Clifford Chance

We were joined by Bupa's Angelique de Lafontaine, Merck Group's Melanie Eckardt and ING's Adrian Marsh in a webinar where they shared real life examples of how this is being done in practice, moderated by our own Katharine Missenden and Simon Schmid.

"New tools and technology are consistently being implemented to measure our value more accurately but the most important metric for us is the positive feedback of our internal clients and the fact that they proactively ask for our support."

"Every other part of the company is being quantitatively measured in some way. Either we actively do it or it will be imposed upon on us. By being proactive, we can influence the narrative and say 'our work is inherently qualitative but we're learning. It won't be perfect initially but we are not afraid of accountability’."

"It is necessary to understand how much risk it is acceptable to take, and not be too cautious, so that legal can be quick at their job. This takes knowledge and skill and can be hard to measure as value."

"If you are really taking business partnering seriously, you have to understand what they are doing and build up those relationships. It is a change of perspective – you must look at the value you are adding to the company and not to a specific person or department."

"Adding value is a top priority for legal teams. It is the result of an adequate and well-designed process of identifying and managing legal risk, having efficient control of legal department costs, and providing efficient and accountable solutions for internal and external clients. The role of in-house lawyers is constantly evolving, and we must become familiar, and even comfortable, with VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) environments. That requires legal teams to be adaptable and responsive to change, and more importantly, to create value under such circumstances within the decision-making process."