does not mean that we have to reinvent the profession. But it does mean that we have an opportunity to create and deliver value in our role as lawyers to get the leadership recognition we merit.