The Lawyer as Risk Manager
How the best lawyers think and communicate about risks
Why It Matters
Companies need more from their lawyers than legal expertise: they need advice grounded in reliable risk assessments. This is a must-have for lawyers who aspire to be, or claim to be, true business partners.
The lawyers’ traditional way of reasoning, however, lacks proper risk management methodologies. Risk management is not part of the law school curriculum and is taught neither in law firms nor in legal departments. Lawyers apparently assume it comes naturally, or that knowing the law is enough to produce it. Neither is true. As a result, the business often sees them as overly conservative, out of touch with business realities, and ultimately irrelevant.
As the participants will discover, a reliable risk management framework radically changes how they work and what they advise. This qualifies them to participate effectively in strategic decision-making.
Unlike drafting or contract review, AI is unlikely to automate risk management. Identifying and assessingrisk well depends on context, judgment, and conversation, which is exactly what AI struggles to replace.
Based on Antoine's book, The Legal Mind Revolution, this course gives lawyers a rigorous, practical method for applying risk management methodologies.
Content
The course is highly interactive, combining short explanations, many examples, exercises based on real-life cases, and open conversations about risk-related issues participants face in their work. It offers theminspiring insights and concrete, actionable takeaways.
The course covers the following topics:
Understanding the rule-based mindset and its limitations
How lawyers are trained to think, and the limitations of such traditional legal reasoning in business decision-making.
Why this situation is hurting lawyers’ credibility and standing.
The need for complementing the rule-based mindset with another framework.
Exploring the risk-based mindset
How lawyers often get it completely wrong when they deal with risk without a proper method, and the dire consequences of such mistakes.
Defining the concept of legal risk - it is not what you might intuitively think - and discovering Antoine’s “legal risk formula”.
Deep dive into the five steps of the risk management process, with practical tips and tools for each step.
How to effectively communicate about risks with business colleagues.
The blind spot of the risk-based mindset and the need for a third framework.
The ethics-based mindset
How lawyers inevitably run into ethical dilemmas, and how they respond.
A practical framework for guiding decisions in ethically charged situations.
Conclusion
Combining the rule-based, risk-based, and ethics-based mindsets elegantly.
Key learning points and practical takeaways for the participants.
Who Should Attend
All lawyers may benefit from this training, especially company lawyers eager to operate and be recognised as true business partners.
Format and Options
The standard program is a half-day session, covering the content listed above.
A custom version is possible. The course is designed around exercises and examples specific to your company and industry.
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.
Antoine is the author of The Legal Mind Revolution: How the Best Lawyers Think About Rules, Risks, and Ethics. He has led many assignments to help legal departments transform their culture and adopt risk-management-based methodologies. He is a frequent keynote speaker and has led numerous workshops on that topic, which he also teaches as an Affiliate Professor at EDHEC Business School.
