60. The No Asshole Policy with Sarah Irwin

Sarah Irwin is a former SaaS General Counsel based in Ireland who built a legal function from scratch inside a rapid scale tech company, and went on to build ITGC, one of the most recognized in-house legal communities in Europe. She joins Mel on the Counsel Podcast to talk about how a business built almost by accident, starting as a cure for loneliness in a first legal hire role, became a full time career built on in-person dinners, webinars and content. Sarah gets specific about the moments most people skip over, the cringe of her first LinkedIn post, the boss who told her to go all in before she believed it herself, and the no asshole policy that now governs every partnership her business takes on. She and Mel also get into where GCs are actually stuck in 2026, the gap between AI budget finally being assumed rather than fought for and the relentless pressure to keep upskilling that comes with it. Listeners will walk away with a genuinely useful way to think about mid career stuckness, permission to build something on the side without quitting anything, and a clear example of what it looks like to build a business on refusing to compromise on how people are treated. ~ Download the New to In-House Survival Guide: https://www.counselpodcast.com/store/p/newtoinhouse (use code BigSisEnergy for a special discount) All of Mel's Big Sis Briefings can be found here: https://www.counselpodcast.com/big-sis-briefings Connect with Mel: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melstorey Counsel Podcast Page on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/67479008/admin/feed/posts/ Instagram & TikTok: @careerbigsis Subscribe to the Counsel Podcast so you don't miss upcoming conversations with leaders who are redefining what it means to be an in house lawyer today!