Elevate.Together.Podcast.

In this episode, Jake Hills, Vice President, Legal Operations at Elevate, talks with Gareth Hughes, Director of Strategy at the international law firm Reed Smith. Gareth and Jake talk about implementing widespread change, specifically restructuring law firm processes to meet today's efficiency-conscious customers' needs.

[01:08] Driving innovation, embedding technology, and process design - it's Reed Smith's DNA

[02:03]  Clients were telling us they want accelerated delivery

[04:09] "Let's think about what a great delivery model will look like ten years from now... let's see if we can make that happen in three years rather than ten years."

[09:44]   The best bit is telling our clients we can do things better. We hired our first-ever Head of Legal Engineering, focused on keeping us aligned to change, focusing on continuous improvement.

[12:08]  Clients don't want to pay for us to reinvent the wheel. They want to see us moving faster, moving to the next generation of working.

[15:23] When a client asks, "Can you help us solve this?" Four to five years ago; it would have been much harder than today.

[17:27] Having continuous improvement in a role gives you that freshness.  People are enjoying it.

[20:01] Professional staff can sometimes underestimate a partner's ability or willingness to adapt, to be commercially savvy when clients drive change, it makes a difference.

[20:54] Communicate, over-communicate. You can't build this stuff in a box.

This Next Normal series podcast features Elevate's Chairman and CEO, Liam Brown, talking with Eric Laughlin, the CEO of Agiloft, a contract lifecycle management software company. Liam and Eric cover change management, keeping up with technology, and adopting both within legal.

[00:55] “I've been in legal and legal tech for most of my career. I feel fortunate to have ended up as the CEO of Agiloft."

[02:27]  Agiloft is a no-code platform solely focused on CLM with 700 customers.

[06:45]  Giving tools to the frontline, democratizing flow and decision-making.

[07:32]  Contracting processes and contracts as a shield - a defensive weapon, its armor.

[10:54]  Connecting contracts to commercial processes.

[12:06] Risk profiling, AI tells us what's in a contract and how that compares to standards.

[13:34]  Being CEO for the first time.

[16:00]  Value creation for the business, cash, and how fast ARR is growing

[17:50]  Our customers' want us to be better at partnerships

[20:29]  I read Designing Your Life which is about taking a prototype approach to life.

[22:32] "Leadership in tough times requires …”

This podcast episode is part of our Impact Series, featuring Elevate customers implementing transformative change. Kunoor Chopra, Vice President of Legal Services at Elevate, and Tashmin Ali, a Senior Commercial Attorney with Elevate's Contract Services Business, talk with Elizabeth Miller, Head of Legal Operations at Dolby Laboratories.

[01:00]   With inconsistent coordination and communication between stakeholders – Dolby needed to implement change.

[03:39]  Giving the stakeholders a voice in the process.

[05:55]  Outcomes, value, and results

[08:23]  A dedicated team, teamwork, and collaboration lead to widespread adoption.

[12:56]  The process continues to be enhanced.

[14:50]  The expected long-term impact of change – scalability, improved coordination, and knowledge management.

[17:06]  Stakeholders involved from the beginning have a sense of ownership.

[18:05]  A focus on engagement can go a long way.

Welcome to the second episode of the 'Inside the Engine Room' series on the Elevate.Together.Podcast. Our host is Elevate's Dan Katz, Vice President, Data Science Innovation at Elevate.  

Dan's guest for this episode is Kelly Marsh, Director, Product Development at Elevate.  Kelly describes her experience as part of legal tech's evolution, including the specific role Product Managers play.  Don't miss the few minutes Dan and Kelly spend on what's next for tech-enabled solutions for Law Departments and Law Firms.  

[00:55] How did I get here… by Kelly Marsh

[07:15] High expectations, very few on the ground legal tech and ops resources 

[09:15] What it means to be a Product Manager

[09:56] The user experience is critical

[11:41] Meeting lawyers where they work – at the document level

[13:03] Multiple personas multiple needs

[15:00] Clause-level review - that's what I'm talking about

[16:19] Conceptual search

[18:38] The overhead identify crisis

[20:05] Advanced contracting…

As part of our Expert Series featuring Elevate's President, John Croft, Joanne Monck, OBE shares her perspective as a transgender person navigating the world – at home, at work – and during COVID.   

[01:28]                Joanne…

[03:07]                School life…

[04:45]                Family life…

[07:31]                  A big decision and a multistep process.

[10:35]                  Work-life…

[13:09]                  "The ability to accept equality."                

