The Best Lawyers Know What to Ignore

One of the primary functions of any lawyer, or indeed of any professional acting as an adviser, is to take the complex and simplify it.

That's because the decision-maker you are advising is almost certain to have too much on their plate. The last thing they want is more issues that they have to take a view on: they rely on their adviser to act as a filter. The adviser's primary function is to say, "Ignore A, B, C, D, E, and F. What you need to focus on, and take a decision about, is X, Y, and Z."

When it comes to lawyers, there's a fundamental distinction between how law firm lawyers and in-house lawyers perform this function.

Law firm lawyers are driven by two main factors. Firstly, they are risk-averse, and the risk they worry about most is the risk to themselves personally. That means they are reluctant to filter anything out in case they get it wrong and end up being sued by their client. Secondly, they don't know their client well enough to judge what does and doesn't matter to the client.

In-house lawyers operate differently. Firstly, they know very well what matters to their decision-makers. Secondly, provided they have made the mental transition to being in-house, their concern is not the risk they personally face but the risk their company faces.

As a result, they are prepared to make the judgement call and filter out the issues they consider unimportant. It's a fundamentally different approach, and a far more useful one for any company receiving legal services.

Does that mean you need to hire your own in-house lawyer? Not necessarily. The key is to find an external lawyer who has that in-house mentality, either because they used to work in-house, or because that's the way they are wired, or both.

27th October 2026