Rory Sutherland, CEO of Ogilvy UK, has a terrible health tip.
And a very good point about influence.
Imagine you are at a drinks party. You are tired of talking. You want to stand alone. Look out of the window.
Think.
Without a cigarette, you look lonely. Possibly strange.
With a cigarette, you look like a philosopher considering the decline of Western civilisation.
Same person. Same window.
Different meaning.
This is not a recommendation to start smoking.
Please remain calm.
The point is that people do not react only to what you do.
They react to what it appears to mean.
Legal says:
“We need two more days.”
The business hears:
Slow.
Legal says:
“Give us 48 hours. We will return with two routes, the cost and the risk of each.”
The business hears:
Control.
Same delay.
Different posture.
This matters on complex projects too.
Six firms across four countries can give you excellent legal advice.
They can also give you twelve opinions, nine documents with track changes and a new hobby.
At Ambar, senior project counsel can sit between the in house team and the traditional firms.
They own the facts. The workstreams. The contracts. The local counsel.
The GC enters the room with decisions, not updates.
And the firms are used where their best judgment genuinely matters.
Same legal expertise. Much better view from the window.
Before you go: how Ambar can help
We help GCs access senior independent legal talent when their teams need more range, more speed or more specialist judgment.
1) Fractional counsel for capacity gaps
When a key lawyer moves role, goes on leave, or gets pulled into a strategic project, we help cover the gap without adding permanent structure.
2) Specialist expertise for new areas
Privacy, AI, technology contracts, payments, cybersecurity, energy, regulatory or new jurisdictions — senior lawyers who bring knowledge into the team, not just hours.
3) The layer between in-house and traditional firms
For work that is too senior for junior execution, too close to the business for a law firm machine, and too temporary for a permanent hire.
4) Legal AI that learns your standard
We help legal teams turn senior judgment into playbooks, model answers, red flags, evals and error-analysis frameworks for the AI tools their teams already use.
Not generic AI. Your legal standard.
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Stay cool,
Dr. No