[15:10]                   The importance of support networks to the transgender community.

[16:04]                  How an employer can help.

[18:08]                  The right to be treated with dignity and respect.             

[19:29]                  Microaggressions and feeling hate.

[21:04]                  Standing up and being recognized.

This Next Normal leadership series podcast features the Chairman and CEO of Elevate, Liam Brown, and Varun Mehta, the CEO of FACTOR.  

FACTOR is a managed legal service provider.  A real and engaging exchange between two law company CEOs on leadership.  

[00:44]             Varun’s journey

[03:18]                Taking the CEO seat

[07:01]                The Pandemic CEO

[09:40]               The opportunity for law companies

[11:55]                 Factor … an authentic brand

[14:41]                 There is no reason Law Companies can’t be billion-dollar businesses

[15:57]                 Mentorship

[17:30]                 The CEO role in ensuring an effective board

[19:00] Highly effective questions                    

This Next Normal leadership series podcast features the Chairman and CEO of Elevate, Liam Brown, and Bill Horne, the CEO of Quovant.  Quovant is a legal spend management and data analytics solution provider, clearly a competitor of Elevate.   It's refreshing to hear this exchange between two experienced CEOs talking about leadership in these challenging times.

[01:46]                  A career fixer, Bill enlightens us to his process and the path to becoming a fixer – not a role you see advertised

[03:54]                  A surprising learning, understanding the relationship between a corporate GC and law firms – specifically the sensitivity around the relationship

[09:32]                  In nine months, this is going to be great – trust me, and the data

[13:36]                  Being a CEO in 2020…

[16:44]                  Empathy and running a business… we're still capitalists

[18:54]                  Leading through economic cycles requires bringing new tools to the table

[22:26]                  New - or want to be - CEOs - Tune in to Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gate on Netflix

Welcome to our Elevate Debate series.   Featuring industry leaders and Elevate Experts supporting and defending an approach, a viewpoint, or a practice.

This episode features Elevate co-founder and Head of Innovation, Pratik Patel,

with Jason Barnwell, Microsoft, Assistant General Counsel, and leader of Modern. 

Modern is driving the strategy and execution to digitally transform and modernize Microsoft's legal department practices and ways of working.

[01:22] Topic:  If you're a general counsel and you can't drive 1% net earnings, you should step aside

[02:17] Let's make it spicy; 1% is not enough 

[03:37] The First point of descent, if I'm a GC, I will probably over-index on long term value

[5:50] Velocity – structure around inputs and outputs

[7:10] Reactive legal depart response

[9:03] IACCM survey suggests 9% of revenue; could be net income leakage during the contracting process

[12:12] There is a need for a mind shift

[13:25] Many see themselves as a risk manager

[15:20] Legal has access to business intelligence that can assist the business and drive value

[17:10] Love the idea of activating entrepreneurism

[18:00] The Socratic question

Welcome to the first episode of the 'Inside the Engine Room' series on the Elevate.Together.Podcast.  Hosted by Elevate's Dan Katz, Vice President Data Science Innovation at Elevate.  

Dan's guest for this episode is Eric Detterman, Elevate's Vice President of Data Engineering and Solutions.  Dan and Eric focus their discussion on the business of law problem resolution.

[01:50]          Eric is an economist with a statistical background

[04:30]         Statistical models for prediction – quantitative trading

[09:15]          He joined LexPredict, to bring a focus to productization

[10:20]          Solving metered problems for a specific customer

[12:17]           How to decompose a product

[13:00]          How to build a product - with machine learning

[14:19]           Customers focus on workflow and the front-end interface

[15:28]          We focus on the engine room and building a sound foundation…

Elevate’s Chairman and CEO, Liam Brown, talks with Carolyn Herzog, EVP and General Counsel of ARM Limited, the worlds leading semiconductor and IP company. 

During this episode, Carolyn shares her career journey, a focus on culture and ethics. Why meeting people where they’re at is essential. Listen closely to the section on the value of feedback. Once again, we’re hearing a legal leader focused on business and enterprise thinking.

[01:15]   Speaking French and playing the violin…

[03:36]   The World Bank, law school, and cybersecurity

[07:28]   People need to feel they are developing

[12:13]   Helping the business understand the value of the law department

[12:44]   Perception is reality, feedback is a gift

[14:41]   Authoring an AI ethics framework

[16:57]   A strong and unique culture  

[19:31]   When you lead, you’re asking people to trust you

[21:08]   Leadership in tough times requires…

ENJOY