Big Sis Briefing: Why Legal Team Identity Is Your Most Underrated Strategy
A few months ago, I ran a workshop with a legal team that felt stuck. Smart, capable lawyers. A growing business. But something wasn’t clicking. They were firefighting, second-guessing themselves and struggling to articulate what value they actually brought to the business beyond “we review contracts.”
We started with a whiteboard and a question:
“if your legal team was a person, how would you describe them?”
At first, silence.
Then, a few jokes.
But slowly, the words came:
thoughtful…
responsive…
a bit invisible…
cautious…
stretched…
tired.
You could feel the shift in the room. That discomfort? That was the gap between how they wanted to be seen and how they actually felt.
and that is the work.
Why identity matters
A legal team without a clear identity often ends up reactive. You become the department of “no” or “not sure” or “just send it to legal” without any real clarity about what that means. But when a team defines its identity (what it stands for, how it operates and how it wants to be experienced by the business) everything changes.
You make decisions faster. You set clearer boundaries. You communicate more consistently. You show up with confidence instead of caution.
What I help high-impact legal teams get clear on:
Why we're here and our purpose in the business.
How we show up and the tone, style and energy we bring.
What we’re good at and where we need to level up.
What we say yes to and what we stop doing.
Where we’re headed and the team we’re becoming.
The best legal teams I’ve seen?
They know who they are. They’ve done the internal work. Not just on templates and workflows but on team culture and narrative. They can tell you, in a sentence, what they’re here to do and how they do it.
They’re not trying to copy a law firm. They’re not trying to be the “commercial conscience” of the business without being invited to the table. They’ve earned that seat. They take up space in a way that is intentional and not accidental.
If you’re leading a legal team right now
Make space for this conversation. Book a strategy session. Put it on the offsite agenda. Ask the questions that feel too soft or fluffy on the surface but get to the heart of how your team works.
In every workshop I run, this is the moment that creates the biggest shift. It’s not the org chart or the tech stack. It’s the clarity of purpose.
Once a legal team gets clear on who they are, let me tell you that they become a force. Quietly confident. Deeply trusted. Aligned and ready.
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