Deep Dive

Meetings are inevitable. Make sure they’re impactful.

One of the most important decisions that in-house legal teams make is how we spend our time.

There is almost always more work that a given in-house legal team could do to help the company than they will have the bandwidth to take on. Even for the most efficient teams. Even with the best technology.

So being intentional about what your legal team works on is essential.

And time in meetings can feel like a distraction from doing the actual work. It’s important to make sure you’re attending only the right meetings, not doubling up legal department attendees unnecessarily, and canceling meetings that no longer serve a purpose.

We’ve all experienced the dreaded meeting that could have been an email. And hopefully we’ve put in place procedures to avoid those as much as possible.

But even when all that’s done, there will be cross-functional meetings you need to attend.

They may be about big picture strategy, where legal wants to attend to ensure its perspective is heard. Or about the details of a deal, where legal input on an issue-by-issue basis is essential. Or important because legal will be called in later, and it’s most efficient to get the background upfront, rather than play catchup later.

And whether the meetings focus on big-picture strategy, deal-specific negotiations, or ensuring legal gets the right context upfront, preparation is key.

6 Preparatory Steps to Take to Ensure Your Time Spent in Meetings is Time Well-Spent

Written agendas and pre-reads are great for structuring meetings, but they require effort from both the creator and the reader. For many in-house meetings, the time cost outweighs the benefit. The goal isn’t excessive prep; it’s maximizing impact within reasonable time constraints.

This post is about how to make sure that your time spent in meetings, for whatever reason, is as impactful as it can be, while keeping your preparation efforts to a reasonable amount.*

*These tips focus on everyday meetings where efficiency is essential. For high-stakes meetings like executive presentations or board discussions preparation should be much more extensive. Be thoughtful about when to invest extra time.

1. Frame your role in the meeting: you are a strategic contributor, rather than just a mitigator of risk.

It is easy for an in-house lawyer to fall into the role of active listening, note-taking, and reacting only when asked a question or when a glaring legal issue arises. And to be clear, sometimes, that is the appropriate role.

But effective in-house lawyers adopt a business mindset. They know that instead of just gathering information and reacting, they can sometimes be more impactful by helping to frame the conversation around key risks and opportunities.

As a business-minded lawyer, your role is to flag both risks and solutions. Rather than slowing things down with excessive caution or stopping a line of inquiry due to a potential legal issue, provide practical solutions that keep things moving.

Here are three ways to do that effectively:

1. Anchor Legal Guidance in Business Priorities. Before the meeting, take a moment to align your legal perspective with the company’s broader business goals. Ask yourself: What is the ultimate business objective here, and how can legal help facilitate it? Instead of raising isolated legal concerns, connect them to the company’s growth, risk tolerance, and strategic initiatives. This ensures your input is seen as business-driven rather than purely compliance-focused.

   • Prep Time Per Meeting: 1-2 minutes to consider how legal can align with business priorities.

2. Use Questions to Guide the Discussion. Rather than waiting to react, where appropriate, use well-placed questions to steer conversations toward productive outcomes. Asking, “What’s our ideal outcome here, and what risks could get in the way?” or “What’s our fallback plan if X doesn’t work?” can help the team proactively address issues before they become problems. Your role isn’t just to spot risks; it’s to help others see around corners.

   • Prep Time Per Meeting: 1 minute to think of 1-2 strategic questions to raise if needed.

3. Recognize When to Pause and When to Proceed. Not every legal issue requires immediate resolution in the meeting. If a potential problem arises that needs deeper analysis, acknowledge it and suggest a follow-up rather than derailing the discussion. Saying, “That’s an issue we should explore further, but we don’t need to solve it right now. Let’s flag it for follow-up.” keeps momentum going without creating unnecessary roadblocks.

   • Prep Time Per Meeting: No additional time—just practice the habit of distinguishing between urgent and non-urgent issues.

It is perfectly acceptable, and often an appropriate response, to flag a newly identified potential problem that comes up during the meeting as something you’d like to understand more and revisit later. Unless the desired outcome is likely to be impossible, don’t stop the discussion. Look into the challenge, and come up with solutions, after the meeting.

