My manager is awesome, I have autonomy, empathy, respect. But, I am the 2nd attorney in the entire company and the legal gaps give me anxiety; I’m considering moving on after less than a year. The business has no idea about the role legal should play. But they are willing to listen. I get the c-suite’s ear a few times a year. I think the next time I get before them I need to level with them that things need to change and their legal needs are far beyond status quo. Please advise how to persuade?

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Your job in-house isn't to address all risks, it's to highlight real (not theoretical) risks and let the business decide what they want to put resources into.

You probably have like 50 things you think need to be done. You get to pick three (maybe four) to focus your time on and get the business to devote resources to.

90% of your job is figuring out what things you and the business can ignore (because they aren't real risks or the risk is minimal given your size/scope or because the effort is outsize versus risk reduction) and for how long (eventually you should get to some of it) as the business grows.

Foster growth
Manage risk
Control costs
In that order of priority.

likesmarthelpful

Thanks, that’s helpful. My other issue is I have no accounts for westlaw or Thompson Reuters or anything (yet). I’ll have to ping my law firm friends to pull things for me from those sources.

Is your manager an attorney?

Small legal depth cannot do it all. Read up on Legal triage. Do a risk and gap analysis. Ask for more OC budget. You can't fix everything.

Focus on what's important. Raise the issues, then execute what is reasonable and humanly possible.

likehelpful

As the sole attorney for a regional company of nearly 400 employees - I applaud you for taking this step. I hope they listen to you better than mine has.

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It's your job to advise, and if there are only a few attorneys, you should have the gravitas to command the ear of at least one C-Suite to explain the needs. And, if you don't, the other attorney should.

Put it in practical terms, be direct but also within your role. Point out what you see and what in your history allows you to make that determination.

Is the company a start up or more mature? In trouble or stable? Start ups or in trouble, or both, can lead to some behavior that is a bit cowboy in nature that can come back and bite the company in the tush.

That all sounds crazy but if they’ve been doing this for 40 years without a problem it might be hard for them to see why they should change.

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