A GC’s guide to team optimisation: don’t wait, do it today, by Kerry Phillip
- GCs and CLOs must evolve beyond traditional legal roles to lead tech-enabled, high-performance teams that deliver measurable business value.
- Successful team transformation starts with data-driven discovery, strategic planning, and phased implementation, focusing on early wins and continuous improvement.
- Tech adoption and clear service models help legal teams automate routine tasks, enabling them to focus on high-value, strategic work that drives businesses forward.
General Counsel (GCs) and Chief Legal Officers (CLOs) are almost without exception excellent at the ‘law’ and ‘managing risk’ parts of the role description—it’s why they got the job in the first place. But today, GCs must also run an efficient, tech-enabled, productive team that delivers, and can show it is delivering, value to the business. And for this, they have had no training.
I have always been interested in change, innovation and finding ways to accelerate, more so than in, say, the niceties of competition law or the technicalities of privacy. Early in my career, that made me a bit too
