How to be a valued legal function

With legal teams increasingly combatting the challenge of maintaining relevance in their business, one professional has offered some tips on how to be valued in the eyes of the big bosses.

Lawyers Weekly recently spoke with Plexus CEO Andrew Mellett, who offered an insight into the current environment for in-house lawyers.

Mr Mellett and his firm have conducted research into this portion of the market by utilising its contacts within Australia’s corporate counsel community, which includes around 40 of the top 60 general counsel in the nation, according to Mr Mellett.

The most recent research has revealed that 76 per cent of end-clients do not agree with the statement: “We believe we get value based on the time and money we spend on the legal function”.

Ninety-one per cent of GCs asked in the study have reported that their workload will increase over the next two years—yet only a quarter of them (28 per cent) report any expected budget increase...