Small Legal Departments: How often do you give advice on something you’ve never done before?

One of the joys of being an in-house lawyer - particularly in a small legal department - is that you have the opportunity to regularly turn your hand to a wide variety of intellectually and commercially challenging issues. This breadth, right at the coalface of business, presents a constant learning curve. 

How often does it happen in reality? We decided to ask on a recent In-House Connect webinar:

These results are extraordinary: Nearly HALF of respondents are dealing with 2 - 5 new questions every single month and MORE THAN A QUARTER must face more than 5 new questions every month.

This cuts both ways. 'Constant learning' can exciting, but it can also mean constant 'feet-to-the-fire learning'.

Unless you are one of those rare beasts - the in-house lawyer who has been with their organization for 10+ years AND has an elephant memory - it's quite possible that the question has arisen before... it's just that YOU haven't seen it. Or, that you don't remember it.

So, when faced with an in-house legal question you've never seen before, it is critical that you can immediately and accurately find:

• Any occurrences of this issue or question for your organization in the past.
• Information about how this issue was managed.
• Relevant emails or documents that reflect the outcome of the question.

By reflecting on previous experiences by your organization on this question, you can get to the key issues much more quickly, within the context of your unique commercial circumstances, and ensure consistency in your approach to the question.

When information is stored in a matter management system that provides visibility, this search is straight forward. A simple system of record prevents you from needing to re-invent the wheel, each and every time, which will save you time, manage your risk appropriately and likely keep your blood pressure under control.

If you would like to know more about Xakia's simple, powerful and affordable matter management, you can join a demo webinar here.