Department of No meets the Department of Nice? Misconceptions and challenges that Legal and Kindness have in common, and how we can build stronger infrastructure for impact.  
 

In-house legal teams and kindness researchers share an occupational hazard: we're both fundamentally misunderstood. Legal is the 'Department of No' that slows things down. Kindness is the 'fluffy stuff' you sprinkle on when times are good. Both perceptions miss what we're actually doing - building infrastructure that makes complex organisations work. 
 
This session explores the unexpected parallels between legal governance and organisational kindness, reframing both as essential infrastructure work. We'll examine how the same systems thinking that in-house counsel apply to risk, compliance, and governance can transform how organisations approach kindness to achieve relational safety, accountability, and sustainable performance. Through interactive exploration of real organisational patterns, attendees will recognize their own expertise in infrastructure design and leave with practical frameworks for expanding that thinking beyond traditional legal domains