2. Prepare strategically to maximize impact.

Your impact in a meeting is largely determined before i. Strategic preparation ensures you contribute meaningfully and drive the discussion in the right direction.

Before stepping into the room (or Zoom), understand the meeting’s purpose. Is it for decision-making, brainstorming, or information-sharing? What does success look like by the end of the discussion? Knowing the intended outcome helps you focus on the most impactful contributions.

Take time to understand the stakeholders. Who’s in the room, what are their priorities, and how does legal fit into their concerns?

Plan out what questions you can ask to strategically drive insight and uncover key risks and opportunities.

Prep Time Per Meeting: Spend 3-5 minutes reviewing the meeting invite, identifying key stakeholders, and outlining 1-2 strategic questions to guide the discussion.

3. Anticipate challenges and identify solutions in advance.

Before a meeting starts, identify potential legal roadblocks and prepare strategies to address them. Don’t wait for issues to arise. Anticipate them and come equipped with solutions

This goes beyond understanding contractual or regulatory concerns—it’s about recognizing their business impact. What are the trade-offs? How can legal enable progress while mitigating risk?

Proactively framing challenges in a business context makes legal a facilitator, not a blocker. By anticipating areas of contention, you can help keep discussions on track, reduce unnecessary delays, and ensure that key decisions are made efficiently and with full awareness of potential risks.

Prep Time Per Meeting: Varies based on complexity. Simple issues may require just a few minutes of review, while more significant challenges demand deeper research. Expect this, along with Tip #4, to be the most time-intensive part of your preparation."

4. Identify opportunities in advance.

Take the above idea of preparing solutions to problems a bit farther and take time ahead of the meeting to identify opportunities that might not have been considered.

While not every meeting presents an opportunity for this, in-house lawyers are uniquely positioned to spot efficiencies and alternative approaches. Because legal works across departments, you often have a broader view of company goals, constraints, and potential synergies. Leverage this insight to propose faster, more cost-effective, or strategically advantageous paths to the desired outcome.

Prep Time Per Meeting: Varies based on the complexity of potential opportunities. Some may require just a few minutes of consideration, while others may demand deeper research. Expect this, along with Tip #3, to be the most time-intensive part of your preparation.

5. Have a plan for at least one give and at least one get.

As in-house lawyers, we’re often invited to meetings so that we can give a legal perspective, but that doesn’t always mean we’re expected to contribute in the moment.

I’ve been invited to plenty of meetings where no one anticipated needing legal input during the meeting - they wanted me in the meeting so I would have background on a project when legal advice was needed at a later stage, or so that I could see around proverbial corners early, to help steer clear of issues they might not have seen or towards opportunities they hadn’t identified.

FWIW: no, I do not think this is a waste of time. Having the background is important, having colleagues who trust your opinion enough and think of you enough to invite you is essential, and the most effective in-house lawyers help shape things from day 1.

Even if there’s no clear expectation for you to contribute, identify at least one meaningful way to add value—whether it’s offering a unique legal insight, clarifying a key process, or flagging an overlooked opportunity. At the same time, ensure you get something out of the meeting too. Can you confirm when legal will be involved in the next steps? Align with business colleagues on a key process? Make your presence count.

Prep Time Per Meeting: 3-5 minutes. If you contributed solutions/opportunities (Tips #2 & #4), don’t spend too much time looking for an additional “give.”

6. Establish strong relationships with your colleagues.

Meetings, like other collaborations, are most productive when the people in them already know, trust, and respect each other.

Meetings aren’t just about getting work done; they’re also an opportunity to strengthen relationships with your colleagues. I’ve talked before about why this is important and other approaches to building strong relationships with colleagues.

To strengthen relationships through participation in meetings, in addition to active listening and thoughtful contribution, be respectful. This means showing up on time, muting your mic if there is background noise, and turning off your camera if something distracting is going on (conversely, if you are staying in one place and feel comfortable turning your camera on, doing so is a great way of showing you are present and paying attention, which helps build relationships).

Implementing these steps helps keep preparation time reasonable and focused, so you can drive impact.