As the legal landscape continues to shift, one general counsel warns that in-house teams that fail to transform from narrow legal gatekeepers into proactive, business-facing partners risk being left behind.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Corporate Counsel Show, Somerset Hoy, general counsel – deputy secretary, strategic services and advice at the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, stressed that in-house legal teams must evolve into commercially savvy, business-facing partners to meet the demands of today’s fast-changing environment.
Hoy cautioned that legal teams that have not embraced this shift and continue to operate with an outdated, narrow focus are increasingly out of step with modern expectations, remarking that she sometimes wonders “how they are still in existence”.
This evolution, she explained, has been anticipated for years across both private and public sectors, seen by many as an inevitable step in the profession’s progression.
“I think this has been an ask for a very long time. It was an ask when I worked back in the private sector. It is certainly an ask of government law departments,” she said.
While recognising the unique contributions of private lawyers and barristers, Hoy highlighted that in-house legal teams have always been expected to operate differently, moving beyond black-letter law to meet the practical needs of their organisations.
“Private sector lawyers exist for a reason, barristers exist for a reason, I think we all have roles to play and yes, of course, on the Venn diagram, we’re not separate, but there are different expectations of each of us,” she said.
“The internal legal department has always been asked to do something different, and that is not black-letter law.
“The way that I try to think about it for our lawyers is we are being asked to help the department to achieve its aims in a legally robust, as risk-free as possible, as ethical a fashion as possible. That is what I see our role as being.”
Hoy portrayed the evolving role of in-house lawyers as a shift from simply saying “no” to empowering decisions that advance the business while ensuring it remains protected.
“It’s a really interesting shift. Particularly if we have lawyers come in from private practice, the way we try and think about it is it’s not about saying no, it’s actually about saying yes,” she said.
“It’s facilitation, if you like, but it is very much about how you protect the department, how you protect other people from overreach in government? That is critical. How are we ensuring the rule of law stays intact? How do we make sure we’re making our decisions in line with administrative law principles?”
Through this transformation, Hoy argued that in-house lawyers have moved beyond the traditional “department of no”, with their true value now found in curiosity, collaboration, and guiding the business towards smarter, more effective solutions.
“I don’t know many people who come to work and think, ‘what I really want to achieve today is preventing people from doing something that’s something even lawyers don’t want to do,’” she said.
“Regardless of what people might think about us. That’s boring to just say no. It’s much more interesting, it’s much more curious to be able to say, ‘OK, I understand where you’re trying to get to. I don’t think the path that you’ve suggested works, but let’s think about another one.’”
