Defining tomorrow’s legal function through its relationships

RSGI and Clifford Chance have collaborated to produce the Active Legal 2025 series. Our report outlines 8 key relationships that define the in-house legal function. We put the challenge to leading GCs from around the world: what are the key ways that their department will transform by 2025?
Find the full report here. You can also add your voice via a short questionnaire and see how your answers are benchmarked against your peers.

We talked to GCs about their changing relationships with:
- Employees
- External stakeholders
- Knowledge
- Data and technology
- Business
- The legal function
- External advisers
- Risk management
One of the most hotly debated topics was the role that the legal function plays as an intermediary between employees and the business. For some GCs, particularly in North America, this is becoming integral to their role. For others, this is an anathema to the purpose of a legal function which must always serve the business first.
What GCs agreed on was the increasing role for legal as an influencer and leader in making a business a great place to work. Sometimes this is about providing strategic advice to HR and the business more broadly about how it can implement policies. Often it is by directly modelling good practice by implementing policies to make the legal function a psychologically safe environment where innovation is encouraged and diversity and inclusion is more than a superficial exercise.


The first step to successful implementation of a digital strategy is delivering value to the business with quick wins that will release budget that can be shared with the business as well as being fed into further innovation projects. This builds trust and shows the value that technology can unlock in legal.
With effective digital transformation strategies in place, legal work will increasingly become automated, as much as possible being available for self-service by the business. However, this does not mean personal relationships matter less. Lawyers of the future will need to focus on building personal relationships as the legal function will continue to play an essential role as a connector and influencer.
This report was designed to be an ongoing conversation. If you are an in-house leader, add your thoughts by completing this short questionnaire, and see how your responses compare to your peers.
