Last week, we brought you part one of our session from Rio, “Client Centricity in Practice,” moderated by Melissa Kanô and Alexandre Pessoa of KLA Advogados, who were joined by Waldemar Thiago Junior, Vice President, Managing Director of Brazil for General Mills.
There were so many fantastic takeaways that I wanted to give you all the chance to sit with the first part before I brought you the second section. So here we go! Continue Reading Client Centricity in Practice – Part Two
We recently held the ILN’s Annual Conference in Rio de Janeiro, and as part of the business sessions, our host firm, KLA Advogados, invited one of their clients to speak about “Client Centricity in Practice.” It was an opportunity to have an interactive discussion with the attendees about questions that they had for our client panelist, who was open and honest about what he looks for in his outside counsel and touched on some hot issues. The session was moderated by Melissa Kanô and Alexandre Pessoa of KLA Advogados, who were joined by Waldemar Thiago Junior, Vice President, Managing Director of Brazil for General Mills.
This was such a great and meaty session that I’m going to break this up into two parts! Here’s part one. Continue Reading Client Centricity in Practice – Part One
If you’re a regular reader of Zen, you know that I’m a big fan of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC). They’re working to revolutionize the legal industry, and engage all facets of it to do so.
One of the ways that legal departments excel and law firms majorly lag behind is with tracking metrics. While the law is indeed a very specialized set of skills, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to track the data that matters. We’ve heard a lot of calls from law departments over the last few years, demanding that their firms institute more tracking, and many firms are doing this to a greater or lesser degree. A huge part of legal operations is managing and understanding data, so that CLOs can identify areas of inefficiency as more pressure comes down from above.
Continue Reading Metrics isn’t a Dirty Word – What you can Learn from CLOC
Today, we’re bringing you a special guest post from the folks at Legal Gateway, who have identified the top eight mistakes that in-house counsel make when implementing legal technology that prevents it from being successful. In-house lawyers: this one’s for you, and for our outside counsel readers, consider sharing this with your clients and discussing their technology needs, solutions, and strategies with them, and how you may be able to partner with them. This was originally published on Plexus.
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After many years of under-investment in technology, GCs are finally joining the party. Sadly, many of them are setting themselves up for a hangover.
Our recent research into Legal Transformation suggests that General Counsels will increase investment in technology by 252% in the next two years. Yet, limited technology competencies will lead most to frustration and failure.
Continue Reading Why Legal Tech does not work: The top 8 mistakes GCs make
Regular readers of Zen know that one thing I never miss is a good in-house counsel panel. Who can skip the opportunity to listen to the clients of our clients tell us how to do our jobs better and what matters to them at this very moment?
With some heavy hitters on this year’s panel at the Legal Marketing Association’s Annual Conference, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed. On the panel, we had:
Continue Reading In-House Counsel Panel: The Rapidly Changing Legal Buying Cycle
On this International Women’s Day, we reached out to some strong, smart women we know – the in-house counsel in our LinkedIn group – and asked them to say a few words about the mentors that they credit with helping them with their professional advancement. We’re all made better by the passion, guidance, and helping hands of those who have come before us, and my favorite thing about mentorship is that it inspires each of us to reach out to the next person who can use our advice or guidance. We give back because we have been given to so freely.
The ILN has launched our own mentorship program this year, and we’re in the process of pairing up our young lawyers with experienced partners, and I can only hope that both mentors and mentees gain as much from the experience as our in-house counsel have from their mentors. We’ll add additional responses to this post as they come in, and we invite you to share your mentors with us in the comments. Before we get to our in-house counsel commentary, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes for today:
Here’s to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.”
Continue Reading International Women’s Day – An Ode to Mentors
For our latest installment of “General Counsel Corner,” I spoke with the employment counsel for a Fortune 500 company. My question to her was:
Clients apply their own set of metrics for determining quality, value, and success. What are some of the metrics you use when selecting outside counsel?”
Continue Reading General Counsel Corner: What Metrics Do You Apply to Outside Counsel?
On Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking with another of the panelists for Wednesday’s General Counsel Panel here at the Legal Marketing Association’s Annual Conference. Joseph Otterstetter is the Managing Counsel and Associate General Counsel with 3M. The position was a new one created two and a half years ago, with Otterstetter acting as a type of “Chief of Staff” for the legal department. He overseas a range of areas, including budget, human resources, and operations, and works with the General Counsel and leadership to run the department.
I started off by observing that in Otterstetter’s LinkedIn biography, he indicates that he was appointed to lead the efforts to improve efficiency and effectiveness of 3M legal affairs. I asked him to comment on how he’s been focused on accomplishing that.
Primarily, he answered, it’s been focused around three things.
Continue Reading Outside Firms are More and More Becoming an Extension of In-House Law Departments
We’re one week away from the start of the Legal Marketing Association‘s Annual Conference, and if you’re a regular reader of Zen, you’ll know that my favorite session of the conference is always the general counsel panel.
This year, I thought I’d switch things up a little bit by reaching out to LMA before the conference to see if I could interview the GCs prior to the panel for a preview of their remarks. I spoke with one of the panelists on Friday, and will be speaking with another one this coming Friday, so tune in next Monday for our second preview interview!
Before I jump into the panelist’s remarks, let’s look at what LMA will be focusing on in this year’s panel, which is titled "How We Buy What You Sell – and How That’s Changing." The panel will be moderated by Catherine Moynihan, the Senior Director of Legal Management Services at the Association of Corporate Counsel, and will feature Darragh Davis, the Vice President & General Counsel for Petco Animal Supplies Inc., Virginia Sanzone, the SVP and AGC – Business Segments and Americas for CareFusion and Joe Otterstetter, the Managing Counsel for 3M.
Continue Reading It’s [Still] About Being Your Client’s Business Partner
We’re about an hour away from Viewabill’s two-hour webinar today on the topic of improving the attorney-client relationship! On Friday, I shared an interview I had done with Casey Flaherty of Kia Motors. I also had the pleasure of speaking with another of the panelists, Dan Baker, who is the Senior Operations Lead for LinkedIn Legal.
Dan’s role at LinkedIn runs the gamut – he described his day as always moving the needle forward on a myriad of projects, from their pro bono program, career leveling, managing contracts, requisitioning, planning/forecasting, event planning, goal setting and tracking, spend reporting, liaising with others, budgeting, knowledge management, engaging firms, and much, much more.
As a lady who wears lots of hats herself, I could absolutely sympathize with Dan’s role…and his need to make things as streamlined and efficient as possible.
Friends in Need
The first session Dan will be a part of today is "Friends in Need," with inside and outside counsel discussing their changing roles, and how the other can help them. Continue Reading “Relationships Matter, But Not if We Can’t Afford Them” An Interview with Operations Lead, Dan Baker