Hot Tips for Cool Counsel: Summer legal essentials

This summer, the In-House With You team at HCR Law is ‘walking on legal sunshine’ with Hot Tips for Cool Counsel, a seven-part article series, created especially for in-house lawyers. Whether you’re planning ahead or tackling new challenges, these summer legal essentials offer a seasonal refresh with practical tips and insights, to help you stay sharp, compliant, and confident, whatever the summer brings.

The series explores seven key topics:

Intellectual property: Safeguarding your company’s innovation

Navigating the noise: Legal tech, the hype vs. reality

Human-first lawyering: Building empathy, culture, and connection

Outsourcing without losing control: Smart delegation for legal teams

Under Pressure: Managing risk and burnout time in a hyper-connected world

Securities and governance: Navigating corporate legal responsibilities

ESG as a legal superpower: Legal departments are becoming the driving force

Intellectual Property: safeguarding your company’s innovation

Protect what sets your business apart with strategies to secure and maximise your IP assets.

Alice Wright, Trade Mark Attorney, looks at the importance of protecting trademarks, patents, and copyrights within the company, and gives three key tips on how to manage IP assets.

1. Establish and systemise a robust IP identification and protection process
2. Foster and build a culture of confidentiality and clear ownership
3. Align your IP strategy with broader business and competitive goals.

You can read the full article on our website here.

Navigating the noise: Legal tech, the hype vs. reality

Cut through the buzz and uncover what legal tech really delivers, and what it doesn’t.

Frank Jennings, Partner in our Technology and Innovation Team, provides a guide to cutting through buzzwords and choosing the right tech that can actually help your legal function.

Here are his top three technology recommendations.

1. Beware AI hype. Focus on outcomes, not features
2. Prioritise interoperability over novelty. Make sure the new tech works with the existing tech.
3. Demand evidence not promises. Ask vendors for real-world use cases, not just demos.

You can read the full article on our website here.

Human-first lawyering: Building empathy, culture, and connection within in-house legal teams

Discover how putting people first can strengthen your legal team’s impact and workplace culture.

Omer Simjee, Employment Partner, explores at how emotional intelligence, inclusion, and purpose-led leadership are shaping the modern in-house legal department. Here are his top three considerations for legal leaders.

1. Building rapport in your legal team and workplace
2. Work allocation and enhancing employee engagement
3. How legal leaders can build a strong organisational culture.

You can read the full article on our website here.

Outsourcing without losing control: Smart delegation for legal teams

Learn how to delegate effectively while staying compliant, in control, and outcome-focused.

Gurinder Hayer, Joint Head of In-House Lawyer Services and Head of HCR Flex, looks at how you outsource legal work whilst maintaining quality and control and offers some insights and key practical frameworks that in-house counsel can use to offload legal work effectively while keeping quality and risk in check.

1. Matter “triage and track” – Classify legal work under specific risk and complexity to determine outsourcing needs.
2. Establish quality & business needs framework and a matter onboarding brief
3. Cost & fee control framework for legal spend.

You can read the full article on our website here.

Under pressure: Managing risk and burnout time in a hyper-connected world

We explore how in-house lawyers can balance risk management with personal wellbeing.

Andrea Thomas, Partner, and Head of Employment, Wales, looks at the ever-pressing topic of mental health and legal overwhelm, offering three key ways to create boundaries when legal is expected to “always be on.”

1. Manage expectations and set boundaries – Clearly communicate your working hours to colleagues and clients, especially if you work non-standard times:
2. Set time aside – Allocate uninterrupted periods for focused work on important projects. Leverage tools and use features like “Do Not Disturb” on Teams to signal your availability and encourage colleagues to check these before reaching out.
3. Prioritise – Try to ascertain which conflicting demands really are urgent, so that you can properly consider whether you need or want to work on any of these matters outside your normal hours.

You can read the full article on our website here.

Securities and governance: Navigating corporate legal responsibilities

Stay on top of evolving governance standards and legal duties in today’s fast-moving landscape.

Helen Higginbotham, Corporate Partner and Head of BRICS, considers corporate legal responsibilities and shares three key considerations related to corporate governance, shareholder rights, and securities compliance for publicly traded companies.

1. Companies House reforms are here – Director and PSC identity checks will soon be mandatory
2. Model articles and sole directors – Review your authority – don’t risk invalid decision-making!
3. Use summer to review governance – Refresh policies, procedures and delegations before year end pressure mounts.

You can read the full article on our website here.

ESG as a legal superpower: Legal departments are becoming the driving force

In-house legal teams are leading the charge on ESG now more than ever.

Tracy Lake, Partner in the Commercial Team, looks at how legal teams can lead the way on sustainability, governance, and ethical leadership, beyond just compliance, and offers three top tips for creating impactful ESG strategies.

1. Educate – Raise awareness across your leadership team and wider business about the strategic value of ESG. Frame it as a business imperative, not just a legal or compliance issue
2. Strategise – Leverage your in-depth knowledge of your organisation to prioritise ESG actions. As in-house counsel, you often have a unique, cross-functional view that positions you to guide smart, tailored strategies.
3. Galvanise – Inspire and enable colleagues across all departments to integrate ESG principles into everyday decisions. Empowerment and collaboration are key to embedding ESG into your company’s culture.

You can read the full article on our website here.