✍🏿 How GCs are dealing with reduced headcounts and resources

Jessica Nguyen is GC for the Seattle-based AI startup Lexion. She also used to work at Microsoft and PayScale. 

And when she wrote a post on LinkedIn in June about managing resources during these tough times it went viral. Here are some highlights of her advice from the LinkedIn post and an interview with Law.com:

• Plan to make up for lost time: Especially if you’re a new GC or an attorney hired for a job by a company these next few months, realize that they’ve probably put off hiring you for a while and a backlog of work awaits. So plan ahead by setting goals for 90 days, 6 months and 12 months.

• Look for outside help in nontraditional forms: Nguyen said her first hire at PayScale wasn’t another lawyer but a contract manager because that person best allowed her to handle volume and increase her workload.  

• Make sure your company knows the importance of legal: Because of the cost, Nguyen realizes that companies in financial trouble may look to do less with their legal departments. But she says it is important to remind them that the legal department is needed to finish the transactions necessary for growing business.