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The CCCA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2020 In-House Counsel Awards.

The CCCA’s new webinar series, "In the House with In-House," explores the key issues you are facing and how your colleagues are overcoming them. These short webinars share the real-life experiences of in-house counsel in various industries and sectors as they talk about the challenges created by the pandemic and look to the post-pandemic world.

Several months ago, I attended a networking event by myself for the first time. I decided it was time to make more connections in my legal community even if the circumstances were outside of my comfort zone. Following that evening, I continued on this path, reaching out through cold messages to in-house counsel throughout my city—and have grown in ways I never would have otherwise been able.

How you present yourself matters. As professionals, we pride ourselves on our legal and industry knowledge and our business acumen. However, conveying this expertise to communicate complex ideas, move items forward and influence strategic decisions can be challenging. Whether our audience is one or many, a growth mindset, a confident (and self-aware) approach and positive body language are paramount to success.

Technology has certainly provided us with the means to build solid relationships, but we fall short when we consider technology as our reality, instead of simply an operational tool.

In recent years, “innovation” has become the legal industry buzzword that everyone is talking about. However, the true purpose and mechanics of innovation have largely been lost in myth and mystique.

I embrace innovation in my day-to-day work. I fiddle with our available technology. I habitually customize tracking spreadsheets. I kneel at the altar of internal optimization. My colleagues are either inordinately gracious or they sincerely appreciate my efforts. Internal innovation seems welcome. However, I have found client-facing innovation is not necessarily so.

Stop focusing on fires, and start thinking more broadly about your organization and your role in it. Let its strategy be your guide to more meaningful action and success. Strategic management professor Mara Lederman helps you cut through the buzzwords to explain what strategy is, what role it plays in an organization and why it matters to in-house counsel specifically.

The balancing act general counsel must play as trusted advisors is a tough one. Successfully mediating the space between the board and management takes soft skills, such as selfregulation, empathy and motivation. The good news is these skills can be developed. Begin with understanding the dynamics and move on to learning ways to build trust, credibility and heightened awareness.

The board of directors sits at the strategic, not operational, level, with a multitude of fiduciary responsibilities and liabilities. To understand and better work with it, it helps to seek out training and get a taste of what it is like to sit on a board. This author did just that and says her experience was invaluable for her, both professionally and personally.