I know that I usually start the year with my list of things that in-house lawyers should be watching out for over the course of the coming year.  I will still post that blog in the next week or two.  To be honest, it’s been kind of crazy watching national and global events unfold over the past couple of weeks, so I am still refining my list (and waiting to see what else pops up in the next few days).  I also wanted to mix things up a bit to keep the blog fresh and not feel I have to do everything exactly the same as I have done things in the past.  This first post of 2025 started with a conversation with an in-house lawyer about things they could do to be more effective this coming year.  Which, as always, got me thinking about what I would do if I were in their shoes. Like most of my ideas (good, bad, or wildly shitty[1]), it just popped into my head that, in addition to the typical goals everyone creates for the year, every in-house lawyer should consider starting the year with some “New Year’s resolutions” designed to help them enhance their effectiveness, well-being, and contributions to the legal department (and the company). Unlike most New Year’s resolutions, I wanted these to be practical, manageable, and realistic. So, I put pen to paper and started to sketch out a few resolutions.  After about 15 minutes, I had way too many, which is a recipe for getting nothing done.  So, I just stopped writing and started culling.  These are the ten that made the list for 2025.  If I do this again, 2026 will likely be very different but you’ll have to stick around for 12 months to find out (how’s that for quality foreshadowing?).  But, enough of this blather.[2]  Let’s get going!  This edition of “Ten Things” sets out ten New Year’s resolutions all in-house lawyers should consider adopting:

1.  Have lunch out of the office/house twice per month.  Back in the good old days, my in-house legal team went to lunch together almost every day.  And, looking back, it was pretty awesome.  You got to know the folks you worked with and deep friendships were born.  Fast forward 30 years and “too many things to do,” remote and hybrid work, Door Dash, and other nefarious forces have all conspired to it easier than ever to just stay glued to our desk the entire day, including lunchtime.  I think we all know that taking time to step away has numerous benefits. At a minimum, a change of scenery can spark creativity, improve focus, reduce stress, give your brain a break, and (most importantly) foster better relationships. My first resolution is to try scheduling lunch away from my desk every day and head out (or to the in-building cafeteria) with colleagues, business stakeholders, or mentors at least once a week (and more frequently if possible).  These informal lunches will build stronger connections and offer insights into business challenges that might not come up in structured settings. Plus, taking a break from the usual lunch routine is great for mental well-being.

How to Implement:

  • Block four lunch appointments per month on your calendar.
  • Invite a different colleague, business leader, or mentor each time (or group lunches are fine too).
  • Use the time to just catch up personally and get to know the other person(s).  If you get stuck, just ask them this question, “Tell me how you got here.”  You will easily fill the lunch hour.  As you develop more personal relationships, you will find that business issues creep into the conversation and you will discover new ways to solve problems and/or influence outcomes.

2.  Work on one key soft skill.  I tell this to in-house lawyers all the time: no one outside of the legal department has any idea how good a lawyer you might be.  They just don’t.  But they do know if you are easy to work with, creative, flexible, accountable, etc.  In other words, they recognize your soft skills (or lack thereof).  While technical legal knowledge is critical, soft skills separate great in-house lawyers from the merely competent ones. Whether it’s listening, strategic thinking, communication, negotiation, leadership, or emotional intelligence, my next resolution is to focus on one key soft skill in 2025.

How to Implement:

  • Identify one soft skill that needs improvement.  If you need help, here’s a list.
  • Seek feedback from your manager, colleagues in the legal department, business colleagues, and mentors as to what soft skills you can improve upon (and be open to feedback).
  • Once you have identified the skill, find an online course or read books on the topic, looking for ideas on how to improve.
  • Practice in meetings and other interactions.  You won’t always get it right, but you will if you keep trying.

