From a 5-day to a 24-hour turnaround

The Impact Podcast features Dan Coll, Senior Associate General Counsel and Caleb Bendix, Deputy General Counsel at Jabil. Our podcast host is Steve Harmon, COO and General Counsel of Elevate. Listen in as our guests outline two examples of implementing change within Jabil. The first features a procurement centre of excellence and support model about efficiency, including intake, triage, playbook support, and staffing. The second features the build-out of a fully automated NDA process.

01:00 Introduction to Dan and Caleb.

02:36 Jabil’s Center of Excellence to support indirect and direct procurement.

05:31 A perfect storm of a major acquisition - and launching the centre of excellence.

09:03 Our colleagues aren’t sure which of the team is Jabil and who represents the LPO.

11:39 The in-house team had been supporting 100% of the global NDAs, so we could immediately reduce this low-value add work to 25%.

14:15 Jabil recently signed another SOW to support their commercial team, something they previously wouldn't have considered. 

16:21 We look at automation to free up time to be strategic and work on projects that move top-line revenue and margin for the company.

20:35 Legal operations journey is thinking about centres of excellence and things we can routinise.

24:03 We've processed 8500 incident NDAs over the last three years with zero legal contact and zero variation from our standard template.

29:35 Today, Jabil is ready for … the next template.

“You take no risks; you make no money.”

This Elevate.Together.Podcast. Impact episode features the Chief Legal Officer of NetApp, Beth O'Callahan, and the podcast host, Steve Harmon, the COO and General Counsel of Elevate. Beth and Steve discuss implementing change, how change can motivate and challenge a team, and that success should be measured by looking at metrics and the organization's values to ensure qualitative priorities are not missed.

[00:46] Beth shares her journey from litigation to corporate law and her current position.

[02:48] Developing your knowledge of the business will help you support the legal needs of your colleagues.

[04:47] One advantage of being in-house is you are closer to the business and the people conducting business.  Your role is translator or interpreter of that legal risk.

[07:43] Part of leadership is assigning responsibility and a charter appropriate for an individual’s skillset and experience.

[08:28] Contracts is required for first-year law students, but remedies is optional. If the remedy doesn't matter, does the breach?

[10:55] NetApp needed to reorient the legal team to support a new area. They used legal outsourcing resources to help right-size their organisation to support new areas.

[12:49] Engaging underrepresented groups regionally required working with outside counsel, to establish different goals, for each region of the business. 'Think globally, act locally.'

[16:49] Some professionals raise their hand and say, "I want to go after this new thing.” As leaders, our role is to make people comfortable taking risks. 

[19:44] When implementing change there's a certain level of winging it. It's not all buttoned up and drawn out with rules and responsibilities.

[23:22] The way to assess good versus poor legal performance is to understand how your clients are being measured.

[27:39] Evaluate opportunities to push things to legal operations. As a general counsel, we must address resource allocation, and how much of our internal budget is allocated to tasks.  There's a finite number of resources and budget to allocate.

[29:32] I could be your favorite lawyer if I agreed to everything you wanted.

Lawyers Spending More Time Lawyering

This impact episode podcast features Brett Durand, Legal Operations Director at Sempra, and our host for this podcast is Elevate’s COO and General Counsel, Steve Harmon. Brett and Steve discuss implementing positive change, featuring two projects at Sempra, implementing iManage, and adopting Elevate’s invoice review solution.

00:55 Brett Durand from patent law to audits to legal tech and legal operations.

01:44 Implementing change and iManage.

03:17 The cloud has changed how we implement new solutions.  

05:37 Ease of use has resulted in a tenfold increase in creating and saving content for greater accessibility, record retention, and risk mitigation.

08:15. Don’t assume that people would see the benefit of technology platforms and naturally gravitate towards them.

10:14 The choice between a phased-in approach or a big bang launch - migrating everyone over on a particular day. 

14:29 Build a safety net with your current solution and take the time to assess your documents and reduce your data footprint. 

16:47 Executing a well-thought-out communication plan and having an active champion network.

18:57 Making invoice review easier for attorneys – by inserting a third party into the conversation.

25:10 Internal initiatives like invoice review can create savings to fund the implementation of other programs.  

“Invoice Review is about balance, and we’re pleased to offer attorney discretion to adjudicate and adjust the invoice.”

From the Mailroom to the Boardroom, You Have To Connect With the Humans

In this Impact episode, Aarash Darroodi, Fender's General Counsel and Executive Vice President, and Elevate's COO and General Counsel, Steve Harmon, discuss implementing change, specifically the need to insist and engage to ensure inclusion and diversity within legal. The conversation continues with the discussion on legal professionals as business leaders and the recent appointment of legal leaders to executive business roles. The most compelling points in this podcast revolve around Aarash's personal story and its impact on his career.

00:14 Aarash credits his life experience as key to successfully implementing change within Fender.

07:45 Approaching change as a General Counsel, the incrementalist, and the revolutionary.

10:00 In-house counsel are critical in ensuring fundamental positive change. 

12:00 A differentiator between in-house and outside counsel is a greater expectation around business acumen.

15:29 The legal department's role is to enable the business; to help the business design, build and sell its products in a legally appropriate way.

19:52. The highest compliment a businessperson could pay to the lawyer is to say, "I want you here to talk about the business issues."

24:18 Unlike twenty years ago, today a general counsel may become the business leader .

Using Data, Implementing Change, and Improving Productivity

The Impact podcast you're about to hear features Senior Director and Head of Legal Operations at Twilio, Andy Krebs, and Steve Harmon, Elevate's COO and General Counsel. Steve, Andy, and Elevate CMO Nicole Giantonio discuss planning for and executing a strategy to establish Twilio as a highly efficient world-class law department.

00:41 Andy shares comments on his career journey, including 21 years at Intel - from managing wafers to building a supplier diversity model and, ultimately, legal ops.  

01:39 As the new leader of Twilio Legal Ops, Andy elaborates on tactical team priorities and strategy.

04:08 Steve Harmon asks about the relative distribution between the things that make the legal department run better versus Twilio's focus to enable the business to make the business run better.

06:20 Tracking basic foundational metrics, revenue per attorney, and working with internal legal leadership to understand the metrics they care about.  Using data to make decisions.

11:06 Establishing a three-year plan, looking for short-term wins to get buy-in, then layering in and building out functions for longer-term impact.

13:26 Using data to support change, improve productivity and improve job satisfaction.  

15:45 Connecting Legal with Legal Operations, present a strategy and plan for getting there, and bring your colleagues into the discussion.

17:05 A practical Legal Operations function creates a huge opportunity to make improvements.

19:35 Some days, you're pulling your hair out, but that's part of it. If it were easy, everybody would do it.