Glass Balls, Rubber Balls, and Golden Opportunities: How In-House Lawyers Win by Knowing The Difference

Deep Dive

You’re juggling all the balls; but they’re not all the same.

I’ve long been inspired by an analogy shared by Brian Dyson, former CEO of Coca-Cola, in a commencement speech nearly 25 years ago:

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them—work, family, health, friends, and spirit—and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls—family, health, friends, and spirit—are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.”

It’s a powerful way to think about life’s priorities. I think about it often when making hard decisions about who and what gets my attention.

I also think the juggling analogy is really apt for in-house lawyers as we prioritize at work. 

Here’s my version—with a twist.

We juggle three types of balls.

The three types of balls we juggle:

1. Rubber Balls

These are the day-to-day tasks that matter, but won’t cause lasting damage if something slips.

You redline an NDA and forget to strike Texas jurisdiction even though your company prefers Delaware.

You miss an internal meeting invite or send a doc out with a formatting error.

Not ideal. But recoverable.

Rubber balls bounce.  

2. Glass Balls

These are the things you can’t drop.

They’re mission-critical, reputationally sensitive, or legally irreversible.

Missing a filing deadline.

Overlooking a key indemnity clause in a 7-figure deal.

Failing to check in on a burned-out teammate at a critical moment.

Missing a compliance issue that could blow up a funding round.

Glass balls shatter. Drop one, and the consequences are serious.

You need to build systems and procedures to make sure these balls don’t get dropped.

3. Golden Balls

This is my twist for in-house lawyers.  Yes, in-house lawyers juggle rubber balls and glass balls. But there’s also a third type: the golden ball.

Sticking with the theme of fiction writing, think of it like the Golden Snitch in Quidditch. It doesn’t follow the pattern of the game. It’s not part of your expected juggling act. It’s elusive, easy to miss, and rarely announced in advance.  If you miss it, that may be ok. 

But if you see it and catch it, you win the whole match.

And if it zooms by you, it’s possible that no one (not even you) ever realizes you missed it. 

Golden balls are the high-leverage opportunities that aren’t technically “your job,” but that can transform how legal is perceived and what kind of impact you make.

They might look like:

Spotting a faster way to close deals that gets your product into customer hands sooner.

Surfacing a legal insight that unlocks a new revenue stream.

Structuring a fundraise more creatively to get better terms in a tough market.

Creating a scalable process that saves your team 20 hours a week.

These moments may not be in your job description. But they’re the ones that change how legal is seen and how much impact you can make.

So even though they’re not in your job description, you should make it your job to spot them—to have systems, processes and approaches that helps make them visible to you, and that helps you catch them when they come up.

We can't juggle everything perfectly all the time, and we’re not meant to.

What matters is knowing the difference:
Which balls will bounce?
Which ones will break?
And which ones, if we catch them, could change everything?

The most effective in-house lawyers are the ones who focus on what truly matters, know what can wait, and recognize the rare opportunities that can elevate their impact.

Keep your glass balls in the air. Let the occasional rubber one drop.
And when a golden ball comes into view, go after it with intention.

That’s how we create real value, lead with purpose, and thrive—even when there’s always more to do than hours in the day.