Establishing an in-house legal function in a business that has never had one before is both a challenging and exciting experience. For those who have done it, it’s often been a matter of leaning into what you’ve experienced in previous organisations – taking the good and leaving the bad – but wouldn’t it be helpful if there was a little more of a “how to” guide to assist in the set up?

Sarah Alderson commenced in her role as Chief Legal Risk Officer at Lyttleton Port Company in August 2024 and, being the first in-house legal counsel at the Port, has been feeling her way in establishing the function. Naively shocked to find there was no “how to” just a lot of trial and error by those that went before in previous organisations, this session is designed to act as an interactive workshop to brainstorm and share ideas from those who have set up their own legal functions, who are currently in the thick of it and those who want to do it in the future. At the end of the session, participants would have crowd built a “how to” guide on establishing a Greenfields legal function that will act as an ILANZ resource for future new functions.