September 2025

Legal vs Marketing: friend or foe?

If you’ve ever sensed the friction between Legal and Marketing, you’re not imagining things. Marketing is chasing speed, creativity, and growth. Legal is tasked with managing risk, compliance, and reputation. And neither is communicating early or clearly. The result? Tension, red pens, and eye rolls.

But it does not have to be this way. As explored in our recent webinar with Cate Walsh (Associate GC, Mars) and Jeremy Macvean (Director, Radiate), the best partnerships are not built on process alone. They are built on trust, clarity, and shared ownership.

Relationships first, process second

No service level agreement or intake form can cover every scenario. Marketing deadlines do not wait, and neither do regulators. That is why relationships matter more than rules.

The best outcomes come from trusted, human to human conversations. Walking across the hall to talk, rather than hiding behind forms, means people can discuss objectives and work through scenarios and risks in real time.

You do not have to be besties, but you do need to know each other’s goals and motivations.

Risk is not black and white

Very little in business is an absolute yes or no. Most decisions live in shades of grey. That is where clarity about risk appetite becomes essential.

Making decision collectively, avoids finger pointing when he going gets tough. Being united in the decision to proceed, gives you a good chance at being united in addressing any consequences

Who makes the call?

When roles blur, chaos follows. When roles are clear, collaboration flourishes and decisions can be made quickly.

Too many organisations still treat getting it through Legal as a finish line. But unless something is flat out illegal, it is rarely Legal’s decision to make. The GC’s role is to frame the risk, not rubber stamp the ad.

Legal should advise, not approve. Decisions, and the residual risk, must rest with the business, usually the P&L owner. Naming that person in the room avoids the dangerous default of silence and assumption.

That shift changes everything: no bottlenecks, no department of ‘no’, no misplaced blame. Just mature, collective decision making with clear roles and responsibilities.

Speak plainly, early, and often

Clarity does not just apply to roles. It applies to language. Marketing is full of acronyms. Legal is full of precedent. But business leaders do not want case law, they want clear and practical advice.

Marketers need to articulate objectives, not just preferences. “We like this headline” does not help. “We want to signal credibility to a new audience” does. That shift moves the conversation from executional nitpicking to strategic problem solving.

And if Legal advice cannot be explained in half a page, it probably will not land.

The earlier those conversations happen, the better. If Legal is in the room before agencies are briefed, product claims can be shaped around what is supportable. There is no point wasting everyone’s time creating aspirational content that the product or service can never substantiate.

The takeaway

So, friend or foe? The truth is, legal and marketing will always be wired differently, managing different pressures and expectations. One stretches for growth. The other manages the guardrails.

But different does not have to mean dysfunctional. With trust, plain speaking, and clear ownership of risk, different perspectives become productive. Legal becomes what it should be: a trusted partner helping the business move faster, smarter, and safer.