Welcome to Season 15, Episode 2 of Notes to My Legal Self, the in-house counsel podcast for lawyers who want to lead. Elizabeth Colombo, Associate General Counsel at Vendavo, returns to talk with Olga V. Mack about red lines, relationships, and real leadership.
Elizabeth shares how 14 years in-house taught her the psychology of contract negotiation, how to get comfortable with acceptable risk, and why embedded humanity makes in-house lawyers indispensable.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why negotiation is about people, not just the paper
- How to separate material risk from theoretical risk
- How to make the business want legal involved early
- How to resolve stakeholder conflict without being the bad guy
- The soft skills lawyers most often underestimate
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
03:04 Negotiation lessons: people, psychology, and risk
07:05 How to make the business want legal involved
10:59 Why in-house lawyers should assume they belong
14:32 What ""embedded humanity"" means
20:23 Handling stakeholder conflict
23:41 From referee to decision architect
29:07 Soft skills lawyers underestimate
34:37 Final takeaway: be human
Elizabeth's advice: in the age of AI, your human judgment is what sets you apart.
Is your legal team seen as the referee or the partner who helps make the call? Share your answer with us in the comments.
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