Legal Ops Rising

In Episode 15, presented by ACC Legal Ops and LawVu, Winston Yeung of T-Mobile talks to us about the strategic projects his very lean team is focused on, and how they're advancing knowledge management efforts to make legal work more efficient. And, if you're a law firm listener who supports T-Mobile, you'll want to listen carefully as Winston talks about an opportunity for T-Mobile's outside counsel to stand out from competitors -- something he says no firm has yet ventured to raise.

In Episode 14, presented by ACC Legal Ops and LawVu, Kristi Gedid of Mylan describes the challenges of managing the legal operations function of a global company. She also tells us why it's important to "get yourself comfortable with being uncomfortable" in her role, and gives specific examples of ways she's seeing law firms and in-house teams partner in innovative ways.

In Episode 13, presented by ACC Legal Ops and LawVu, Jen Warner of Columbia Sportswear describes her dual roles: as VP of Legal, Jen oversees several areas of legal work, but she has the added responsibility of leading operations for Columbia's legal team. She describes the efforts her team is making to align closely with Columbia's business strategy. She also tells us about something that most of the outside firms she works with are NOT doing that she sees as a missed opportunity.

In Episode 12, presented by ACC Legal Ops and LawVu, Lisa Kremer Brown of Starbucks describes how a change of General Counsel has impacted her team's work and the legal department at large, and she gives us insight into some of the recent developments around her department's outside counsel management efforts. She also tells us about the various ALSPs the legal team is leveraging, and the type of work she's looking to these outside resources to provide.

In Episode 11, presented by ACC Legal Ops and LawVu, Roycee Hasuko of Salesforce describes the unique RFP process that Salesforce legal recently went through in order to create a preferred panel of law firms, and how Salesforce is looking to reward those selected firms by actually helping them to cross-sell their services inside of the company. She also talks about how Salesforce is measuring outside counsel, and how she’s encouraging them to, as she says, "engage the full power of their firms."

In Episode 10, presented by LawVu, Emelita Hernandez-Bravo of Fitbit talks about what she calls a "quasi legal ops team", in that, she is the team. This gives her the opportunity to play dual roles — one in strategy around opportunities, while also being focused on execution and getting her hands dirty. And she tells us how the legal team is providing its operational expertise to other parts of the business.

In Episode 9, presented by LawVu, Jack Thompson of Sanofi talks about managing legal operations for a company based on another continent, including navigating cultural differences when it comes to handling disputes. He also talks about the current landscape of legal technology and where it is headed.

In episode 8, presented by LawVu, hear from Chad Hallberg of Valeant Pharaceuticals, a $9 billion, international pharma company that, until Chad joined the firm less than two years ago, didn't have an organized legal operations function. Chad talks about building the operations function from scratch, implementing matter management tools so that the legal team has real data to work from, and how he has a strong, and growing, seat at the table when it comes to selecting outside counsel.

In episode 7, presented by LawVu, hear from Robert Taylor about what a "Legal Ideation" team does inside of a large company, and how Liberty Mutual is working with law schools to prepare the next generation of lawyers.

In episode 6, presented by LawVu, hear from Mateo Sanchez about what it means for the legal operations team at Uber to be focused on "team morale" within the legal department, and how law firms can hang with, and ideally stay ahead of, Uber as it blazes new trails.

Hear from Susan Packal, Director of Legal Operations and Chief of Staff at Ebay, about how she got started in legal operations, why she ventured across the country for a job at Uber, and where she sees legal services headed. 

Hear from long-time legal ops leader David Cambria about his current role at ADM, a publicly-traded commodity trading corporation, his advice for law firms about what it takes to secure a place in a preferred provider program today, and where he sees the legal ops field headed. 

Hear from Lucy Bassli, Assistant General Counsel, Legal Operations and Contracting at Microsoft. Lucy is often recognized as one of the founders of the legal operations movement. She is a strong advocate for applying an operations discipline to the practice of law and enhancing legal services by leveraging data analytics, metrics, and technology. 

Today's episode features thought leader Mike Russell, who has been designing efficient innovative systems for delivering legal services for over two decades. Mike has held leadership roles within the legal departments of Liberty Mutual and Ingersoll Rand and has led IT efforts within law firms. His background also includes advising one of the first NewLaw companies on the market, Clearspire.

Stephanie Corey, Co-founder and General Partner of UpLevel Ops, joins the podcast to challenge assumptions and talk with us about characteristics she looks for in legal ops professionals. Stephanie is well-known for her role in helping found the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), and for being a legal ops pioneer through her roles as Director of Legal Ops at companies like HP, VMware, and Flex.