Key takeaways:
- Clear communication with teams fosters trust and minimizes legal bottlenecks.
- Implementing a CLM system enhances contract visibility and reduces administrative burden.
- Scalable processes ensure seamless legal operations as the company grows.
We interviewed Wolfgang Vanas, Head of Legal at ecosio. ecosio is a Vienna-based leading provider of B2B integration specializing in electronic data interchange (EDI), supplier portals, and e-invoicing.
In this article, we put together tips with his help, someone who was the first in-house legal professional of a fast-growing organization. You'll learn how to navigate the heavy workload and build a scalable foundation for the legal team to become a real business driver.
Read on to discover Wolfgang Vanas' 5 tips to thrive in the first 100 days as an in-house legal professional, and to establish a strong foundation to build a department ready to scale up. To see where this foundation led — four years and 500+ contracts later — read how ecosio manages contracts stress-free today.
Looking for TLDR? It's here.
1. Get a clear understanding of the moving pieces – including what other departments are about
While this tip might sound logical and intuitive, it is tempting to come in and jump straight in to fix everything – and that is definitely how Wolfgang felt.
Instead, restrain yourself from being everywhere at once and focus on understanding the layout of the landscape within the organization. With 75% of in-house legal teams experiencing burnout, as reported by the Association of Corporate Counsel, this piece of advice seems particularly relevant. Boundaries play a major role in navigating the risks of burnout, so defining the legal areas you need to look at in the first 100 days in your new role, and leaving the rest for your mid- to long-term plan can be a game changer not only for your organization but for your own mental health at work.
Here are some questions to look at instead:
- What are the processes in place, and what is missing?
- Who is involved?
- Generally, how has legal been handled?
Some areas, of course, need to be covered straight away, for example the sales process (how is it set up and is legal needed there?), or standard legal topics like GDPR. "These are things you just need to go and check, and then the work cuts out for itself," adds Wolfgang.
When asked what books Wolfgang would recommend every lawyer to read, he reckoned that the most important thing for legal professionals to be fully embedded within their organization is to know about the non-legal elements of business. "You need to understand the workings better, and widening your horizon is the greatest thing you can do about it as legal training usually focuses just on legal things."
2. Manage expectations
Being the first in-house legal professional in a company is a double-edged sword: it can be exciting because there's a lot to do and build, and you have a lot of control over how processes can be set up. But it's also stressful because, well, there's a lot to do and build.
Having a clear understanding of what the management team wants the first legal person in their organization to do is key. If, like half of business leaders interviewed for an EY Law and Harvard Law report believe, the organization has lost business opportunities because of inefficient contracting, then having a close look at contract management processes and workflows should be prioritized.
When it comes to implementing a contract lifecycle management tool, specifically, Wolfgang argues that establishing it as a legal tool to begin with is the way to go. In their own organization, when adopting Precisely, this is how they went about it: "First, we used it to get the whole signature process under control. When that was achieved, we finally rolled it out in self-service to our first department, which was HR. And again, for the whole thing to function, it took some time, but that's working really well now, and it takes a lot of hassle out of everybody's mind."
So, first, get the basics in place, like e-signing and archiving, and then you can bring other departments on board, based on ease or difficulty (quick wins are good for morale, while difficult tasks will be more impactful in the long run).
"Setting up processes takes some time, and you need to be smart in how you allocate your resources. It's important to remember that not everything will work from day 1, as you might like," adds Wolfgang.
3. Adopt a transparent and "better safe than sorry" approach
One of the biggest struggles of in-house legal departments is raising legal awareness: helping the rest of the company understand what legal is about, when legal needs to be involved, and when it doesn't.
At the end of the day, it's about getting people to think about legal, argues Wolfgang. Adopting a transparent, open-door approach is the simplest yet most effective way to start establishing strong ties with the rest of the company.
Transparency is also a quality that Fiona Konetzky, VP Legal & Compliance at Adverity, argues can have a great impact on legal becoming a key driver of business. If you're looking for more tips on how to implement a contract lifecycle management tool across your entire company, watch our webinar interview with Fiona and Dani Manfreda, Deputy Head of Legal & Compliance at Adverity here. You can also read about how Adverity reduced legal involvement to zero on 50% of their contracts.
4. Prioritize the adoption of a contract lifecycle management (CLM) tool
Like many first in-house legal professionals, Wolfgang came to an organization that stored contracts on Google Drive. One of the managing directors sat down early on with him to show him around, and gave him free reign to change the way contracts were stored. Initially, Wolfgang thought adopting a CLM would have to wait, but he quickly realized that his priorities had to shift.
"I wanted to get an overview over some contracts, especially important ones. We had everything neatly stored, but you looked at a graveyard of contracts laying around, not knowing any of them. I had no idea what they were for, who was responsible for that contract, was it terminated, was it an old one, was it active, and that's when it hit me: this is something I should have control over, but I don't. That was my tipping point when I said okay, we need to do something about it and look for a CLM tool."
Wolfgang Vanas, Head of Legal at ecosio
Wolfgang's experience is very likely to resonate with fellow lawyers trying to understand what systems have been put in place prior to their arrival. In fact, 87% of legal department leaders say they spend too much time on low-value, routine tasks — like looking for contracts in a cloud drive that is not fit-for-purpose.
So, how do you go about choosing a CLM?
For Wolfgang, the main thing was to have a good archive and e-signature tool. Ask the vendor, seeing them as a consultant, what other functionalities you can expect besides your top priorities, like facilitating collaboration across departments or automating approval workflows.
"What gave me such confidence in Precisely was that it was so well-rounded. Looking at different tools, they had a strength with the template or in the archive, but Precisely was overall strength. This is why it was easy to choose it: whatever use I was going to make of it, it's perfect."
5. Think ahead and think scalability
Another likely possibility when hired to be the first in-house legal professional, especially in a fast-growing company, is that you were hired for your strategic thinking. When Wolfgang joined ecosio, he realized early on that while many of the current processes were functional, they wouldn't be easily replicated were the company to grow significantly.
"Having Precisely as a CLM tool has given me the control I was looking for. I feel comfortable now that even though I'm giving away some of the control, I'm still part of the process and I can still be involved if I see the need to. Nothing goes unnoticed."
So, right from the beginning, understand that the systems you are setting up need to hold in the short, medium, and long term. Focus on finding repeatability in what you do: set up workflows, systems, and adopt the tools that can help further automate these processes.
TLDR & Final Thoughts
Get a clear understanding of the moving pieces
Understanding what other departments do will help you set up your processes better and embed the in-house legal department in the organization.
Manage expectations
Building a legal department from scratch is a lot of work. Break down your goals, use OKRs, and remember that setting up an in-house legal department will take time.
Adopt a transparent approach
Help the organization understand what legal does, when your input is needed, and when it isn't.
Prioritize the adoption of a CLM tool
Adopting a CLM will give more visibility over contracts and more control without necessarily being involved, meaning you'll have more time for other tasks.
Think ahead and think scalability
Although processes might work perfectly in a small organization, consider what would happen as the company grew — would the processes still hold?
Disclaimer: None of our resources is intended as legal advice.
