Waivers, workouts and workstreams: stretching legal logic in unexpected places

My day job involves balancing competing priorities, leading transformations often rooted with resistance, and ensuring all aspects of legal service delivery are aligned to enable a seamless client journey.

I recently relocated from the charm of Cheshire’s country lanes to London’s fast pace, and it has been no small shift. However, through the hurdles I have spotted a number of unexpected insights and inspiration! Among them: Reformer Pilates. What started as a way to stay active, soon enlightened me to the striking resemblances between strong core strength and effective contract strategies.

Here are some examples:
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Structure supports strategy

Successful legal teams do not just rely on the expertise of their Lawyers; they recognise that efficiencies in day-to-day contracting can only be achieved through regimented structure and approach across their contracting, risk exposure, risk appetite and legal strategy. Without clear legal parameters enabling a durable framework to underpin your teams intended structure, attempting to streamline your contracting would be akin to Reformer Pilates without the Reformer: unstable, unsupported and ineffective.

In both cases, structure should not restrict movement, it should enable enforceable support, holding everything in place when pressure mounts.

Without the right contract templates and supporting documents, you cannot build a contract structure or strategy. They create a shared language, reduce ambiguity, and ensure consistency in risk management. It’s the difference between reactive firefighting and proactive control. Between hoping for alignment and taking active steps to build it in.

Structure keeps you stable, allowing your team to move with confidence and control. 

Resistance builds resilience

Resistance in Reformer Pilates is the key mechanism for growth. It is how you build your strength, stability and posture to ensure that overtime you get stronger, more stable and less likely to collapse when pressure mounts.

Legal delivery is no different. The resistance felt through pushback on clauses, negotiations and process escalations all stress tests the delivery structure and expose inefficiencies and vulnerabilities, ultimately sharpening your strategy. The more your framework is tested, the more resilient it becomes.

Legal resistance when handled correctly is not stakeholder friction, its constructive feedback. And when your legal delivery structure can withhold this, not only does it protect the business needs, it shapes better behaviours across it, creating meaningful and impactful change.

Precision upholds posture

In Reformer Pilates, precision is key, and small adjustments make a big difference. Every movement is intentional, aligned, and designed to protect while strengthening.

Legal delivery should be no different. Precision in contracting, whether through drafting, risk positioning or escalation routes all reduce ambiguity, ensure consistency and improve turnaround times.

Precision should not appear pedantic, it should feel protective, clear, justified and logical.  

Incremental progress  
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Strengthening your body is not about instant results. It takes time to build, improve posture and increase control.

A robust delivery model should be similar. It must continuously evolve to adapt to the business’s changing needs, industry standards and market regulations. As such, monitoring performance matters. Data-driven insights help legal teams make smarter decisions about risk and through early issue detection, cost management, quality assurance and progress tracking of standards, legal teams can evolve continuously, and over time, build strength and drive accountability.

Progress is a process, not a one-off project.

 
Final thoughts

As I settle into London life, I’m learning that inspiration can come from the most unexpected of places. Although the two may operate in different realms, they share a core philosophy: structure enables movement, and movement drives progress. And so, whether you're reforming your body or your legal operations, the goal is the same: move with purpose, precision, and control.