Leadership
Written by
Lisa Mather, Head of Legal, Risk & Compliance at Fetch Pet Health, reveals how in-house legal is relearning its role inside the business.
There was a time when legal’s value was obvious. It was a function that interpreted regulatory rules, protected the organization, and ensured the business stayed within the lines.
In today’s environment, that value feels less evident as organizations move faster, operate in more complex markets and regulatory environments, and make decisions with less certainty. The expectations placed on legal are shifting in ways that are both subtle and profound. Legal is no longer judged solely on what it prevents. Increasingly, it is judged on what it enables.
A perception problem legal can’t ignore
One of the most overlooked challenges facing in-house legal departments today is not performance, but perception. Mather says it’s crucial to understand “the sentiment in the organization around the legal team and what they bring to the table.”
Despite the stereotype of the legal silo, legal never truly operates in isolation. It exists within a shared business environment where people’s experience with the legal team shapes how its value is understood.
Even when legal is delivering strong work, it can still be experienced as friction. Responsiveness, collaboration, and accessibility matter just as much as the legal advice the team produces. When legal is perceived as difficult to deal with, or a roadblock, that perception takes hold fast. Business teams won’t wait; they’ll work around it. “Speed to solution or speed to execution has become an imperative,” says Mather.
The evolution of legal expertise
Legal expertise remains critical, but demand for how it’s delivered is changing. For years, excellence in legal was defined by depth: detailed analysis, comprehensive outputs, and precision. Those qualities still matter, particularly in high-stakes scenarios. But they are no longer sufficient on their own. As Mather puts it, “people don’t care so much about case law, but they care about business case very much.”
This shift reframes the role of the lawyer. It is no longer enough to understand the law in isolation. Legal professionals must understand how their advice connects to decisions, trade-offs, and outcomes.
What sets a great in-house lawyer apart today is the ability to convey legal expertise in a way that connects to the business. “That commercial fluency deficit can become more pronounced as businesses grow,” says Mather.
“Nobody wants a 20-page memo anymore. They want clear, concise, easy-to-understand advice that presents a few viable solutions, not a menu of options and potential consequences which create further confusion.”
The decline of the traditional memo is not just about brevity. It reflects a deeper change in how organizations make decisions. In a world of overflowing inboxes and endless to-do lists, business leaders need clarity, not jargon.
Before communicating with the wider business, Mather always asks herself: “Are we articulating risks in a way that resonate for a non-lawyer?”
If the legal department wants to shape business decisions, it must translate complexity into practical, usable insights.
Where legal creates the most impact
Mather believes the most effective legal teams are defined not by how much they do, but by where and how they engage. “You are a proactive partner in how products are being designed for a business,” she reflects.
“Legal’s influence is strongest when it operates within the flow of decision-making, not at the end of it.”
Lisa Mather, Head of Legal, Risk & Compliance at Fetch Pet Health
Impactful contribution happens early, before decisions are locked in and before risks become constraints. It requires legal leaders to stay close to the business and have a genuine read on what customers, clients, and internal stakeholders need.
“We’re not a special ivory tower team that sits outside what’s going on,” she says. “It’s essential that we get involved early on with business decisions. It’s not debatable anymore.”
Legal’s influence is strongest when it operates within the flow of decision-making, not at the end of it.
Letting go of control – without losing confidence
As legal evolves, it must rethink its relationship with control. Historically, legal’s authority came from centralization, with legal serving as the single point through which decisions passed, but that model is increasingly difficult to sustain in fast-moving, high-growth environments.
The rise of self-service tools, standardized processes, and AI-enabled capabilities is fundamentally shifting the control legal once had. Lawyers have long been the gatekeepers of legal knowledge, but technology is changing that.
“Self-service is a huge shift in how we think about our role. Thinking someone isn’t going to play around with AI tools is illogical,” she says.
Legal opinion, case law, and even contract drafting is now accessible in a few clicks. Instead of controlling every interaction, legal must embrace this shift and design systems that let the business move forward safely and efficiently, without constant handholding.
Mather describes this as a shift from a risk-avoidant mindset to one of enablement, identifying risk alongside the business rather than acting as a barrier to it.
Expanding the definition of a legal team
The transformation of legal is changing who belongs in the function. We live in the age of data, and while legal expertise will always be valuable, the skills to analyze and streamline legal data are increasingly sought after. “If you’re only thinking about people who have law degrees, you’re missing opportunities,” says Mather.
She is a real advocate for legal operations, and believes the best legal teams are interdisciplinary, incorporating expertise in the law, data, technology, and business. “We’re seeing more diverse skill sets in legal teams than ever before. There’s tremendous opportunity, and challenge, in that diversity.”
A new way of thinking
Perhaps the most fundamental shift we are witnessing to the legal department is a cognitive one. Organizations are creating and processing more data than ever before, creating unprecedented visibility; however, the legal team must know how to interpret this information.
“Data literacy has become increasingly important for lawyers. Pattern recognition is a whole different way of thinking as a lawyer,” Mather explains. She has observed a shift away from static, precedent-based reasoning toward dynamic, insight-driven thinking, connecting legal signals to business direction. She is leaning into this new way of working and can’t see the legal industry shifting back.
“Legal is no longer operating in a controlled environment. It is operating in a distributed and disruptive one.”
Lisa Mather, Head of Legal, Risk & Compliance at Fetch Pet Health
There’s no crystal ball for what the future of in-house legal looks like, but Mather is certain on one thing. Above all, an open mindset is critical to the future of all in-house lawyers. Long-standing practices are already fading, and technology is reshaping expectations from inside the business. Mather states, “Legal is no longer operating in a controlled environment. It is operating in a distributed and disruptive one.”
The future of in-house legal will not be defined by how closely it resembles its past. It will be defined by how effectively it integrates: into decisions, into workflows, and into the broader rhythm of the business.
The real opportunity lies in shaping how the business moves forward, enabling progress, guiding decisions, and building trust through relevance rather than authority. “In that shift, legal does not lose its identity. It expands it,” says Mather.
