In-House Counsel Need ‘T-Shaped’ Skills to Be a Business Leader

The legal profession is changing. The days of the “I-shaped” professional—one deeply specialized but narrowly focused—are fading.

Today’s business landscape demands more. It requires legal professionals who not only provide sound legal counsel but also contribute meaningfully to business strategy, risk management, and innovation. It’s why those of us who started in law firms came in-house.

To redefine legal excellence, attorneys must follow the “T-shaped” model. The vertical bar of the T represents deep legal expertise, while the horizontal bar signifies a broader set of skills: business acumen, leadership, data literacy, technological proficiency, and the ability to collaborate across disciplines.

It’s not just about thinking like a lawyer; it’s about acting like a business leader who happens to be a lawyer. The T-shape idea was around before artificial intelligence exploded, and AI proficiency is just making the horizontal bar thicker and longer.

Embracing the T-shaped model has many benefits:

• Bridging the gap between law and business. We don’t just provide legal advice. We provide business solutions.
• Enhancing operational efficiency. We leverage technology and process optimization to improve legal service delivery. We simplify. We go faster. We help our internal clients help themselves.
• Driving value beyond the legal department. We help shape strategies, identify risks before they become crises, and contribute to revenue-generating activities.

World-class legal departments are now strategic enablers that drive business growth, manage risk proactively, and create competitive advantage. They’re no longer merely cost centers.

In a world that demands agility, the T-shaped professional is an indispensable asset.

The BANI Challenge

We also live in a BANI world—one characterized by brittleness, anxiety, non-linearity, and incomprehensibility.

• Brittleness (illusion of strength): Traditional legal frameworks assume stability, but today’s regulatory and business environments are fragile. The ability to think across disciplines helps businesses build resilience.
• Anxiety (illusion of control): Clients and executives want certainty, but in a volatile world, certainty is an illusion—look at today’s tariffs. The T-shaped professional helps mitigate anxiety by providing clarity and pragmatic guidance, not just legal analysis.
• Non-linearity (illusion of predictability): Cause and effect no longer follow a straight path. T-shaped professionals embrace complexity, using design thinking and strategic foresight to navigate unpredictable challenges.
• Incomprehensibility (illusion of knowledge): Data overload makes decision-making harder. A T-shaped professional understands how to frame context, interpret data, distill insights, and communicate them effectively to business leaders.

The old playbook no longer works. In short, a T-shaped approach isn’t just an advantage—it’s a necessity.

Developing T-Shaped Skills

Transitioning from an I-shaped to a T-shaped professional isn’t about adding soft skills as an afterthought. It’s about fundamentally shifting how you see your role.

Here’s how you can start:

Adopt a businessperson mindset. When providing advice, ask: how does this legal issue impact revenue, margin, reputation, and risk?

Develop financial and data literacy. Understand your company’s or client’s financial drivers and business model. Understand the competitive landscape. Leverage AI to interpret complex data sets.

Leverage technology. Familiarize yourself with legal tech, automation tools, and AI-driven solutions to streamline legal processes and free up time for higher-value work.

Build cross-functional relationships. Collaborate with all the parts of the organization: sales, support, product development, operations, corporate teams, etc. The more we understand their challenges, the better we can provide solutions that align with business goals.

With the opportunity right in front of us, do we choose the narrow lane of traditional legal work, or do we take on the challenge of being strategic leader, a business enabler, and a driver of value?

I know my choice.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Tax, and Bloomberg Government, or its owners.

Author Information

Matthew Knowlton Fawcett is executive vice president and general counsel for DXC Technology.

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