Nearly a year and a half later, COVID19 and the accompanying avatars of the lockdown — global, national, local, total, partial — are no longer the mere backdrop but the very condition under which ‘work’ has to work.
Several aspects of work — the how, what, when, where and why are being redefined. Multinational companies are compelled to rethink the competencies they want in their
executives – and the legal department is no exception.
Historically competencies in crisis management, enterprise agility, cost management and innovation were not the quintessential check boxes when hiring a legal counsel. The trend — as indicated by the latest IBM Institute for Business Value’s research — is clearly one, in which companies are prioritising these capabilities.
Now, more than ever, the in-house legal counsels are central to how companies reimagine their personnel practices to build organizational resilience and drive value.
Speed and flexibility have been amplified
dramatically.
Integrated knowledge and portend comprehensibility are no longer aspirational but existential matters.
The pandemic has adversely impacted the business operations of most industries, wherein they are increasingly confronted with issues of delayed payments, breakdown in supply chains etc. Rise in disputes amongst parties is inevitable and with the Indian judiciary already grappling with insurmountable cases, companies are open to avoiding the resolution via litigation route.
Litigation, now more than ever, has become synonymous with wasteful depletion of time, money and human resources — the expending of disproportionate energy of the legal team on avertible matters.
Consequently, the companies expect legal counsels to possess the ability to also settle disputes without knocking the doors of the courts.
At a recently organised seminar by the Singapore International Mediation Centre, in collaboration with CAMP, the Honourable Chief Justice of India, N. V. Ramana noted the growing reliance on mediation to resolve disputes as businesses today are on leaner budgets.
AUGUST 2021 | BLOG POST 3
Relevant in this context are the findings of a poll survey conducted by Rollonfriday, a British website exclusively designed for the Legal community. As per the survey findings given in Figure 1 below –
- 44% of in-house lawyers predict a drop in their legal spend for 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
- Only 19% believed their spend will increase over the next 18 months.
- 37% felt that it will stay the same.
Figure 1: Poll Survey conducted in July 2020 by RollonFriday
(a British website exclusively designed for the legal community)
As organisations battle to survive the pandemic, budgets will continue to be slashed across the board, with an exception of expenses on external legal advice. The prodigious expectation from the in-house legal team is likely to stay and will be regarded as a mandatory check box to be ticked when selecting the in-house counsels.
In the years to come, getting the right balance of innovative methodologies that maximise effectiveness will be a key focus for most organisations.
With the above context in mind, Let us paint a picture of the “what if” scenario.
- “What if” you (the Company), did not have to spend inordinate hours to shortlist and find that right legal team member.
- “What if” you could continue to spend time on other compelling company matters and ‘voilà’, materializes a shortlist of potential candidates with all of the above competencies and with the right cultural fit for your organisation.
This is precisely what The People Network, a human capital advisory firm, offers its clients – a relevant and future-ready service.
The People Network’s strength is its collaboration with Industry Leaders who have built world-class organizations – Knowledge Partners with the acumen and strategic expertise in all domains, including legal, to give you ‘Your Shortlist’ .