UpLevel View

Join the UpLevel View podcast as we discuss the transformative shift in outside counsel management. In this inspiring episode, UpLevel Ops COO/Senior Advisor Elizabeth Lugones speaks with Yusuf Mohamed, Partner and member of the General Counsel practice at Taylor English Duma LLP, and strategies beyond traditional cost analysis and performance monitoring, emphasizing the importance of viewing outside counsel as strategic partners rather than service providers. Listen to the UpLevel View and improve your legal leadership vision today!

Who's The Guest? Yusuf Mohamed is a Partner at Taylor English Duma LLP and a member of the General Counsel practice, specializing in corporate and business matters. Before joining the firm, he was at Tesla and played a pivotal role in shaping the company's employment practices, leading the team's growth from one person to a global force of twenty-nine.

He began his legal career as a U.S. Department of Labor trial attorney, working on diverse matters, including employment discrimination, investigative cases, and workers' compensation claims. Yusuf has a JD from the University of Georgia's School of Law.

Highlights

• The challenges of managing legal practices as the organization size grows, especially in implementing consistent engagement with outside counsel
• The importance of in-house teams being proactive and setting clear expectations for law firms
• Contrasting the communication methodologies between law firms and in-house departments, noting the differences in audiences and workflow
• The future potential of more sophisticated AI tools to analyze legal data and envision possible legal risk scenarios
• Why clients should be hesitant about trying different pricing models, with the understanding that they can revert to old methods if unsatisfied
• Transparency, conversation, and alignment of interests for achieving mutual benefits

Episode Resources

• General Counsel Thought Leadership Hub at UpLevel Ops: https://uplevelops.com/gc_thoughtleadership/
• Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek: https://www.amazon.com/Start-Why-Leaders-Inspire-Everyone/dp/1591846447
• https://linkforlegal.com/
• Connect with Stephanie Corey
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephcorey-ulo
• https://fr.linkedin.com/company/uplevel-ops
• https://uplevelops.com/
• https://linkforlegal.com/
• Connect with Yusuf Mohamed
• https://www.taylorenglish.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/sphinx/

Dive into visionary leadership with Curt McDaniel, Chief Legal Officer at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, on the UpLevel View podcast. Discover how embracing innovation and a forward-thinking mindset propels an international legal team to new heights. In this conversation with UpLevel Ops' CEO Steph Corey, McDaniel shares his approach to nurturing a vision that transcends borders and how it's infused into Ferring's culture, driving extraordinary achievements. Listen to the UpLevel View and improve your legal leadership vision today!

Who's The Guest? Curt McDaniel is the Chief Legal Officer at Ferring Pharmaceuticals. He joined Ferring in 2006 and oversees Legal, Intellectual Property, Compliance, and Privacy activities worldwide. He has more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, spanning various aspects of the business and many different countries and cultures. Before joining Ferring, Curt worked at Eli Lilly for more than 16 years. He holds a Juris Doctor degree and an M.B.A. from Indiana University, and a B.A. from Purdue University.

Highlights

• His experience and the challenges of leading a mid-size, family-owned company, and how he has driven legal innovation.
• The concept of "legal design" which focuses on understanding the needs and challenges of the business partner.
• Building the legal operations department and its role in optimizing legal services.
• The starting principles for assessing legal services needed and the best ways to provide the services.
• The changing role of delivering legal services due to technology advancements and the impact on law firms.
• Using data for improvement and measuring progress was discussed. Importance of assessing the effectiveness of processes through gathered data was highlighted.
• The importance of celebrating success and recognizing continuous progress was stressed.
• The idea of a "legal data scientist" having recognized the need for data-based decision-making in the company.
• The experience of working on large legal contracts and questioned their necessity. Mentioned the importance of focusing on a business partner's perspective.
• The importance of using data to guide decision-making in the legal department.

Episode Resources

• General Counsel Thought Leadership Hub at UpLevel Ops: https://uplevelops.com/gc_thoughtleadership/
• Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek: https://www.amazon.com/Start-Why-Leaders-Inspire-Everyone/dp/1591846447
• https://linkforlegal.com/
• Connect with Stephanie Corey
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephcorey-ulo
• https://fr.linkedin.com/company/uplevel-ops
• https://uplevelops.com/
• https://linkforlegal.com/
• Connect with Curt McDaniel
• [email protected]
• https://www.ferring.com

Join us on the UpLevel View podcast to explore the fusion of tradition and innovation within the legal field. In this captivating episode, UpLevel Ops COO/Senior Advisor Elizabeth Lugones guides a discussion with Janene Asgeirsson, Senior VP, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary at Analog Devices, on the intricate dance of tradition and technology. Discover how legal professionals are revolutionizing their practice by seamlessly blending time-honored values with the power of AI, automation, and digital collaboration. Tune in to the UpLevel View and improve your legal leadership vision today!

Who's The Guest? Janene Asgeirsson is the Chief Legal Officer, Chief Risk Officer, and Corporate Secretary at Analog Devices (ADI). She has more than two decades of law firm experience and senior roles in technology companies and leads ADI's global legal, governance, trade, and compliance functions. Janene's expertise encompasses mergers, acquisitions, litigation, and intellectual property, making her a key advisor to ADI's leadership team and board.

