From advisors to strategic partners
In-house legal professionals are no longer just advisors. In 2025, they are expected to work at the intersection of law, business, technology and leadership. As legal teams shift from reactive functions to strategic partners, the skills required have changed dramatically.
Insights from the Inside In-House Legal Talent Report 2025, published by BARBRI and Flex Legal, highlight the reality of this shift. Legal teams are under greater pressure than ever, embedded across business functions and facing new demands at every level. While most lawyers feel confident in their technical expertise, many acknowledge growing gaps in business literacy, leadership and digital fluency – shortfalls that threaten both their strategic influence and their ability to retain talent.
This is not merely an academic concern. For example:
- 78% report significant gaps in technology skills
- 69% cite missing leadership and management capabilities
- Only 16% of teams have a structured learning and development (L&D) framework
As a result, these deficits translate directly into operational friction. Legal teams find themselves slower to adopt useful tools, less influential in strategic conversations, and more prone to talent stagnation. Without deliberate investment in capability-building, these challenges compound over time.
The modern legal skills stack
To thrive, today’s in-house counsel need a blended skill set that goes well beyond the law.
- Core Legal expertise – Technical skill is still the foundation. Contracts, negotiation, risk management and regulatory knowledge remain essential for credibility, but on their own, they’re no longer enough.
- Commercial acumen – The best in-house lawyers don’t just understand the law, they understand how the business works. They speak the language of executives and frame advice in clear commercial terms, showing colleagues how legal input can drive growth and resilience.
- Technological fluency – Technology is reshaping how legal teams operate. Lawyers need confidence with legal tech, automation and AI-powered tools, not to become technicians but to use data effectively, streamline processes and ensure compliance and governance.
- Strategic thinking – In-house counsel are valued most when they look forward, not back. Anticipating regulatory and market change, testing business strategies, and balancing risk with opportunity across growth, ESG and M&A are now part of the role.
- Leadership & influence – Many legal leaders guide teams and projects without formal authority. Success depends on trust, clear communication with senior stakeholders, and inclusive leadership that supports wellbeing and culture.
- Professional skills – Negotiation, influence and communication remain the everyday tools of the trade. What sets people apart is their ability to adapt style to different dynamics and secure alignment across competing priorities.
- Adaptability & learning mindset – Finally, the most resilient lawyers are those who embrace change. They stay curious, keep learning, and bring fresh, lateral thinking to new challenges.
Don’t just hire: Re-skill and cross-skill
The knee-jerk response has often been recruitment, but adding headcount doesn’t fix capability gaps. Without targeted investment, new hires face the same issues – low digital confidence, weak leadership capacity and limited commercial literacy, creating more cost without more impact.
At BARBRI, we’re seeing more in-house teams focus on optimising their skills through short, targeted learning that fits around busy roles. Rather than week-long programmes, the trend is towards practical “bursts” of development, whether it’s sharpening negotiation techniques, refreshing presentation skills, or building confidence with AI tools.
We support in-house teams in driving success through tailored skills training programmes, designed around each professional’s experience level, development priorities, and preferred learning format – ranging from micro and bite-sized sessions to immersive, intensive courses.
Our offering spans practice-readiness skills such as communication and business development, practice-area-specific programmes, as well as regulatory and compliance training.
Development is lagging behind
The Inside In-House Legal Talent Report 2025 makes clear that learning is not keeping pace with demand. Despite the critical need for broader skills, most legal teams have not yet built the infrastructure to develop them.
The report reveals that nearly half (49%) of teams operate without any formal L&D framework, leaving capability-building to chance. Learning is often informal, reactive, or dependent on individual effort. The consequences are tangible: contract cycles stretch because technology isn’t fully adopted, high-potential lawyers look elsewhere for career growth, and legal struggles to influence at the executive level.
Sharing her insights in the report, Natalie Hunt, Assistant General Counsel at Johnson Matthey, highlights the cultural shift required:
“If we can be smart with tech, then why not? But you need a different way of thinking … It’s a completely different approach.”
She adds that AI literacy isn’t just a tech skill – it represents a mindset shift towards adaptability, curiosity and openness to new ways of working. Without coordinated development, teams risk uneven capability and a widening gap between early adopters and those less confident with new tools.
Why General Counsel must lead the change
The General Counsel role is now one of the most pivotal in business. Balancing risk, strategy and people, GCs are uniquely placed to shape both legal outcomes and organisational direction. But with influence comes responsibility – unless they lead on capability-building, the shift to modern, strategic legal teams will stall.
Today’s GCs are expected to:
- Embed legal into business decision-making: Ensuring legal insight informs strategy from the outset, rather than arriving as a late-stage hurdle.
- Champion capability and culture: Setting the tone for adaptability, continuous learning, and inclusive leadership within the legal function.
- Shape technology and talent strategy: Making intentional choices about where digital tools, process redesign, and new skills will deliver the greatest impact.
Unlike private practice, most in-house teams don’t have ready-made infrastructure for structured training, knowledge management or career pathways. That’s why GCs must prioritise building these foundations. Treating L&D as a strategic function – with budget, time and ownership – is no longer optional; it is a defining marker of modern legal leadership.
Building strength within in-house legal teams
The Inside In-House Legal Talent Report 2025 makes one thing clear – the old model of hiring for technical expertise and leaving development to chance no longer works. Legal teams must invest in themselves and build capability from within.
In the years ahead, capability, not capacity, will set teams apart. Those that commit to structured development will retain talent, grow influence and strengthen their strategic voice. Those who don’t risk falling behind.
The profession is evolving. The question is whether your team is evolving with it.
This article is part of Crafty Council’s ongoing series exploring the evolution of in-house legal talent
This article was written by Emma Cavendish, Business Development Director, BARBRI