Driving strategic change and innovation at an international law firm

Lextel’s Bonnie de Jonquieres spoke to Reign Lee, Head of Strategy at Van Bael & Bellis, about her background as a musician, her move into law, and how keeping the client perspective at the forefront of any BD/Marketing initiative is vital to building authentic relationships.

Tell us about your background – from successful musician to legal BD/Marketing expert to now lawyer and Head of Strategy at Van Bael & Bellis.

I did indeed spend the first part of my life as a musician. Music is in the blood, as they say, and I come from a long line of musicians on my mother’s side of the family (my mother is from Canada, my father is from Hong Kong). It was an amazing and creative time in my life. I was very fortunate to have the experience of working with some extraordinary artists and producers such as John Seymour (Grammy Award-winning engineer from NYC’s legendary Electric Lady Studios). Even my lawyer at the time, John P. Strohm, had been in some well-known bands in the nineties (The Lemonheads and the Blake Babies)!

At the time, it felt like I’d achieved quite a bit as a solely independent artist – had the usual talks with major labels, signed off on some licensing deals, won some industry awards, etc. But it was the end of the noughties and the music industry was changing rapidly. It was getting more and more difficult to achieve a sustainable career as an independent musician. I started to think about exploring other dreams and interests I had, one of which was law.

I started my legal career in Brussels when I joined Van Bael & Bellis (VBB) as a paralegal and communications specialist. During this time, I was also studying (voraciously) to make up for lost time and learning a significant amount on the job in two very specialised areas of law – competition law and international trade law. It was an incredible experience for me, and I soon worked my way up to a senior BD and marketing role in the firm alongside my legal support role. I was fortunate to be in a legal environment that enabled me to leverage my commercial skills in an impactful way.

I then moved to London and, as I became more visible in the legal community, decided to focus on strategic management consulting. During this time, I was involved in some significant industry projects such as co-founding the Law Firm Marketing Summit with Global Legal Post. I served as the Conference Director for its first two years. My consultancy also enabled me to work with a number of impressive firms, including Magic Circle firms, who seemed to appreciate the blended perspective I could bring to projects (law, commercial awareness and strategic planning).

I ended up running my own consultancy, Lee & Associates, for about five years. During that time, I finally qualified as a solicitor. So, when the opportunity came to re-join VBB as a lawyer as well as Head of Strategy, particularly now that the firm had a London office, I decided to give it a go.

What does your role as Head of Strategy entail?

I once read that a Head of Strategy (HOS) role is so fluid that you are responsible for nothing but accountable for everything. In my experience, that’s a fairly accurate representation.

On a good day, being a HOS entails leading on strategic business planning initiatives by developing strategy in line with management objectives to improve the firm’s functionality, profitability, and competitiveness. But that’s a mouthful.

The reality is that there is a lot of day-to-day firefighting, which is inevitable in law firms.

It’s a mix of operational strategy as well as business development strategy. There is a significant amount of effort involved to ensure coordination and alignment across the firm. Ultimately, it’s about driving change and generating solutions to issues that appear to be minor but reflect broader issues that require attention. It’s a role that is constantly shapeshifting and evolving, which provides a lot of variety for someone (like me) who clearly needs a lot of diversity in their day.

For some people, the idea of strategy is a black box: it’s not so clear to define. But from my perspective, you can’t have a conversation about results without having a conversation about strategy. They say that strategy plus execution equals results. I actually think strategy determines results, as results tend to be a reflection of the strategy that you have – whether in your business or your life – including not having a strategy at all.

How do you work with the partnership to drive strategic change and innovation?

Everything is about people. So, I never view the partnership as some type of monolith. Because of my long history with the firm, I know most of the partners quite well in terms of understanding their personalities, their practices, their likes and dislikes, their work habits, etc. and, to some extent, their motivations, and certainly, their de-motivations.

Concepts like “driving strategic change” and “introducing innovation” are very challenging – for law firms, in particular – and can be quite polarising or even repellent for some partners. The key is understanding the firm and its history, taking the time to understand the fears and hopes that echo through the hallways, identify and address pain points (to the extent that that is possible), and demonstrate what is achievable.

Observing and listening are two key aspects of this, but so is directness. You can’t be afraid to ask some of the hard questions or answer them.

And you need to have a forward-thinking managing partner on-board to support your position and recognise the value that you can add.

What are some novel initiatives Van Bael & Bellis has pursued in terms of client outreach? What types of requests have you received from lawyers?

Are you asking me to reveal the secret sauce recipe? In all seriousness, I’m not at liberty to publicly disclose any specific initiatives. But I will say that, at the heart of any worthy initiative I’ve ever been involved in (and I’m taking account of all of my experience throughout my legal career), is the client perspective.

I know it sounds simple, but it’s far more complex as a concept than it appears on the surface. This is because we’re in an industry where lawyers have historically needed to demonstrate their value by being the smartest people in the room. It takes courage to ask clients about their preferences or to ask them what they are expecting from the advice they are seeking. It can be tempting to show them everything we know about a certain niche area of the law or a new judgment that’s been handed down. But does it serve the client? How does it serve the client? What will the client get out of it? What’s in it for your client? Initiatives that start with these questions always tend to be the most successful. I try to encourage the lawyers I work closely with on practice development to ask themselves these questions before designing any specific materials or initiatives for clients.

What’s working and what’s not?

In broad terms, I would say that what works are those approaches to BD and marketing that are credible and authentic. Any activities or initiatives that enable authentic relationship building and constructive network building are always worthwhile. The best opportunities are generated from these interactions.

In terms of what doesn’t work… I will comment on two, in particular: (1) approaches that are far too sales-oriented can be off-putting for clients, and (2) initiatives that lack any meaningful data or measurable objectives rarely lead to the results the team or individual wants or hopes to achieve.

Finally, leveraging different skillsets within a team is also hugely important. Sometimes lawyers who demonstrate value in certain non-legal areas can be left out of key BD and marketing initiatives because they don’t fit a certain profile. If you have team members who have exceptional networking, communication or people skills, utilise them.

How has being a BD/Marketing consulting for so many years helped with your transition to becoming a lawyer?

It has helped tremendously. Having experience in another industry and/or profession is a huge advantage for anyone who decides to go into law or qualify as a lawyer at a later stage in life. It gives you another perspective that enables you to problem-solve and engage with clients in a different way.

Collectively, all of the experience I’ve gained in my life has contributed to two very valuable skills I believe I bring to the table: (1) commercial awareness – being able to recognise and identify new opportunities for business growth, and (2) crafting and communicating messages that resonate with the right clients and business partners.

It all comes down to understanding business and understanding people. I couldn’t imagine being a lawyer any other way.