Beyond her professional life, Janene is Secretary of ADI's Board of Directors and holds director roles in ADI subsidiaries. She is an avid reader, a performing arts enthusiast, and a certified yoga instructor.

Highlights

• Janene's journey to becoming a lawyer and how her career kicked off at in-house law firms
• How technology began to influence the practice of law with regards to legal research
• How technology aids in speeding up legal processes by organizing and interpreting data How adopting technology can increase efficiency and bring more joy to the work
• An ideal business partnership, emphasizing trust and openness
• Balancing the human element with business decisions
• Bricklaying to illustrate the importance of understanding one's role in the broader vision of an organization

Episode Resources

• Connect with Stephanie Corey
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephcorey-ulo
• https://fr.linkedin.com/company/uplevel-ops
• https://uplevelops.com/
• https://linkforlegal.com/
• Connect with Janene Asgeirsson
• https://www.analog.com/en/about-adi/corporate-information/executive-team/janene-asgeirsson.html
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/janene-asgeirsson

The second episode of the UpLevel View podcast is a must-listen for those interested in generative artificial intelligence. GAI early adopters Whitney Stefko from Ford and Christian Lang of LEGA cover everything from the origin of their interest in the field to ways the technology can be used to save time and energy. They emphasize the transformative potential of generative AI and urge listeners to embrace it as a crucial piece of the future of the legal profession. UpLevel View hosts Brian Hupp and Brandi Pack lead the discussion about tools that they utilize to allow managed use of GAI, the importance of being proactive in balancing risks and rewards, and thought-provoking predictions about when generative AI will become more widely adopted in the Legal Operations industry and beyond.

Who're The Guests? Whitney Stefko is a former Litigator turned Data-driven strategist and Associate Director and Senior Counsel at the Ford Motor Company. Whitney is an Adjunct Professor at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and the Founder and CEO of the consulting firm Pollinate Legal.

Christian Lang describes himself as a Recovering Corporate Lawyer, Legal Innovator, Writer, Podcaster, and Consultant. When he's not doing all that, he's the CEO and Founder of LEGA, a platform designed to provide law firms with a chance to explore and implement AI technologies at their own pace. Christian is also the founder of the NY Legal Tech Meetup and serves on the AI Accelerator Institute Council (AIAI).

Highlights

• A response to skeptics of generative AI, speaking to its value as a time-saving technology and transformative user interface.
• The security risks of GAIs to current data practices in law firms, viewing the challenge as more of a familiar territory rather than a new threat.
• The importance of making sure professionals in an organization understand the rules of using generative AI, not just through lengthy policies but through operationalized, actionable information.
• The importance of adopting AI technology at the pace of its evolution and the need for innovative and invested teams within the organization.
• The importance of collaboration in the legal operations community, encouraging members to share information about their use cases, best practices, and project plans as everyone begins to explore the potential of generative AI.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Stephanie Corey
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephcorey-ulo
• https://fr.linkedin.com/company/uplevel-ops
• https://uplevelops.com/
• https://linkforlegal.com/

Discover the transformative potential of generative AI (GAI) in the legal landscape in the PREMIERE episode of the UpLevel View podcast. UpLevel's CEO/Founder Stephanie Corey and UpLevel Ops Legal Tech Analyst and AI Consultant Brandi Pack are joined by the brilliant and delightful Sam Flynn, Founder and CEO of Josef, on the Premiere episode of the UpLevel View podcast. This expert panel discusses the potential of generative AI (GAI) in revolutionizing workflow automation and encourages legal professionals to embrace this rapidly developing technology to stay at the forefront of innovation in the legal field.

Who's The Guest? Sam Flynn is the CEO and co-founder of Josef, an automation platform that empowers legal professionals to transform how they work. Before Josef, Sam worked in advertising as a corporate lawyer and associate at the Supreme Court of Victoria. In 2016, Sam built and launched myki Finds, one of the first successful examples of B to C legal tech. With more than 60,000 users in this first month, Sam advocates for using legal tech to bridge the access to justice gap.

He currently serves as an advisory board member of the Center for Legal Innovation.

Highlights

• How to incorporate generative AI in existing workflows
• The importance of easy access to information
• How generative AI can adapt to where they are and how they communicate
• Different ways companies are using generative AI to interact with their knowledge base and collaborate with law firms
• How AI can enable independent agents and automate prompting on systems
• How AI is making workflow automation central in legal tech
• The complications of system integrations
• Embracing AI as an extension of capabilities

Episode Resources

• Connect with Stephanie Corey
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephcorey-ulo
• https://fr.linkedin.com/company/uplevel-ops
• https://uplevelops.com/
• Connect with Sam Flynn
• https://joseflegal.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-flynn/

Amidst the innovation renaissance in Legal Operations, it's natural to feel overwhelmed. Luckily, the UpLevel View podcast has got you covered! Join UpLevel Ops experts each month for exclusive interviews and unique insights from those who have been there and done that in Legal Ops. We'll be sharing guidance on upping your game as an effective corporate legal leader, straight talk about legal technology, and actionable ways to break out of your comfort zone and take your career to the Next Level. Don't miss a thing - subscribe to the UpLevel View podcast and improve your legal leadership vision today!