No Team Doesn’t Have to Mean No Leverage

If you’re the first or only General Counsel at your company, you already know what it’s like to be in the thick of it: reviewing NDAs between back-to-back meetings, jumping into urgent contract reviews, dealing with a compliance snag, and fielding “quick legal questions” that are never quick. You’re doing the work. All of it. But what about thinking like a GC, the kind who drives strategy, speaks the language of the boardroom, and helps shape the future of the company? 

We see this tension often in our Ready Set GC programs: brilliant, capable women who are absolutely up to the challenge but can’t quite find the oxygen to rise above the day-to-day demands.  Here are six practical strategies to help you move from doer to driver, even if you’re flying solo. 

1. Redefine Your Role: Start Strategic Conversations with Your CEO 

In the GC role, your job isn’t just to manage legal risk; it’s also to create business value. But if your CEO sees you primarily as a “legal technician,” it’s hard to shift that narrative. Depending on your CEO’s experience working with a GC, she may not know how you can add value unless you demonstrate it proactively.  

Schedule time to align with your CEO on how the GC role can support the company’s priorities. Share your vision: legal as a strategic asset, not just a service function. Your CEO may not have worked with a GC before and may be unaware of how you can support business initiatives. Or she may have initially seen the role as a way to get day-to-day legal work done without paying outside counsel and now that you're up and running, you’re ready to offer so much more.  

Use your touchpoints with the CEO to do more than report status. Bring one or two strategic legal/business risks or opportunities to each meeting. Over time, this reinforces your role as a thought partner, not just an executor. 

And one of the fastest ways to become a more valuable thought partner to your CEO is to deepen your understanding of the numbers behind the business. Know how the company makes money, what drives margin, where growth is expected to come from, what the biggest cost pressures are, and which metrics matter most to your CEO, CFO, and board. You don’t need to become the CFO. But the more fluently you understand the business model and financial priorities, the better you can frame legal advice in terms of business choices, not simply legal risk.

2. Block Time: Make Space to Think Strategically

You won’t find the time. The work will always be there. You have to make it. Whether it’s an hour a week or a full morning every other Friday, treat strategic thinking as part of your responsibilities. Some GCs regularly schedule a ‘thinking day’ or protected block of strategic time. The key is consistency. Strategy doesn’t happen in the gaps. It happens because you made space.

If you are not sure where to start, ask yourself: what’s one big thing I’m not getting to in the swirl of daily work and what would it take to move it forward? Create an agenda and remember this is a meeting with yourself. You should have a focus. For example, is today about understanding the business better? Planning how to reposition legal as a strategic function? Mapping out a bold proposal for legal tech or additional support? Choose one theme and bring yourself a question or decision you want to move forward. Remember, this isn't time to catch up — it's time to zoom out. 

How you use your strategic time depends on where you are in your GC journey. But, whatever your stage, that thinking time is an investment in your future.

New to the role? Use this time to learn the business, identify key stakeholders, and start drafting a future-state roadmap for what the legal function could be. 

Been in the role for a while? Use this time to ask: What’s working? What needs to shift? Brainstorm a few bold moves. Reach out to trusted peers or mentors for a gut check and help with a plan to pivot. 

3. Lead with Insight, Not Just Information 

One way to elevate your role, even without a big team or budget, is to become known as someone who connects legal context to business strategy. 

Start small. For example, share legal or regulatory developments that impact your industry with the leadership team. It’s not about flooding inboxes. It’s about showing that you’re thinking ahead and helping others do the same. And don’t limit your scan to legal news. Follow what is happening in your industry, with competitors, customers, regulators and the economy. If your company is entering a new market, losing a major customer, changing its pricing model, or investing heavily in AI, those developments should shape your agenda as GC. The question isn’t simply, "What are the legal implications?" It’s "Why does this matter to the business, and what should we do about it?"

You want to be viewed as someone who looks around corners, even if most of your time is spent doing day-to-day work. The more consistently you do this, the more your voice will be invited into conversations earlier, where strategy is being shaped, not just reviewed. 

Not sure where to begin? Scan the headlines each week for one development your CEO or product lead should know about and offer a quick take on why it matters. 

4. Work Smarter: Rethink How the Work Gets Done 

When you’re a solo GC, the goal shouldn’t be to figure out how to do everything yourself. It should be to make sure your time is spent on the work that actually requires your judgment.

Start by looking at what crosses your desk repeatedly and sorting it into categories: What requires my judgment? What can be standardized? What can be automated or accelerated with AI? What can be delegated or outsourced? And what should we simply stop doing?

Technology, and particularly generative AI, has changed the equation for a solo GC. AI can help you get to a first draft faster, summarize and compare documents, create checklists, organize issues, develop training materials, and accelerate research and routine review. Used thoughtfully, it can create capacity for the higher-value work that only you can do.

But using AI well is itself a leadership and risk-management exercise. You need to think about confidentiality, data security, accuracy, privilege, and appropriate human review. The question isn’t simply, “Where can I use AI?” It’s “Where can I use it responsibly to free up time for work that requires my experience and judgment?”

Apply the same thinking to outside resources. You may not have a robust outside counsel budget, but that makes it even more important to be deliberate about when and how you use it. Outside counsel, fractional lawyers, alternative legal service providers, and other specialists can give you expertise or capacity without requiring permanent headcount.

The objective is leverage: redesign how the work gets done so that you aren't spending your most valuable resource—your time—on work that doesn't require you.

5. Don’t Go It Alone: Build Your GC Network Before You Need It

Creating capacity is only part of the equation. A solo GC also needs people to turn to for perspective, expertise, and support.

Start with your GC peers. Connect with other first or solo GCs, particularly those in your industry. A quick conversation with someone who has faced the same issue can save hours, challenge your thinking, and help you see options you might otherwise miss.

Build your broader network before you need it. Who would you call tomorrow in a cyber incident, government investigation, employee crisis, major litigation, or reputational event?

Know your outside counsel, communications and cyber resources, insurance contacts, and internal partners—including your CFO, HR, IT, and communications leaders. Being the only lawyer does not mean making every decision alone. Build a network that expands your expertise, challenges your thinking, and is ready when the stakes rise.

6. Know When Solo is No Longer the Right Model

Being resourceful is part of being a successful solo GC. But being resourceful does not mean proving that you can do everything indefinitely. Is your workload increasing? What is being delayed? What isn't getting done? What strategic work are you unable to reach? And, most importantly, what is the business risking because Legal doesn't have sufficient capacity?

Start collecting that evidence before you need to make the ask. Track contract volume and turnaround time, outside counsel spend, major matters, recurring work, projects you have deferred, and demands on your time. The objective isn’t to prove how busy you are. It’s to demonstrate the business consequences of insufficient capacity, and what additional capacity would make possible. That might mean faster contracting, lower outside counsel spend, better risk management, or more time devoted to strategic priorities.

Final Thoughts  

No team doesn’t have to mean no leverage. What matters is how you think, how you lead, and what you choose to make space for. The best solo GCs aren't trying to prove they can do everything themselves. They're deliberate about where they spend their judgment, how they create capacity, who they bring around them, and where they need to invest for what comes next.

So, carve out the time, claim the space, and take one small step this week that moves you closer to the GC you already are, just with more space to lead. 

Deborah Solmor

Founder, Ready Set GC

General Counsel, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF)