In an email to SCL members who are working as in-house lawyers, SCL’s Chair Mark O’Conor has asked them to help ensure that SCL is relevant and useful to all its members and their career progression. The message might well be of interest to in-house lawyers who are yet to become SCL members.
In his email, Mark asks: ‘Is it useful to have a forum where in-house lawyers can meet and speak and share issues? Or is it actually more useful for you to join with colleagues from private practice, the Bar etc to discuss key issues that affect your business and day-to-day work (such as robotics, blockchain, fintech, data privacy etc)?’ He goes on to ask for greater involvement from in-house lawyers and suggests ways in which that involvement could take place.
The full text of Mark’s email is set out below.
Dear Colleagues,
I hope you don’t mind me singling you out as in-house lawyers but as the new SCL Chair, I want to ensure that this organisation is relevant and useful to all of our members and their career progression. The combination of private practice lawyers, in-house lawyers, colleagues from the Bar, academics and non-lawyer technologists is a great mix, and can help to stimulate debate and ensure that technology law is properly understood in black letter and real-world terms.
We have had an in-house group from time to time with varying degrees of success and activity. But I am wondering whether that is useful or not? And that is why I want to hear from you. Is it useful to have a forum where in-house lawyers can meet and speak and share issues? Or is it actually more useful for you to join with colleagues from private practice, the Bar etc to discuss key issues that affect your business and day-to-day work (such as robotics, blockchain, fintech, data privacy etc)?
Secondly, I would like to encourage you to get involved. I think that the SCL magazine, website, blog and Twitter feeds would be enhanced by a “View from In-House” thought piece from time to time. This could be a couple of paragraphs, a useful link or something longer. And it could be attributed or, if getting internal sign-off is an issue, it could be anonymous.
Please have a think about how best this organisation can reflect your needs and do please get in touch with me and/or Caroline to discuss.
Kind regards,
Mark
