Insights from the Law Ninjas Next Gen GC Summit in Sydney
The 2025 Next Gen GC Summit in Sydney wrapped up last week, delivering two days packed with dynamic sessions, insightful panels, and inspiring keynotes tailored for in-house legal professionals.
Our very own Sofia Khan, Director People and Development, and Lisa Sheehy, Director Legal AU, led standout sessions that captured the spirit of the event. If you missed being in the room, we’ve got you covered with a recap to bring you up to speed!
Sofia Khan’s Workshop: Juggling Life and the Law
Kicking off with a powerful question “Who here feels they have a good balance between work and personal life?” Sofia set the tone for an honest, engaging discussion. The unanimous answer: there’s room for improvement.
Balance looks differently for everyone. Sofia was joined on stage by Rama Linguard (Mastercard), Tibike Jurecska (ACS) and Kelly Crawford (GH) who shared some of their own stories when it came to Juggling Life and Law.
Highlights from the session included:
The gap between workplace promises of work/life balance and the demanding realities of legal roles.
Recognising that balance is personal—whether it’s leaving early to pick up kids or squeezing in a yoga class and making up hours later. The key is to have open communication about what balance means to you.
Trust emerged as a cornerstone: earning leadership’s trust or trusting your instincts to move on if the culture isn’t right (earning your stripes came up a few times!)
Boundary-setting is essential. Strong leaders model this, but global firms can challenge it. Talent isn’t a 24/7 resource—clear, honest boundaries prevent burnout.
Don’t be shy to ask for flexibility. There’s still a notion of guilt felt by many as they consider requesting workplace flexibility or managing work expectations. The only way we are going to change the legal profession is if we ask for what we need. Don’t by shy. The reality is so many people around you have experienced the same thing you are. You’re not alone.
Lisa Sheehy Moderates: How Legal Teams Can Add More Value
Lisa steered an engaging keynote panel exploring how legal teams can move beyond “just doing their job” to becoming indispensable business partners. Lisa was joined on stage by Jaime Frasca (Formerly Dell Technologies), Sarah Wall (Real Pet Food Company), Stephanie Pickett (GeelongPort), and Tom Boyd (The Star Entertainment Group).
Key takeaways included:
Regularly evaluate what your team should - and shouldn’t - be doing. Have the courage to say no to low-impact tasks to focus on what truly matters.
Revisit the basics: understand exactly what the business expects from legal and identify any service gaps.
In the absence of a strong business strategy, create your own legal team goals, set measurable outcomes, and keep the business informed.
Conduct legal surveys to benchmark stakeholder expectations and perceptions, then address the gaps.
Upskilling is vital, especially as legal teams evolve into creative problem-solvers who can support cross-departmental collaboration, not just traditional legal advice.
Co-present training with other departments to secure buy-in and embed policies operationally.
Get out of the legal bubble: visit frontline operations to understand processes at the coal face to add real value when issues arise.
Celebrate your wins loudly—don’t assume the business knows the legal teams’ successes. Provide monthly updates to leadership harnessing the power of data on tasks like training completed, policy adoption and cost savings to the business to keep legal visible.
Build strong relationships by regularly engaging with team leaders across the business to remove barriers and help them to simplify their work.
Profile your legal team creatively and accessibly so everyone knows who to approach for what. Get creative with this!
The 2025 Next Gen GC Summit once again proved why it’s a worthwhile event for in-house legal leaders seeking fresh insights, practical strategies, and meaningful connections.