Contract Heroes

On this episode of the Contract Heroes we were joined by Lewis Bretts, the Group Managing Director for LOD + SYKE in the US. During our conversation, we touched on a number of things including the main problems most customers face during CLM implementations and how to solve them, the importance of incorporating non-legal stakeholders in your CLM implementation process, advice on where to start the CLM journey, and what to avoid, and so much more.

Nick brings a unique perspective to the discussion of CLMs, having held different positions all throughout GM during his career so far. His broad understanding of the various departments makes him well-suited to help select the CLM tool the company will eventually adopt.

Joining us for a second time on the show in this episode is Roderick Wade, the Vice President of Contract Management at MedImpact. Rod handles relationships with clients of all shapes and sizes with a focus in the pharmaceutical field. During our live discussion at the WorldCC event in Phoenix we discussed: Why a CLM's ability to integrate with other parts of your tech-stack is so important, leveraging a CLM as your source of truth, how to learn from your contract data and build new processes from it and so much more!

Stephania is the founder at Passera Design and the co-founder of the Legal Design Alliance. She is also the inventor of the Legal Design Jam, a sought-after keynote speaker, trainer, and published author. She holds a doctoral degree from Aalto University, where her empirical dissertation focused on how visualization can improve contract user experience and foster better business relationships. During our time together we discussed how the use of diagrams, images, and visually structured layouts can make contracts more understandable and engaging for their day-to-day users, why following a user-centered approach is so important when it comes to contract design and so much more!

In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had the chance to speak with a well-known figure in the CLM space, Bernadette Bulacan. Bernadette is the Chief Evangelist at Icertis and has been working in legal tech for over 2 decades. During our discussion we touched on: How legal departments have evolved over the past 5-10 years, how can other departments in an organization benefit from a CLM tool, what Pitfalls to watch out for when starting a CLM implementation, how do you handle extracting and migrating data when moving to a new contract management tool and so much more!

In this episode of Contract Heroes, we met with Lara Trope. Lara has experience as both inside and outside counsel and now works as a legal operations consultant at InnoLaw. During our discussion, we talked about how to narrow your search for a CLM tool, what action items you should make sure your team and the vendors are taking to help make sure you're properly evaluating vendors, and also who on your team should be a part of the selection process.

In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had the chance to chat with author and commercial contracting expert, Jeanette Nyden. Jeanette has written 4 books sharing her expertise in the contracting field and currently provides a range of online and in-person training programs to help contract professionals master the ins and outs of contract management.

In this installment of Contract Heroes, we sat down with the CEO of Radiant Law, Alex Hamilton. Alex set up Radiant Law in 2011 and helps his customers by optimizing how large they create, negotiate and manage their commercial contracts. During our conversation, we discussed how relationships play a pivotal role in contracting processes, how to create reasonable contracts, and tips for building playbooks & templates.

In this episode of Contract Heroes, we sat down with VP of Contract Solutions and Disability Inclusion at Elevate, Prashant Dubey. Prashant hails from a varied background, starting out in healthcare for about a decade before moving west in the late 90s to switch industries. Throughout our conversation, Prashant drew on his extensive experience working with contract lifecycle management (CLM) software to talk about the growing impact of CLM on procurement departments as well as the key functionalities that proper contract management can accomplish.

In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had the chance to chat with founder of Pomeranz Law, Jeff Pomeranz. Jeff worked as an in house attorney for 10 years before opening his own firm in Florida at the end of 2017. Over the years, his firm has evolved into one that splits between business transactional work and litigation, making excellent use of the variety of skills he picked up during his time working in house.

A bit different from our usual topics, our conversation this episode centered around Jeff’s unique experience transitioning from in house work to managing his own firm. He provided us with a ton of insight about managing different aspects of legal work, including talking to executives and, of course, managing contracts. Stick around until the end of the article to learn more about some of his tips for anyone looking to branch out and start a law firm of their own.

To kick things off, we wanted to know about how Jeff made the transition from in house work to building and managing his very own law firm. Turns out, he didn’t have any aspirations to start his own firm at first. His original goal when leaving law school was to end up working as general counsel for a successful company. However, as he worked his way into senior positions like the ones he imagined, he found that they didn’t provide him with the level of fulfillment he wanted from his work. At first, the title itself meant something to him, but gradually his fulfillment became about other things, like delivering good service to clients and finding a balance between work and family life. He eventually decided to try branching out on his own and discovered that having his own firm could provide him the flexibility he needed to adjust to what was most important to him at that moment.

Managing your own firm requires a lot of unique skills that Jeff managed to acquire throughout his 10 years working in house. His experiences provided him with an excellent introduction on how to practice law, allowing him to develop the technical skill set necessary to be an attorney as well as the self skills that are expected by both internal clients and his own clients now. He learned how to service clients and the nuances of providing good service, from communication to presentation. However, there is an extra skill set required when you work for yourself, which is management of the business side of things. At the start, Jeff was unsure how to market, what software he should use, how much he should charge, etc. But the whole endeavor is a learning process, and, as he worked at it for 2 to 3 years, he gradually figured everything out.

As the owner of his own firm, Jeff frequently works with all kinds of different organizations and executives. Throughout those experiences and by observing the feedback executives typically seek during meetings, he has developed a skill set that emphasizes straight answers that provide clients with the exact type of information they need. Jeff explained that most executives aren’t looking for an information dump when they ask for recommendations. Rather, they want to be put in a position to be able to make an informed decision. The way to bring value to a client, then, is to provide them with the facts they need in order to make that decision. Executives don’t have time to read a 10 page memo listing every fact, so you need to be able to choose the most relevant ones to present. Jeff suggests providing a condensed assessment of the issue followed by a short recommendation. Be prepared to answer questions quickly and concisely as well.

It’s also important to remember that clients might not always use your recommendation. This doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t provide a good service. Oftentimes, you as an attorney may not be aware of all the extenuating business circumstances at play in a contract. The value of the service is allowing clients to make more informed decisions based on the information and expertise you provided.

Of course, we had to take a moment to pick Jeff’s brain about his experiences with contract management as well. Citing his own experience working in various companies, Jeff explained that part of the value of contract management is finding a way to maximize contract compliance and provide the company with data that can improve your contract processes. By setting up controls to collect data along with checks and balances between departments that keep the process moving steadily with minimal mistakes, you can make your processes more efficient. Having efficient processes and employees with a deep understanding of those processes makes the implementation of technology like contract lifecycle management (CLM) tools much easier.

One example of good CLM practices that Jeff talked about was centralizing the function of contracts. Contracts can funnel into one location, such as legal, and hit checkpoints along the way that make sure they’re ready to go forward. For example, a contract should have a short cover page that provides context and outlines the key terms and the value of the contract for the person signing it. In this way, you can make sure all the boxes are checked before contracts reach their final destination.

If you’ve hit a saturation point in your career, you may be considering ways to change things up and make yourself more satisfied. These are the times when Jeff recommends branching out on your own. Feeling unfulfilled in your work, underpaid, or like your title doesn’t represent where you want to be are all great reasons to try something new. However, if you do decide to strike out on your own, you will need to first have a moment with yourself and make sure you’re fully committed to the idea. After all, managing your own business isn’t easy and requires its own set of soft skills like grit and believing in yourself. If you have those qualities, legal experience, and a desire for something more, working for yourself may be a great solution for you. 

For more exclusive chats with expert guests in the contract lifecycle management sphere along with valuable legal-tech advice, check out past installments of Contract Heroes and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode! If you have any questions for our guest, Jeff Pomeraz, he is available on LinkedIn and always excited to share his experiences with anyone looking to get started on their own.