Rachita Maker, Global Head of Legal Operations, Technology & Consulting, moderated panels both at the Consero Corporate Legal Operations Forum outside of London (UK) October 11-13, and the Corporate Legal Operations Forum in Miami November 15-17.
At the United Kingdom event, Rachita was joined by Varun Srikumar, DWF Director of Sales. In a panel titled “Innovation for the modern legal department,” Rachita was joined by several other legal operations leaders, including:
- Johanna Seeger, Brand Lead Germany, GetYourGuide
- Tal Cohen-Patron, Worldwide Head of Legal Operations and Senior Director, Transformation - Dassault Systèmes
- Chris McCloy, Senior Vice President – Citi
- Catherine Ammon, Associate Director, Legal Operations – LogicMonitor
- Claire Eldridge, Head of Legal Operations - Associated British Foods
Moderated by Rachita, the group discussed innovation for modern legal department and the focus was around doing more with less.
“One of the key themes to successful transformation projects is how important it is to start your innovation journey with quick wins,” Rachita said. “Identifying areas that can be improved quickly and simply can go a long way in overcoming challenges and other barriers down the road when trying to pursue larger transformations.”
Rachita also invited the audience to participate and share their innovation journeys. ‘Cupcake agreements’ was the most popular analogy during the discussion where one of the members of the audience talked about how an intern in their legal department asked why the legal department was spending time reviewing agreements to buy cupcakes for monthly companywide meetings. This resulted in the GC asking everyone to sit back and think about what were there 'cupcake agreements' and the legal team was able to identify 15% of agreement types that didn't need legal review. It was just one example of the way legal teams can create easy wins along a transformation journey.
Across the pond, Rachita was joined at the Miami event by Linda Sheldon, Senior Vice President of Sales. With US-based Legal Operations leaders in attendance, Rachita had the chance to moderate another panel, this time focusing on 'Best practices in communication and change management'. She was joined by:
- Mary Beth Blair, Director, Legal Operations and Lead Counsel, Procurement - Coursera, Inc.
- Monique White, Director, Legal Operations, Genesys
- Tim Melchior, Senior Legal Operations Analyst, Trane Technologies
“Every successful transformation or innovation project needs to start by getting buy-in from all stake holders across the organisation and having a communication strategy for articulating this vision,” Rachita said. “Our panel found that when you do not consider everyone who will be affected by the project and include their input you won’t get the results you want and can only make piecemeal progress.”
There was emphasis on creating a clear communication strategy, branding of your initiatives and defining measurable ROIs for successful change management initiatives. Nobody denied that there will be naysayers and colleagues who resist change but as change agents, Legal Operations leaders need to identify the champions and show quick wins and work on converting the hearts and minds of the people.
Whether your organisation is looking to improve internal legal operations by removing roadblocks or are searching for the best ways to make progress, the Legal Operations team at DWF is here to help.
Contact Rachita Maker below to learn more about our Legal Operations, Technology & Consulting practice area and how we can help your legal department run smoother.
