Trust me, I’m a lawyer… technology and the evolving role of GCs

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Trust me, I’m a lawyer… technology and the evolving role of GCs

Academic and Thinkers50 honouree Rachel Botsman is focused on trust. Of late, that focus has looked at how technology has shifted our understanding of trust and impacted on both our personal and professional lives.

In particular, Botsman draws a distinction between ‘trust’ and ‘trustworthiness’. The former is generally thought of as a state of mind engendered by the latter. ‘Trustworthiness’, therefore, can be defined as a set of qualities that inspire trust, and is arguably more measurable, because trust can be influenced by emotional factors. There is a symbiotic relationship between the two, but they do not always follow on from each other; hence we can instinctively trust someone, or feel that someone is trustworthy – without trusting them yet. Continue reading “Trust me, I’m a lawyer… technology and the evolving role of GCs”

Client profile: Daniel Toner, Spire Healthcare

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Client profile: Daniel Toner, Spire Healthcare

Daniel Toner had done his research. Before an interview to become head of legal at Bupa Hospitals in 2006, he noticed the company had shifted some of its non-hospital assets to a new division.

At the interview he asked, tongue-in-cheek, whether Bupa was selling its hospitals division. He was told: ‘Absolutely not. That would never happen. They’re central to the Bupa philosophy.’ After getting the job, Toner recalls: ‘On my first day, I was called aside and told, “Right, we’re selling our hospitals division. Sign this NDA.”’ Continue reading “Client profile: Daniel Toner, Spire Healthcare”

Forming, storming, norming and performing

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Forming, storming, norming and performing

What makes a great corporate legal team? It is a question general counsel (GCs) surprisingly often struggle to answer. This lack of familiarity with the stock definitions of management theory should not be interpreted as a sign of operational incompetence, though.

‘The most common attribute any company looks for when hiring a GC is the ability to manage and lead a team,’ says Siobhán Lewington, managing director of legal recruitment boutique Fox Rodney Search. ‘The interview process is designed to highlight those skills and it is all but impossible to become head of a legal department now without an innate flair for teambuilding.’ Continue reading “Forming, storming, norming and performing”

Sponsor message – Safelink: Improve productivity, reduce costs and engage your clients

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Sponsor message – Safelink: Improve productivity, reduce costs and engage your clients

Legal departments and law firms are under increasing cost pressures and it is no longer about doing more with less; it is simply a question of efficiency: top-quality output with less cost, fewer people and fewer mistakes. This leads the enlightened to the hot topics of business and digital transformation, which go hand in hand with technology and raise the issue of digital trust.

Automation of processes, secure and instant collaborative working and artificial intelligence provide huge opportunities for increasing efficiencies and quality, and creating the transparency that engenders trust in the client/provider relationship. Coupling this with the inherent security advantages of such technologies, a firm awareness of the associated risks, and adherence to an ever-changing regulatory and statutory landscape, gives the opportunity to create an environment of digital trust. Continue reading “Sponsor message – Safelink: Improve productivity, reduce costs and engage your clients”