3.  Use Generative AI daily to help me get things done.  I know you are probably sick of people talking about Generative AI.  But it is simply not something you can ignore. Generative AI is no longer the future – it’s here, and it’s transforming how in-house lawyers work.  Sure there are drawbacks but if used properly, AI can assist you with many tasks (from the mundane to the complex) including contract drafting, legal research, creating checklists, negotiating playbooks, summarizing documents, generating strategic insights, and so much more. You do not need a computer science degree to use it, so my next resolution is to learn a handful of practical uses for Generative AI in my day-to-day legal work. 

How to Implement:

  • Sign up for one of the established AI tools, e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, etc. (free versions are fine to start).
  • Attend training sessions on AI tools (plenty of free webinars and other resources available, including YouTube).  Check out Laura GreenbergIn-House Counsel Connect and Contract Nerds to start.
  • Master the art of drafting prompts – everything hinges on a good prompt.
  • Experiment with some basic tasks, nothing too crazy: contract review, policy drafting, and legal research, document summaries, checklists, brainstorming.  Trust me, you will have fun and be amazed.

4.  Learn to prioritize work properly. I talk about this one a lot in my new book on productivity. In-house lawyers generally suck at prioritizing work properly (yours truly guilty as charged).  But you can learn how to do a better job of spending most (but not all) of your time on things that truly matter to the business.  It starts with understanding the difference between critical business risks and strategic goals vs. the more mundane day-to-day tasks that come your way.  While the latter need to get done, the former are where you should spend most (but not all) of your time. My next resolution is to work on my ability to properly prioritize the tasks that come across my desk.

How to Implement:

  • Use an Eisenhower Matrix to categorize urgent vs. important tasks. And be a stickler for what gets added to the “urgent and important” box.  And remember that you can always move things around by the day or by the hour.
  • With the help of your Eisenhower Matrix, start each morning planning how best to allocate your time most efficiently and effectively that day.  Then create a to-do list of three to help focus your energy on the three biggest tasks of the day.
  • Communicate frequently with your manager and with business leaders to align legal work with company priorities.  
  • Use your calendar to set appointments with yourself to block time to get work done.  And if your calendar is already jammed, look at future months and start to fill in the open spots with meetings with yourself to get shit done.
  • Learn to say no (or at least “not now”) when work does not align with the highest and best use of your time, i.e., the strategic and business objectives of the business.  And stop setting false deadlines or “volunteering” deadlines before the business tells you when it needs the work back. Then negotiate something reasonable if you need to (and can).

5.  Bring a positive attitude to work every day. Mindset matters. A positive attitude can make a significant difference in how you approach challenges, collaborate with colleagues, and reduce workplace stress. I have always been a glass-half-full person and I sincerely believe that choosing optimism over pessimism is the better path and can help you become a significantly more effective lawyer and team member.  Resolution No. 5 for 2025 is to bring a positive attitude to the office every single day.

How to Implement:

  • Assume the best in people until they show you otherwise.  For example, read emails with a positive tone in your head vs. believing someone is scolding you.  And if you think the latter, don’t respond via email – give them a call!
  • Reframe challenges as opportunities for growth.
  • Foster positive relationships with colleagues – be someone they like to be around and will seek out.
  • Find ways to celebrate wins, both big and small.
  • Start each day with gratitude – find one thing at work you are grateful for.  And if you truly cannot do that, then you are likely in the wrong job at the wrong company.

6Become an excellent delegator.  When drafting my (long) list of things lawyers suck at, delegation is right there in the top three. Why?  Because many in-house lawyers (or lawyers generally) take on too much, believing no one else can do it better and that they must handle everything themselves. This leads to stress, bottlenecks, lack of productivity, and a lack of development of others in the legal department.  Delegation is a critical leadership skill that the folks sitting in the C-Suite have likely mastered.  My next resolution for 2025 is to become a better delegator.

