The Critical Friend: Leading Legal as a Business Enabler
- cosmonauts
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
As legal teams navigate rapid technological and cultural change, their role is evolving from risk controller to strategic partner.
Sara Scott, Global Head of Legal, Marketing at British American Tobacco (BAT), shares her perspective on balancing innovation with guardrails, empowering teams through change, and leading legal with a people-first mindset.
In this Q&A, Sara reflects on automation, mentorship, risk appetite, and how in-house counsel can drive value while remaining grounded in judgement, integrity, and care.
Enjoy the interview below.
In your experience, are legal teams more or less open to innovation than other business functions? What factors influence this?
Legal teams, by virtue of their responsibility to manage risk and ensure compliance, have traditionally taken more time than other functions to properly assess the merits of innovation—often preferring proof of concept before widespread adoption. While functions like IT or marketing have tended to operate readily in the creative space, legal has been more cautious, particularly because truly value-adding work in law depends on human judgement, experience, and an ability to capture nuance that technology can’t replicate.
Part of the slower pace is probably also due to the fact that much tech-driven innovation has targeted other business areas, with legal tools only recently catching up. As new solutions emerge—including changes to the make-up of legal teams themselves—there’s a growing appetite to embrace innovation and leverage it as a way to free up time for the kind of complex, meaningful work where legal professionals add the most value. Legal is now learning to innovate and catching up fast.
Where does legal automation reduce risk and workload, and where can it create new complexities?
Some of the biggest wins from legal automation have been in automating straightforward, routine processes—like contract analysis, generating standard NDAs, consolidating large amounts of input or providing initial legal research. For lawyers, this takes a bit of the pressure off and helps us avoid manual mistakes, while also speeding things up. However, it’s equally important to recognise the opportunity to create tools that our stakeholders can use directly themselves, such as legal front doors, chatbots, and simple contract generators. When these self-service tools are built with clear parameters, well-defined rules, and supported by a solid and sizable knowledge repository, they can significantly free up time for both legal teams and the business.
That said, while such tools can be a real asset, they’re only part of the answer. Like any new approach, automation isn’t perfect—if we lean too hard on it without the right checks in place, things can slip through the cracks or become a bit of a “black box.” Integrating automation with older systems can also introduce unexpected complexity. For high-stakes or unusual matters, human oversight remains crucial. Ultimately, it’s about striking the right balance: using automation and self-service solutions to make life easier and more efficient, without creating new blind spots or losing sight of where human judgement and creativity is essential.
How has document automation impacted quality, speed, and consistency at BAT?
For us at BAT, document automation is still a relatively new journey, but it’s already making a difference. It’s now much easier to quickly find the answers we need across our varied work ecosystem—whether that’s digging through emails, Teams chats, or SharePoint. This ability to efficiently access and verify knowledge, prepare first drafts, or gather initial insights on local legislation makes a real difference as we advise on an above-market basis across so many jurisdictions. The time savings are substantial. We’re also at the early stages of implementing Co-Pilot agents to act as a first pass for the business, reducing unnecessary back-and-forth and laying the groundwork for more consistency in how our approved claims library is accessed and used across our global brands.
Most encouraging is the feedback from the team: people appreciate being able to spend less time on repetitive drafting and more time on the parts of our work that call for judgement and creativity. Of course, we’re still learning as we go, and making improvements based on what works best for the people using these tools.
Which legal responsibilities do you expect to shrink or disappear in the next decade?
We’re already seeing the automation of routine tasks like contract review and basic reporting, and this trend is set to accelerate. As technology becomes more advanced and we learn to shape and train it effectively, even areas such as first-level litigation discovery and due diligence may increasingly be handled by machines. Legal research is also evolving—while the process is much faster, we do need to remain vigilant for errors or “hallucinations”, but improvements are ongoing.
Core legal responsibilities will remain with legal counsel, though new tech offers valuable support in preparing for them. It’s not just specifically legal work that benefits; many supporting functions within legal teams—like billing, team management, training, communications, and matter coordination—can be streamlined, freeing up time for the work that really matters. This shift doesn’t mean legal roles are disappearing. Instead, our priorities are changing, and the real value lies in judgement, creativity, and strategic thinking. Ultimately, technology is here to support us, not replace us.
How is mentorship evolving in technology-driven legal environments?
Mentorship is still incredibly important, but the way we support each other is changing. There’s a lot more learning together and from each other, whether that’s through digital platforms or informal chats. Sometimes, newer team members help the more experienced lawyers get comfortable with new tech—reverse mentoring can be a real win-win.
As the legal profession becomes ever more digital, mentorship remains indispensable, especially for nurturing the people skills that underpin high-value legal work. AI may streamline processes, but it cannot replace qualities like influencing, active listening, presenting, and relationship building. For lawyers beginning their careers in a post-Covid environment, in-person interactions and guidance from experienced mentors are crucial for developing these capabilities, ensuring they remain at the heart of what makes legal teams effective.
Being an authentic mentor now means helping people navigate all the change, encouraging curiosity, and making sure everyone feels safe to try new things. The best mentors are the ones who admit they’re still learning too.
How can we best support risk-averse lawyers through innovation journeys?
Supporting colleagues who are more cautious about innovation starts with empathy. It’s important to remember that their caution is a real asset—it keeps us grounded. By listening to concerns, sharing real examples of where change has been positive, and letting people get hands-on experience with new tools, we can help build confidence.
We try to involve those colleagues in the design and testing of new solutions—they often spot issues others might miss. Recognising small steps forward helps build momentum, and being patient is key.
What should Future Lawyer 2026 participants take away from these changes?
Embracing change does not mean leaving behind the qualities that define effective legal professionals—judgement, integrity, and genuine care for people.
In a rapidly evolving world, the lawyers who thrive will be those who combine strong legal expertise with a readiness to learn and a commitment to supporting colleagues. Staying curious, open-minded, and willing to ask questions will be essential, as every voice has a role to play in shaping our profession.
Innovation in law should not be about pursuing the latest trends for their own sake, but about enabling people to do their best work and improving the experience for both colleagues and clients. By remaining open, supporting one another, and keeping our core values at the forefront, we can navigate ongoing changes with confidence and humility. This journey is continuous, and as we learn and adapt together, we ensure that what truly matters—judgement, creativity, and care—stays at the heart of our legal practice. The most valuable lawyers will be those who balance technical knowledge with the human skills and relationships that underpin effective legal teams.
Sara’s perspective reinforces that innovation in legal is not about replacing judgement, but enabling better decisions, stronger partnerships, and more proactive risk management.
Sara will be joining Future Lawyer UK Day 2 for a fireside chat, “The Critical Friend: How In-house Counsel Can Lead as a Business Enabler”, exploring how legal leaders can guide cultural and technological transformation while maintaining clear regulatory guardrails.
Register now to join the discussion at Future Lawyer UK.
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