What if legal expertise is only part of the equation? Malgosia Slawinska, Senior Director, Head of Legal CEE at CBRE in Poland, explores why perspective, relationships, and business understanding matter more than ever.
What has been the most defining moment of your career as an in-house lawyer so far?
The first breakthrough moment was when I realised that working in a law firm simply wasn’t for me, and that I wanted to work with the business and closer to the business. That was around 2007, when after my daughter was born, I was thinking about when – and above all where – to return to work. Working in a law firm at that time was very hard for me to accept, because my earlier experience had shown me that law firm work meant long hours, an unpredictable schedule, and I still wanted to be actively involved in raising my daughter.
On top of that, I had always felt drawn to working directly with business. At that time, law firms were still mostly seen as external advisors brought in to write long, complex legal opinions – not always particularly useful for the business – or to run complicated transactions. It was also a fact that in-house roles were perceived back then as “second league”, but that honestly didn’t discourage me at all.
When I joined CBRE Poland in 2007, I was the first and for many years the only lawyer in the company. The second defining moment was building the legal team, which was forced by CBRE’s very dynamic growth. Suddenly I had to learn very quickly how to manage people, give feedback, allocate work, and run team meetings. Above all, I had to learn that if someone (a member of my team) works differently than I do, it doesn’t mean the work won’t be done – and done professionally. A big lesson in humility.
I also deeply value working in an international team, because it significantly broadens your perspective on business and gives you the opportunity to get to know different cultures and legal systems. I’ve had a fascinating (and at times slightly crazy) and inspiring journey from being the first and only lawyer in a company of around 80 people to becoming Head of Legal CEE at CBRE, where CBRE Poland alone now employs over 500 people. I consider it a huge privilege that my in-house career has unfolded in this way.
In what ways do you see the role of the GC changing over the next 5–10 years?
This is probably the most demanding question of all of them. In the times we live in, we don’t even know whether the world will look the same a month from now, so trying to forecast the role of the GC over the next 5–10 years is a bit like gazing into a crystal ball. One thing is certain: in our profession there is no escaping working with artificial intelligence. If we ignore it and don’t harness it in our service and for our benefit, we will be almost like the Luddites – members of the English workers’ movement in the 19th century, mainly in the textile districts of central and northern England, who protested against the introduction of mechanical looms and stocking frames by destroying machines in factories and workshops.
AI is a game changer, whether we like it or not. Will it eliminate the legal profession? I don’t know – and our influence over that question is very limited. What remains fully in our control, however, is our attitude towards a changing world. Alvin Toffler (an American sociologist and futurist known for his analyses of how technology affects society) said that the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.
So, all we can really do is unlearn our old legal strategies and habits and learn a new way of practicing this profession. It is, inevitably, a lifelong learning process.
What qualities do you believe distinguish truly impactful GCs from good ones?
I believe that, first and foremost, a GC should focus the least on the law. I know that sounds controversial, but the law actually comes at the end of the process. A truly impactful GC needs above all to have a broad perspective and understand how the wider economic and political environment may affect the business they advise. They should build strong relationships with their business partners and stay close to them in order to understand their challenges and priorities.
In practice this means frequent meetings and conversations with the business – both in formal settings and in informal “corridor” discussions. A GC should also have well-developed soft skills and be open to different cultures and perspectives. These skills are crucial both for managing teams (including international ones) and for diplomatically managing business risks, especially when the risk is material but simply saying a firm “no” will not be effective.
Only then should the GC overlay the law on everything I have described above – and the role of the law should not be to block business development, but to proactively enable it. It may sound like a mission impossible, but this is in fact the everyday reality of General Counsels in many companies.
How do you balance the pressures of your role with personal wellbeing and resilience?
This is a very important topic, and I have the impression that it is still somewhat of a taboo in our profession. Two aspects help me personally.
First, I have been practicing Tai Chi regularly for over 20 years under the guidance of my teacher and with a group of friends. Tai Chi (more precisely tai chi chuan, Chinese 太极拳) is a Chinese martial art rooted in the Taoist tradition, now practiced mainly as a system of health exercises and “meditation in motion”. It involves performing slow, fluid, precisely coordinated sequences of movements (the so-called forms), accompanied by calm, deep breathing and focused attention. Regular practice improves balance, flexibility, deep muscle strength and concentration, and lowers stress levels – which is confirmed by clinical research. I try to walk a lot. I don’t always manage to hit 10,000 steps a day, but whenever possible I leave the car behind.
Second important aspect for me is time for “doing nothing”. This is not the same as mere inactivity. It is about the intentional suspension of activity, primarily mental activity – a kind of deliberate boredom that allows the mind to switch off the constant stream of thoughts and simply rest. It also improves focus and concentration, which today are in short supply. So-called “active rest” is important, but if it becomes just another item on an overfilled to-do list, it can easily have the opposite effect to what we intend.
