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The different in-house roles: Business partner

Practical Law UK Practice Note w-032-8439 (Approx. 5 pages)

The different in-house roles: Business partner

by The Centre for Legal Leadership
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This note looks at the role of a business partner (BP) working in-house. It outlines the role of a BP and considers what makes a good BP.
Business partnering is often one of the ways that you learn the skills and demonstrate the competences that can take you to the top role. In many respects, a good business partner (BP) is a "mini general counsel (GC)". The in-house legal team will want to be regarded as a BP by its key clients and be at the heart of the organisation. However, at departmental level, the BP is often a designated and specific role.

Key elements of the business partner role

The structure of your legal team will depend on factors such as the size and geographical spread of your organisation and how it operates. For example, providing legal services to a small, single office business presents a different set of challenges to working in a multinational business with operations in multiple jurisdictions.
There are elements of being a BP in almost every in-house legal role. Generally, the BP role (as a whole role, rather than being part of a generalist role) is more relevant in larger legal teams where the BP acts as conduit to a central team that carries out legal processes and gives legal advice. Alternatively, the BP may work alongside business colleagues as an "in the line" lawyer, giving advice on matters relevant to that business unit (and checking with other legal colleagues or external lawyers on areas of law and company legal policy that are outside of their personal competence).
Either way, you'll be the main legal point of contact with the business unit, have close relationships with your commercial colleagues and give them the relevant legal advice and support they need. You'll need to ensure any legal service you provide is of high quality and meets relevant business standards and key performance indicators. Part of your role will be to find ways to continuously improve the legal service and enhance efficiency.
If you work in the line, you may be part of a structure where you report to another lawyer (such as the GC) but have a dotted line to a senior business manager. In some smaller legal teams, the role of BP is fused with that of a SME into a single role.

Key attributes of a good business partner

Excellent business knowledge

An effective BP needs to really understand the organisation, and in particular the business units that they support. You'll have to learn what those units do and get to grips with their plans, strategies and interactions with other business departments and external stakeholders (such as suppliers, customers, auditors, regulators or the media). A sound understanding of the legal issues that affect the organisation is also vital, together with knowledge of its "risk map", which includes the organisation's risk appetite and that of its individual business units. For further information, see Practice note, How to set organisational risk appetite.
A BP must be able to use their business knowledge and legal knowledge to identify what law affects which parts of the business, when and how. They must also learn how to use contracts, advice and training to ensure that the relevant businesspeople understand the legal issues that affect their roles, and that they are able to act on this understanding. For further information, see Practice note, Delivering contracts, advice and training to the business.

Good people skills

As part of a team, you'll be expected to engage with the issues confronting your business colleagues. Close collaboration with your legal colleagues is also vital as you will need their support to carry out your role effectively. For further information, see Practice note, How to build effective and productive relationships: a guide for lawyers.

Excellent customer service skills

If business colleagues aren't getting the legal service they require, the BP needs to look for ways to improve work prioritisation, negotiate extra resources, identify and resolve people and process issues, and look to manage failures in delivery from within their own legal team. This can be difficult when resources are squeezed and may mean innovating to find solutions. For further information, see Practice note, How to provide customer-centric legal services.

Persuasiveness and resilience

As the BP, you'll be the lawyer on hand and you may come under pressure to always take the business line, including where this conflicts with your view of the legal risks. A good BP doesn't always say "yes", and you will need to be able to persuade your colleagues to your view. Expressing this as "a better way for you, for the business and legally might be" is so much more user friendly than simply saying "no". For further information, see Practice note, Re-thinking resilience: how to build resilience in the law.

Budgets and business planning

You'll help the GC plan for expected and perhaps unexpected demand from the business units and to prioritise that demand according to business need and the level of legal risk.

Sound understanding of project management

Many business plans and initiatives are carried forward by project teams. As a member of a project team, you'll need to be familiar with project management methodologies. For further information, see Practice note, Legal project management: an overview.
The Centre for Legal Leadership provides education, coaching, mentoring and related career support services for in-house leaders to get the best performance from themselves and their teams.
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