I recently passed my probation in my role as Head of Legal at Sagacity. I wanted to put down on paper some lessons I’ve learnt over the last six months. For me, this has been a nice reflective exercise. Something to look back on and see how far I’ve come, but also forms part of the growth mindset and attitude I have within myself. Hopefully, my reflections provide some useful tips for your current or future roles, whether as Heads of Legal, other legal professionals or beyond.
I hope it inspires you and encourages you to take on stretch roles or growth opportunities. Whilst raising awareness and drives those interested to seek senior level opportunities that offer a healthy work/life balance (possibly part-time) and ones that work for their home environment.
By way of a quick background…
I’m Maddi Thimont. I trained and qualified into the general Corporate team at Ashurst, then spent seven years at Amazon supporting the AWS EMEA Sales & Marketing team. In March 2024, I started my first role as Head of Legal at Sagacity, a consulting and data business. When I say Head of Legal, our legal team mainly consists of just ME. I have excellent support from non-lawyers in the business, occasional outside counsel help and, importantly, in-house legal communities like Crafty Counsel!
Aside from the interesting and impressive company that Sagacity is (this was a given in my job search), the role provides the opportunity for learning. There’s a big focus on data protection, data and tech, among other things. However, a significant reason I was attracted to the role was that it was advertised as 25 hours per week (essentially five hours per day from 10am to 3pm). Can you imagine seeing that when you know your son is due to start school hours in September?!! 😂🙏🏻
After some engaging interviews with our recruiter, outgoing General Counsel and our COO (my now manager and one of the two female founders), I knew it was the right place for me! Although, I’ll admit that I was slightly daunted at being Head of Legal for the first time… We’re all human!
Here follows my lessons learnt in my first six months…
1. Growth mindset is necessary for Head of Legal
One of the joys of starting at a new company/role is that I have so much ahead of me to discover! Curiosity is in my nature – I love to learn. The benefit of being new is that you can ask many questions. I try to see every task or situation as a learning opportunity – viewing it as a chance to help me grow and develop as a lawyer – so I try to seek continuous feedback and learn from mistakes. Having this growth mindset helps to ensure a positive attitude to everything I do. Even those potentially more mundane tasks, I believe there MUST be a learning opportunity!
2. Recommendations need to be strong
In my role as a senior lawyer at Amazon, I had legal leaders and approval chains above me. Now, as sole counsel and Head of Legal, I report directly into our COO and management team.
I’ve had to really step up here and make strong recommendations based on sound reasoned judgment. From a legal analysis perspective, the buck essentially stops with me. I need to understand the problem, do the necessary work, and ultimately be able to make a strong recommendation as to how we proceed as a company. I need to be able to stand behind my recommendations and be accountable as to why I have chosen such a route.
3. Ownership – taking responsibility as sole counsel
In line with the above, there are a number of areas that I take responsibility for as sole legal counsel. Some of these are clear-cut. In other instances, the lines are blurred.
However they come about, I think what is valued is me taking ownership, providing a view, and getting things done. I act as an owner of the business. I am the owner of the Legal function and I love that I’ve been given this opportunity to treat this new role as my “baby”.
4. What matters most, and what matters right now?
As I’m sure many lawyers (and other professionals) know, there really is not enough time in the day to do everything. Prioritisation is key!
Daily, I’m taking stock of:
- what I need to prioritise;
- what can be postponed;
- what needs an in-depth review; and
- what can we take a view or a smart risk on.
As I’m understanding our business more and more, I’m able to gauge this more myself. But it does involve frequent conversations with senior stakeholders and our COO to work out what matters most right now. This is where the ability to communicate and manage expectations come in as the Head of Legal.
5. Trusted team member – be one as Head of Legal!
As a newbie who’s filling big shoes of the long-standing General Counsel, I’ve spent time building and earning the trust of my teammates and stakeholders.
I’m sure I’m not getting this right all the time – if you have tips, please tell me how I can do better! The ways I do try and build those relationships is by:
- Scheduling recurring 1:1s and coffees;
- Spending time in the office frequently;
- Getting on a call to talk things through and ask questions.
All of this goes towards working out what motivates colleagues, how I can help, and how I can be trusted to get things done, and done well. There’s no “I” in “TEAM”. I want my teammates to see the Legal function as a business-enabler, a trusted team member, and something enhancing and progressing Sagacity forward.
6. Healthy balance in work and life
This is the one I feel incredibly passionate about and always makes me smile.
As I mentioned, I’m grateful to Sagacity that I’m empowered to take on this incredible role, be intellectually stimulated, and hugely engaged at work with impressive teammates. I do ALL of this within the hours of 10am to 3pm, five days per week. This means that I can be present for my two young children.
I never thought such a work structure would be possible at a senior Legal level. It shows that, given the right support, trust, and desire from the right company, this really is achievable. I believe it’s important to show that roles like this do exist, and there should be even more created!❤️
I talked about growth in lesson one, and some of you may have realised that the first letters of all my lessons do indeed spell GROWTH. This is one of my personal values but extends to a number of things professionally.
While I’m incredibly passionate about my day job, the ability to work flexibly allows me to have a full and varied life. I’m able to be intellectually stimulated through my work, as well as being fully present and the best mummy to my children.
I want to expand awareness of part-time Legal roles. I want to encourage others to do the same and take on their own growth opportunities. Importantly, I’m always happy to chat and bounce ideas around – so please get in touch!
Maddi Thimont is a member of the Crafty Counsel Community. Crafty Counsel is the UK’s most dynamic and fast-growing legal Community. With members from across the globe, the Community is a hub for sharing experiences, learning together, and forming invaluable connections. Join for free to access the Community Hub App.