Mark Le Blanc says leaders must expand their teams’ skill sets and approach management anew
By Julius Melnitzer | June 28, 2023
Shifting legal departments from cost centres to strategic centres should be consultants’ consuming objective in advising in-house leaders, says Marc Le Blanc, a former general counsel turned consultant at Toronto-based Simplex Legal LLP, affiliated with Epiq Global, one of the world’s largest alternative legal service providers.
“The goal, a very narrow one, is to leverage the value that exists in law departments and that is undervalued in many organizations,” explains Le Blanc, who leads Simplex’ Thrive Legal Law Department Advisory Services and has more than two decades of experience in the media industry at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and TVO, followed by stints in transportation and franchising.
Historically, companies have assessed law departments on their traditional focuses on risk mitigation, cost containment, legal task completion, and monitoring regulatory compliance.
“But in-house value is now also being assessed by the extent to which the lawyers contribute to the advancement of key organizational strategic objectives, similarly to what happens in finance, HR, IT, sales and marketing,” Le Blanc says. “This means that GCs and other law department leaders must expand their team’s skill sets and approach management anew.” MORE . . .
Julius Melnitzer is a Toronto-based legal affairs writer, ghostwriter, writing coach and media trainer. Readers can reach him at [email protected] or https://legalwriter.net/contact.
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