Knowing the law is the price of admission, not the thing that makes in-house lawyers effective. The skills that decide whether the business brings you in early or works around you are harder to name and harder to teach, which is why most of us learn them the hard way. Credibility, influence, and confidence are not personality traits, they are practical skills built through how you show up.
This How to Contract webinar was hosted by Laura Frederick, founder of How to Contract, with Jennifer Zador, General Counsel at PlanSource, and Sterling Miller, a four-time General Counsel now serving as general counsel for a law firm. Between them, the speakers have seen what credibility looks like in legal cultures that value lawyers and in cultures that work around them, which is exactly why their perspective on building influence translates across roles and company sizes.
The conversation covered how credibility actually shows up in practice, what confidence looks like when you are out of your depth, how to handle conflict without escalating it, how to communicate so advice lands instead of getting tuned out, how to navigate the line between business and legal advice, and how to rebuild relationships that have gone sideways.
Here are our top ten takeaways from the speakers' comments during the webinar:
Credibility is usefulness, not brilliance. The business does not care that you were the best writer at your law firm. It cares whether you make its work easier. You have credibility when people loop you in early because they want to, not because a process forces them to. The clearest signal is the product team pulling you into a build conversation before the problems are baked in. Aim to be the most useful lawyer in the room, not the smartest one.
Vet the legal culture before you take the job. Jennifer treats the interview as your chance to learn how decisions get made and whether legal is a real consideration or an afterthought. If legal is not treated as a thought partner, that is a red flag, and it means the role comes with a culture change layered on top of the actual work. You can still take that job, but go in knowing the climb is steeper. Knowing this before you sign beats discovering it in month two.
Change when you show up, not just how. Jennifer meets with every functional area when she is new, asks what is working and what they would fix with a magic wand, and solves the big pain points inside the first ninety to a hundred and twenty days. Showing up early, before positions harden and timelines collapse, signals partnership instead of policing. This is not a general counsel move. Whoever you support, you can find out what is painful for them and fix it.
Confidence starts with believing you can learn the thing. Sterling came in as a litigator and learned regulatory, then told his teams to take whatever work nobody else wanted. If you believe you can learn almost any part of the business, walking into an unfamiliar area stops being scary. Pair that with a poker face and active listening, and you project steadiness even when the subject is new. The belief comes first, the visible confidence follows.
Do not fake the answer you do not have. Sterling's rule is to say plainly when something is new to you, offer the part you do know, and commit to running down the rest. Pretending and talking your way through it just digs a hole. He kept a notebook of things he did not know and went and figured them out. Letting the business teach you the technical pieces builds the relationship instead of weakening it.
Beware false precision. The law is rarely black and white, so pick the most likely answer and stand behind it rather than running through every possible hand. But do not climb so far out on the limb that you fall when it saws off. Confidence and overcommitment are not the same thing. This is advice and counsel, not stone tablets, and your delivery should leave room for the gray.
Be the department of yes. No is the easy button and the last resort, not the opening move. Start with what the business has and work on how to make it happen, even when the idea sounds half-baked. Sterling's team literally changed its signature blocks to department of yes, and the business started bringing problems in instead of routing around legal. The reframe changes the traffic pattern, which is the whole point.
Stabilize the room before you solve the problem. When someone comes in hot, Jennifer's move is emotional control over persuasion. Listen, name the frustration, and repeat back what you heard so you both know you understand the concern. If you can, buy time, a callback in thirty minutes or a couple of minutes to think, so you respond instead of react. People need to feel heard before they can hear your reasoning.
Take a position and communicate like the business. Handing over the legal analysis and telling the business to decide is law firm training, and in house it makes you nearly useless. Give the options, name the one you like, and say why, whether the reason is risk, revenue, or reputation. Drop the Latin and the dicta, write in bullets, and when a topic outlives a couple of emails, pick up the phone. You will never win the firefight with the executive team, so do not start one.
Treat every interaction as marketing. Most lawyers never expected to be marketers, but the perceived value of legal is built one interaction at a time and it is more qualitative than quantitative. Go to staff meetings to listen, survey the company, and send leadership a regular note on what legal did and why it mattered, tied to goals and dollars. Executives will not hand you recognition unprompted. Better yet, get the business to argue for your resources, the way Sterling had the head of sales pitch the CEO for a lawyer in Europe.
Subscribe to Stay in the Loop
The subtle skills are the ones nobody hands you a memo on, which is exactly why conversations like this one are worth keeping up with. Our weekly newsletter brings you upcoming How to Contract webinars and recaps like this one. Subscribe now so the next set of insights lands in your inbox, whether or not you make it to the live session.
