“Saying ‘no’ is rarely difficult. Helping the business achieve its objectives safely and pragmatically is where the real skill lies.”

Kim David Lexner, General Counsel and Member of Executive Management Team at Calibrium AG in Switzerland, shares why judgement, trust, and commercial understanding remain the defining qualities of influential General Counsel.

What is something you believed early in your in-house career that you no longer believe today?

That the legal department’s primary job is to eliminate risk.

Early in my career, I viewed risk as a binary problem to be solved or mitigated out of existence.  Today, I better understand that an in-house lawyer’s job is to help the business calibrate risk, not eliminate it.

Eliminating risk entirely usually means killing commercial opportunity or choking operational momentum.  True value lies in helping the business clearly see the difference between fatal risks and acceptable strategic gambles, and ensuring we are structured to handle the latter. 

The real value of an in-house lawyer is helping the business understand which risks are worth taking and how to manage them intelligently.

Saying “no” is rarely difficult. Helping the business achieve its objectives safely and pragmatically is where the real skill lies.

If your CEO were describing your value to the business in one sentence, what would you hope they would say?

He would say: “Kim is the first to tell me nothing is ever watertight, but what he does give me is sound judgement I can act on, and a negotiator I can put my trust in when things get tough.”

What challenge facing GCs and senior in-house lawyers today is receiving too much attention, and what important issue isn’t receiving enough?

Artificial intelligence is understandably receiving enormous attention, and it will undoubtedly transform how legal work is performed. However, I think too many discussions focus on efficiency gains rather than decision quality.

The greater challenge for many legal departments is ensuring they remain deeply integrated into business strategy.

Technology can make lawyers faster, but it cannot replace judgement.

Influence still depends on trust, commercial understanding and credibility. Those qualities deserve far more attention than they currently receive.

What separates legal teams that are merely efficient from those that are truly influential?

Efficient legal teams answer legal questions quickly. Influential legal teams help shape the questions before they are asked. They understand the commercial objectives, earn the confidence of senior management, and become trusted advisers rather than internal service providers.

Influence comes less from technical excellence (which should be a given) and more from credibility, judgement and relationships.