From Legal Support to Business Partner
Mindset, skills and tools
Why It Matters
Acting and being perceived as a true business partner is one of the top ambitions among many in-house legal teams. Being reduced to on-demand legal support feels like a lost opportunity for the lawyers themselves, but also for the company. And as AI increasingly takes over the more routine work of legal support, the shift toward business partnering is becoming more of a necessity.
Achieving this ambition, however, is difficult. Lawyers tend to put the blame on their business colleagues, for bringing them in at the last minute instead of upstream, treating them as an embarrassment rather than a resource, or keeping them out of the loop on strategic decisions. There is truth in these complaints, but the lawyers also have a responsibility: they need to demonstrate the proper mindset and skillset, which are very different from what they were used to in their previous law firm jobs or in their legal-support role.
Content
The course is highly interactive, and based on the participants’ real-life experiences and concerns. Far from a theoretical lecture, it is a collaborative endeavour where the legal team genuinely assesses its own situation and performance and explores ways to improve them in practice.
The title of the course refers to a journey, from legal support to business partner. We will therefore begin from the starting point:
What are the hallmarks of excellent legal support?
Are we there yet, consistently delivering quality legal support to the business?
What are the limitations of legal support, both for us and the company?
As AI is rapidly taking up, what is the future of legal support as we know it, and what does it mean for us?
We will then turn to the mindset and skills needed to perform at business partner level, and discover practical, high-impact tools for each of them that can be applied immediately:
Peer feeling
Strategic thinking
Business understanding
Proactive relationship management
Risk management
Collaboration with the business
Effective, impactful communication
Trustworthiness.
We will then look at the factors that accelerate or complicate the transition towards business partners, both within and outside the legal department, assess to what extent these factors are present, and share ideas and tips to move forward:
Motivation and readiness of the lawyers
Legal intensity of the business
Corporate culture and how business colleagues see the law and lawyers
Legal governance model
Proximity between legal and business decision-makers
Business pressures and context
Available resources.
Finally, we will draw conclusions for the team, and discover that business partnering is not the ultimate destination of professional evolution for company lawyers.
Who Should Attend
This course should be attended by the entire legal department. Attendance by all creates opportunities for meaningful conversations, sharing of experiences and issues, and for building momentum across the legal department for a step change towards effective business partnering.
Format and Options
The standard program is a half-day session, covering the content listed above.
A custom version, however, is possible. We will discuss beforehand the specific issues and objectives of your legal team, and design the course accordingly.
Available in English, French, and Dutch.
Fees are quoted individually following a conversation with Antoine.
Antoine Henry de Frahan
The course is delivered by Antoine or trainers he has personally trained in his methodology.
For more than 25 years, Antoine has advised and trained in-house legal teams on business partnering, organisational effectiveness, legal risk management, effective communication, and value creation for the business. He delivers keynote speeches and has published extensively on these topics, which he also teaches as an Affiliate Professor at EDHEC Business School. He is the founder and chair of the GC Circle, a peer group of general counsel active internationally.
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