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When hiring in-house lawyers, many believe that legal expertise is the foremost requirement. However, according to this general counsel, it is far from being the most crucial aspect she considers.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Corporate Counsel Show, Shanti Berggren, University of Adelaide’s general counsel and executive director of legal services, shared the key qualities she looks for when recruiting lawyers and what makes candidates more attractive for in-house roles.
In the same episode, she discussed the ongoing need to raise awareness of in-house legal career pathways for the next generation of lawyers and outlined the steps required to better address this gap.
When it comes to hiring in-house lawyers, Berggren emphasised that legal expertise alone isn’t the defining quality she looks for in new team members, noting that this should be a given for anyone pursuing a role in the profession.
“When we’re recruiting for my team, the two key things I look for [are] not your legal skills. If you’ve been through law school and you’ve come out the other side and you’ve done your PLT, I take it that I should be able to rely on that,” she said.
Instead, the two qualities she prioritises in candidates are their “commerciality” and whether they are a good “cultural fit” – “not necessarily what your grades were in law school”.
These are qualities she has consistently valued when hiring, as Berggren reflected in her decision to recruit someone based on their personal attributes during her time at Optus.
“One of the lawyers that I hired at Optus came to us. I don’t know that that person had private practice experience, but they certainly had in-house experience. When they came to the interview, they talked about how, for their university job, they had worked in their dad’s suit shop,” she said.
“[His] dad had a men’s clothing store. We talked about, you know, how difficult it might have been to serve older gentlemen and how fussy they were, but he’d kept optimistic and gave them great service and whatever else. That really stuck with me.”
Beyond these individual qualities, Berggren also highlighted that a lawyer’s ability to maintain a healthy work/life balance and actively engage with their community are highly valued traits sought by general counsel.
“I’m a fan of someone [who] supports having a life outside of work. So, I encourage all of the lawyers here. We’re lucky enough to have various communities of practice with the different universities,” she said.
“So, one of the things I like to see is each of those lawyers being part of a community of practice outside of this university. I’ve encouraged members of our team who joined different boards, to serve on things that have nothing to do with life and work here.”
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