How to Implement:

  • Accept that delegation is necessary for the good of the legal department, i.e., you already know how to do whatever and isn’t it time someone else learned how to do it?
  • Over the next several weeks, identify tasks that you can delegate to younger/new lawyers in the department, paralegals, admins, or external counsel.  Don’t leave out the business.  A lot of tasks you can delegate do not require a law degree.  The business may be willing to help out if it means a faster turnaround of legal work.
  • Provide clear instructions and expectations when delegating.
  • Follow up without micromanaging – give guidance but let them find their own path to getting the work done.
  • Trust your team and empower them to take ownership of tasks.  You want doers, not order takers.

7.  Check email at set times during the day. Email is the monster in the room for most in-house lawyers when it comes to productivity, i.e., typically the biggest distraction in your day. Constantly checking messages leads to decreased focus and productivity. Think about it this way, if you are constantly reviewing email, you are likely responding to the most recent message vs. focusing your time on an urgent and important project.  It costs nothing for someone to send you an email, so all you are doing is creating the world’s biggest to-do list where anyone in the company (or outside the company) can add tasks at no cost to themselves.  Our resolution for 2025? Set designated times to check email during the day which, in turn, will allow us to spend chunks of time getting work done.

How to Implement:

  • Set specific time blocks in your calendar for checking and responding to email.  My times are generally, 700 am, 900 am, 1100 am, 130 pm, 330 pm, and 500 pm.  You can set whatever times you are most comfortable with.
  • Turn off email pop-up notifications (or at least limit such notifications to a handful of people – my rule is if you can fire me or divorce me, I want that email to pop up!).
  • Use auto-replies to manage expectations, i.e., “I am checking email at set times throughout the day.  I will respond to your email asap. 
  • Work on educating your colleagues (inside and outside the legal department) to understand that immediate responses are not always necessary.  Caveat? See comment above re firing and divorcing.

8.  Take a CLE that matters. For many, Continuing Legal Education (CLE) requirements are often seen as just another box to check. We pick whatever and let the video run while we check email, listening for the attendance codes so we can get credit for this half-assed attempt at staying proficient.  We do this even knowing that many CLE courses can really help us in our day-to-day work, e.g., Generative AI, contract drafting, using Outlook, Word or Excel, etc.  My solution and next resolution for 2025 is to take at least one CLE course that matters and give it my undivided attention.

How to Implement:

  • Identify areas where you need deeper expertise (e.g., privacy law, contracts, employment law, compliance, AI in legal practice).
  • Find a good source of CLE content.[3]
  • In-person CLE is the best (but keep your laptop closed and phone on mute so you can truly pay attention).  Alternatively, choose interactive or workshop-style CLEs for more practical learning.
  • Share key takeaways with your colleagues to maximize the value of the course(s).

9.  Prepare one new checklist a month. I imagine you are sick of my saying this, but I do love a good checklist.[4]  Checklists can help streamline legal processes, reduce errors, and increase efficiency. I had many checklists as an in-house lawyer, some of which I still use today here at the firm, e.g., analyzing risk, thinking strategically, contract review, and so on.  Checklists are relatively simple to put together and once you create one, they are easy to use (by you or others) and easy to maintain.  My penultimate resolution of 2025 is to develop one new checklist each month (that will give me 12 checklists by the end of the year – or 11 if you are starting in February).

How to Implement:

  • Identify common processes that could benefit from a checklist (e.g., contract reviews, NDAs, data privacy assessments).
  • Write out the steps that you must complete to accomplish each task in a concise and practical manner.
  • Share with your team and update based on feedback.  And if you can get others to create checklists, soon the department will have access to dozens of checklists tailored to the work done by the department.[5]
  • Store them in a central location for easy access.
  • Update yearly (or as needed)

10.  Talk to the business more frequently.  I have saved the most important resolution for last.  If you truly want to raise your game and increase your impact in the legal department, stop emailing (or Slacking/Teams messaging) the business about everything.  Get off your ass and go talk to the business (or if that is not practical, at least get on the phone or video) about your projects.  Nothing solves problems faster or better than a conversation vs. a complicated email exchange or – worse – little communication at all and where the in-house lawyer thinks they are solving the issue only to find that the business has a different need or expectation.  Additionally, talking frequently you’re your business clients allows you to move from being reactive to proactive, i.e., you start to better understand the challenges facing the business and can provide strategic guidance (legal or otherwise). Frequent conversations can also make the legal team a more integrated and valuable function of the company.  Final resolution for 2025: talk to the business more frequently.

