That bright shiny idea – the in-house teams trying to move from costs to business driver

With mounting pressure on legal teams to up productivity, a handful of pioneering GCs have attempted the fundamental shift towards becoming a commercial centre

‘A lot of people like to be seen to be innovative,’ says Richard Susskind, author of Tomorrow’s Lawyers, ‘but one shouldn’t pursue innovation in and of itself, it’s got to be relevant.’

While this means different things to different industries at different times, within the context of the in-house legal community in the grip of an enduring economic malaise, there can be little more relevant than the innovations of departments that have turned themselves from traditional cost centres into profit-generating or business development limbs of the overall enterprise.