Legal Ops is one of the biggest buzzwords of the year! We brought on three experts who shared all there is to know about legal ops & provided key advice such as how to to get buy-in from the c-suite, and how to implement solutions that work.
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Meet the Presenters:
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Host:
- Ashish Walia, Cofounder, Lawtrades
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Panelists:
- Deanna DeFrancesco, COO, Legal, WeWork
- Reeta Sharma, Legal Ops Lead, Notion
- Guilherme Tocci Salcedo, Global Legal Ops, Gympass
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Key Takeaways:
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- Consider the legal ops person as a direct part of leadership team
- Work directly with the GC to establish pain points, and learn to function as a business unit
- Prepare to prove the function of a leal ops role in your team, and have the metrics to back it up
- Be able to pivot & reassess as the business grows
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- âHow would you describe legal ops, and where does it sit within your team?
8:50-14:30
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Deanna: âIf youâre looking to scale, consider someone devoted to the role early onâ
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- Operating the department gets more complicated as the company grows
- A legal ops role provides consistency & an ounce of prevention for missteps in the future
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Reeta: âTake a look at the tools, people, and processes to figure out how to efficiently scale so the legal team can focus on giving adviceâ
- Check in on the day-to-day function, but focus on being that strategic partner planning for the future
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Guilherme: âLegal ops can help the teams to set the internal business processesâ
- Work to prevent inefficiencies in the team
- Devote at least one legal ops person to closely monitor processes
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- âHow are your current legal teams organized?
14:30-20:45
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Guilherme: âWe are divided by regions which set the business modelâ
- Legal ops can be a global position that works cross-functionally
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Deanna: âOur legal team is a centralized function of the companyâ
- Team is separated by three functions- legal tech, finance, & project management
- Important to report to GC or CLO, so you can understand whatâs going on across both the legal and business functions
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Reeta: âWeâre split up by practice areasâ
- Weâre all building out our separate functions
- Support the business functions & work to mitigate risk
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- How do you fight for a budget?
â20:45-26:55
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Reeta: âIt depends on the company and the appetiteâ
- Sometimes you have to bootstrap if the budget is tight
- Whatever you are bringing on, make sure that the tools are promoting efficiency
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Deanna: âShowing your value is the first stepâ
- Position the legal team as something that is going to save money in the long run
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Guilherme: âImportant to show data and to show how the team has improvedâ
- Be able to manage the teams first, in order to bring in that data
- Prove the differences you are providing
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- How did you build trust with the C-Suite?
â26:55-31:32
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Guilherme: âYou need to have empathy with the legal teamâ
- Listen to the team, and learn their pain
- Consider risks, and understand the scalability
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Deanna: âWe have a lot of trust building to doâ
- We sit at the middle of so many cross-functional teams
- Learn to put the right people together
- Include the C-suite in the entire process- early and often
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Reeta: âBe reliable for the C-Suiteâ
- Establish relationships early, understand what they are struggling with
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- âHow would you recommend the transition to a dedicated legal ops position?
â31:32-40:19
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Guilherme: âThey may want all the things at onceâ
- Start simple, build from the ground up
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Deanna: âAs we scaled, having separate operating systems wasnât efficientâ
- Bring people together and have the buy-in, in order to drive adoption
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Reeta: âThere's always going to be challengesâ
- Be prepared to transition, buy-in can change quickly
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- What stands out when looking to have someone fill a legal ops role?
â43:08-47:15
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- Guilherme: âItâs common to search for someone whoâs extremely tech related, or someone who completely understands the legal positionâ
Everything in between makes sense, doesnât have to be strictly one side or the other
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Reeta: âLook for someone who wants to learnâ
- People who understand business, and how lawyers work
- Project management background is useful
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- What is something that adds a lot of value for GCs?
â47:15-50:04
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Deanna: âTry having someone devoted to do the outs workâ
- Sit on the initiative, and manage the overall project
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Reeta: âConsider what they want the legal ops person to doâ
- Legal ops leader should be GCâs right hand
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