Can you tell us about your role at Livestock Improvement Corporation, what you love about it and what it is teaching you about yourself?
Livestock Improvement Corporation Limited (LIC) is an agri-tech and herd improvement co-operative that empowers livestock farmers through the delivery of superior genetics and technology. LIC is Headquartered in Hamilton, and employs more than 700 permanent staff, expanding to 2000 staff during New Zealand's peak dairy season. LIC is one of the New Zealand agricultural sector's largest private investors in R&D ($18.2m 21/22).
My role at LIC started as a sole lawyer working part time. With the LIC growth strategy and a business transformation, the legal team grew to 4 lawyers. I took over the intellectual property team and now have the company secretary function, which includes the share registry and I've recently adopted two data teams. I'm thankful that LIC trusted me to grow my skills as the business grew I love that I'm not confined by the rigours of a law firm, that I've escaped budgets and billable hours and can work in the commercial space. Being included in the negotiation team for the largest two deals in LIC history has been a highlight of my career. I have become what I call an "accidental manager", as I have never thought about leading a team. I've learnt that you can have all the training possible as a leader, but it's being accessible, having time to listen and caring for your people that matters.
As a team leader, what are the most important values to demonstrate to the team?
Empowerment and development: I get a huge amount of satisfaction from empowering team members to take ownership of projects and processes. The more trust you have in your team, the more space they have to flourish and grow, make mistakes and to learn from them. This also frees me up to focus on strategic projects without micromanaging the team.
Taking a moment to listen, show interest and care makes a huge difference. People come with complicated lives, problems and celebrations. The last thing a team member needs when going through an issue is for their employer to create another one. I've got team members that start work at 5am because it suits them and their family. I've had someone working from the US. I'm happy to flex around them if it makes their lives easier (as long as their emails are on delayed send).
I have had many opportunities come my way at LIC. My role has grown from just me to a team of 20. I have been trusted to step into the CFO role a couple of times and I'm appreciative to LIC for taking a punt on me. I have a focus on looking across the business for personal development opportunities for team members. Whether it be secondment opportunities in another team or back filling a role or identifying others in the business who could come into my team. For instance, I have had a lab worker with a law degree join my team as a junior lawyer, I've had a legal executive work in the health and safety team and a member of the share registry step up into a risk role while I've back filled her role with a recent immigrant to NZ with an international law degree. I've put one of the team through her IP Masters degree, another through their profs, another is doing her legal executive papers, another doing a governance qualification and another has completed their diploma in law.
I'm all about finding ways to give people stretch opportunities and having faith that they can meet them. It gives me a lot of personal satisfaction to see people flourish. I have learnt that engagement is closely linked to performance. An engaged team member is more likely to invest in the work they do and be a satisfied, high performer. My team scored in the top quartile against the organisational health indicators showing that there is a return from investing in my team.
A skilful in-house lawyer knows when they've done a good enough job. "Perfection is the enemy of good". It is critical in-house lawyers understand the risk profile of the business, really understand the real risks that might arise from the project they're working on, mitigate those as best they can and keep up the cadence so you can get on to the next thing. I'd say that the best in house lawyers are those who are pragmatic, really get beside the business and build great relationships, understand prioritisation, understand when to seek extra advice and understand when to stop.
I'm a great believer in team (and family) traditions. There's always something extra going on. At present, it's the tomato growing competition. We have one volunteer day a year, a bush walk at Christmas, curry lunches and birthday events, or we might share holiday photos, memes or news events on the Slack channel. Because my team is diverse, working in different areas with differing skills, these things connect the team.
What have been your most recent challenges as General Counsel, and how did you address these?
Balancing the priorities of the business is always a struggle. In the past, the squeakiest wheel got oiled first, but now we track work on a Kanban board and produce reports highlighting repeat offenders. Those who make their lack of planning our emergency. This gets raised at the senior leadership level.
We have clear turn-around times to set expectations. We triage work and have been known to send urgent work out to law firms and had the business unit meet the legal fees for super urgent work that we just can't get to. This changes behaviour and sometimes makes an urgent job less urgent.
Re-engaging after covid and managing a return to the office has been a challenging time. I decided to work with my team on how we returned to the office and we all made the decision to work two days in the office and the balance at home. We are hot desking, using lockers and having monthly pillar days. LIC is now moving to flex working across the business. The use of technology to communicate quickly via Slack or Teams has been integral to hybrid working, meaning if you are "green" you're available for a quick chat or call. Making the decision as a team on how we returned to the office means that I have everyone's buy-in without the struggle of dictating what's going to happen and then working on enforcing it.
What are some of the trends that you're seeing and how do you see the in-house legal profession evolving?
Working in-house is an attractive option for lawyers. The GC roles in big companies are highly sought after. Lawyers are realising that these roles offer varied work and being part of the business rather than acting for it can be exciting. When you are the client you have real skin in the game to drive the best outcomes.
I'm probably not alone in saying that there is a battle for SaaS subscriptions. It seems that every day I receive a call or an email about technology which is going to make my life easier. With all the technology that is available, it's key to do your due diligence before spending your budget and make sure you talk to others who are already using the product.
Technology is awesome if you have the time to come to grips with it. To do it right, you need to be a champion or find someone in your team willing to champion the product. This means you get the most bang for your buck from the tech and keep up to date as the product is updated.
At LIC, and I expect in a lot of other tech companies, there is a massive focus on information security, privacy and the collection, harnessing and use of data. It's essential to be close to the technology team and understand what they are aiming to achieve. For instance, it's much better to develop software with privacy in mind from the get-go rather than adding it as an afterthought later.