About

A strategic reset gives a legal department the opportunity to step back from day-to-day delivery and take a hard look at its role, priorities, and impact on the business. It creates space to examine team shape and capability, how work is prioritised and allocated, the value legal is really delivering, and the strength of key internal relationships.

A meaningful reset goes beyond efficiency initiatives. It asks deeper questions about alignment with corporate strategy, exposure to emerging risks, capability gaps, and whether existing ways of working are still fit for purpose. Done well, it provides clarity on what to stop, start, or do differently, strengthens trust with senior stakeholders, and sets a clear direction for how the legal function should evolve.

In this session, John Bennett and Ayah Elmaazi will share how they have approached strategic resets in practice. Drawing on real experience, they will explore what triggered the reset, how they structured the process, the trade-offs involved, and the lessons they would apply again or avoid next time.