How to Implement:

  • Identify a handful of key business colleagues and leaders and schedule regular in-person (or video/phone) check-ins with them.  It can even be something as simple as coffee or lunch.
  • If someone says “no” or that they are not interested in such meetings, don’t force the issue.  Just find someone else to meet with (and try again later with your uninterested business partner).
  • Attend team of staff meetings of other departments (and just soak things in and learn – this doesn’t have to be you playing traffic cop during their meeting).  If you spot something that might be a problem, you can follow up afterward instead of making a big deal about it during the meeting and throwing everything off schedule.
  • When you get the opportunity, ask business leaders about their biggest challenges (this year and down the road) and where you (or the department) can help (or things you can stop doing that are slowing the business down).
  • Market the legal department – it doesn’t have to be a hard sell but be sure to raise some of the things you or the department are doing to generate value for them and/or the company (don’t assume they know!). 

*****

Well, that’s a wrap for this edition of “Ten Things.” While there are only ten, each one of these “resolutions” packs in a lot of work to make it happen (be sure to check out the hyperlinks for more information).  In other words, don’t feel you need to try to implement all ten – that likely won’t work out well.  Instead, pick one or two and run with those.  Regardless of which one (or ones) you pick, stick with it.  If you lapse, don’t worry about it (everyone does), just right back up the next day.  If you are the general counsel or you manage people, you might find some of these appropriate for the department or team as a whole, or something for people to work on individually in 2025.  If you like one of the above or have your own resolution for 2025, share that in the comments below or on LinkedIn.  Have a great 2025!

Sterling Miller

February 4, 2025

My latest book (number six), The Productive In-House Lawyer: Tips, Hacks, and the Art of Getting Things Done, is now available for sale.  The ABA says, “We are resolved to sell more of these damn things so we can free up room in the warehouse – buy two or three.”  That’s an endorsement if ever I read one!  You can buy your copy here: Buy The Book!

My fifth book, Showing the Value of the Legal Department: More Than Just a Cost Center is available now, including as an eBook!  You can buy a copy HERE.

Two of my books, Ten Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel – Practical Advice and Successful Strategies and Ten (More) Things You Need to Know as In-House Counsel – Practical Advice and Successful Strategies Volume 2, are on sale now at the ABA website (including as e-books). 

I have published two other books: The Evolution of Professional Football, and The Slow-Cooker Savant (and cookbook number two on the schedule for 2025!).  I am also available for speaking engagements, webinars/CLEs, coaching, training, and consulting.

Connect with me on Twitter @10ThingsLegal and on LinkedIn where I post articles and stories of interest to in-house counsel frequently.  

“Ten Things” is not legal advice nor legal opinion and represents my views only.  It is intended to provide practical tips and references to the busy in-house practitioner and other readers.  If you have questions or comments, or ideas for a post, please contact me at sterling.miller@sbcglobal.net, or if you would like a CLE for your in-house legal team on this or any topic in the blog, contact me at smiller@hilgersgraben.com.

[1] That is pretty much the spectrum of my ideas as relayed to me by Mrs. Ten Things recently.  She is very perceptive, so I am going to go with it.

[2] Maybe being less wordy should be on the list?  Not sure I can stop.  Words are like crack to me – I just want one more!  Not that I have ever tried crack but… well, shit.  Here I go again.  I just keep writing… Someone cut me off!

[3] In-House Counsel Connect is also an excellent source!

[4] And if you read the blog regularly or buy my books, you will see many checklists you can adapt to your situation.

[5] Which can save the day when someone leaves or can enhance your ability to delegate tasks (inside or to outside counsel).