15/09/2026
One of the mistakes organizations can make when building a legal department is assuming that professional progression must eventually lead to people management.
It should not.
A mature legal function needs different kinds of excellence.
Some lawyers are exceptional individual contributors. They may have deep expertise, outstanding analytical ability, strong commercial judgment, or an unusual capacity to handle complex matters independently. Their greatest contribution may come from becoming even better at what they already do.
Others have the aptitude and inclination to lead teams. They allocate work effectively, develop people, coordinate across functions, maintain standards, exercise judgment through others, and create an environment in which the whole team performs better.
Some can do both.
The important point is that these are different capabilities, and neither should automatically be treated as superior to the other.
This has implications for how legal departments recruit, develop, evaluate, and promote people.
If the only route to greater seniority, recognition, or compensation is management, organizations risk turning excellent individual contributors into mediocre managers. They also risk undervaluing specialists whose expertise may be extraordinarily important to the business.
The better approach is to build a legal function around complementary capabilities.
Set common expectations around judgment, ownership, collaboration, communication, and professional standards. But beyond that baseline, understand where each person creates the greatest value and develop them accordingly.
A high-performing legal department does not need everyone to become the same kind of lawyer.
It needs the right mix of specialists, individual contributors, managers, and leaders--- and a structure that allows each of them to excel.
Legal leadership is not simply about managing lawyers. It is about designing a function in which different kinds of legal talent can do their best work and create the greatest value for the organization.
