Sarah Irwin is a former General Counsel turned entrepreneur and community builder for in-house legal teams. At Tines, she built a fast, lean, and modern legal function from scratch across the US and Europe. Now, as the founder of ITGC, she connects legal professionals with the tools, strategies, and support they need to succeed.
A LinkedIn influencer with 13,000 followers and a knack for simplifying legal operations, Sarah helps GCs and legal tech vendors boost efficiency, build their brand, and stay ahead in a fast-changing world.
Here’s what she had to say on building a brand and here advice as a former client:
Sarah’s take on personal branding
1. What is a personal brand anyway?
For lawyers who aren’t sure where to start, can you explain what personal brand means and why it matters?
Sarah: It’s the art of intentionally shaping how others perceive you. This is hugely important in modern business because finding clients has become very personalised in terms of marketing strategy. Everyone has automation/AI fatigue so they want to know the face behind the company more than ever.
For lawyers, it’s really important to take control of your personal brand internally at work too, rather than allowing others to believe negative, lazy biases that we get tarred with.
2. Steps to stand out
From your own experience building your personal brand as a GC and now as an entrepreneur, what practical steps can lawyers take to create a brand that feels authentic and builds credibility?
Sarah: Being active on LinkedIn helped me shape my personal brand, and also helped me refine it as I transitioned from GC to entrepreneur. I always say, “be your authentic self so your tribe can find you”.
Figure out what you’re an expert in, who you want to help with your expertise and what you stand for. Share educational content generously and consistently.
[Instead of sending an essay] lead with the solution and outcome and ideally attach the advice as a memo, which we can file away!
3. Balancing brand and billable hours
For junior lawyers juggling a heavy workload, how can they focus on personal branding without it feeling like an extra burden?
Sarah: Turn it into an outlet that nobody but you can own, but that complements your day job as a junior lawyer. That way it doesn’t feel like work!
When I was a GC and closed my work laptop, I got really excited about creating content for LinkedIn, or speaking at an event, or organising an ITGC event. The energy hits differently when you’re working on your outlet on a Saturday morning!!
It enhanced who I was and what I did as a GC because it boosted my confidence and expertise. Junior lawyers could get involved with projects run by their regulatory body for instance (from pure academic ones to sociable to sport – if something doesn’t exist that you’re passionate about, offer to set it up and organise it, like a running club or book club!).
What GCs really think
1. What catches a GC’s eye?
In your experience as a GC, what made external lawyers or firms stand out when you were choosing who to work with?
Sarah: (1) How commercial they were in understanding scaling tech companies (I was GC at a rapid scale Irish tech scale-up), and (2) the fact that they were able to make their deep subject-matter expertise relevant and relatable to our business.
2. Understanding the in-house perspective
What do external lawyers often misunderstand about the pressures and priorities of in-house teams, and how can they bridge that gap?
Sarah: Certainly when you’re scaling, some think we care about the letter of the law and hypotheticals more than we do. And that we have time to read essays.
Therefore they email a legal essay including worst case scenario, risk, etc, when they should lead with the solution and outcome (and ideally attach the advice as a memo which we can file away!). I actually think, in many cases, they should try writing to us as though we were a lay client (the CEO or COO or whoever they see their “real” client as).
I also think a lot don’t realise how much emotional support we are prepared to pay for – try asking and building it into your pricing.
3. The trust factor
How can external lawyers build genuine trust with GCs and become their go-to advisers?
Sarah: Showing you care about the individual, not just the wider business. Consistently showing a deep understanding of the GC’s business, industry and day-to-day challenges.
Set up a regular cadence to check in (e.g. once per quarter) to run through what’s on the GC’s mind and any issues. Transparency around costs and timelines (and any limitations) goes a long way too.
Sarah IrwinSarah Irwin is a former SaaS GC and founder of ITGC, a peer forum for in-house legal professionals. Drawing on her experience building legal functions at scale-ups, Sarah now helps GCs create modern, efficient legal teams and advises legal tech vendors on strategy and growth. Find Sarah on LinkedIn here.
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