The CLOC Member Spotlight series profiles the incredible individuals within our community who are driving transformation in legal ops. Each spotlight provides inspiration, fosters connections, and gives readers a chance to learn more about their peers. By sharing these stories, we celebrate the diverse voices and talents that make CLOC a vibrant and connected community.
September 2024 Member Spotlight: Delphina Turner
Delphina Turner serves as the Executive Director of Legal Operations at Panasonic Automotive Systems Company of America. She also serves as a group Co-Lead for CLOC Atlanta. Keep reading to learn more about Delphina.
About me:
I majored in Computer Science and found the legal field midway through my career. I have worked in-house within Panasonic’s Legal Department for 28 years. Legal Operations was a natural fit that suited my background so perfectly. Changing careers at that point in my career made me feel like a fish out of the water, but finding CLOC has provided me great connections, great experiences, a wealth of knowledge, and opportunities to give back to the CLOC community.
Why I love being a CLOC member:
CLOC presents to all who join a vast amount of knowledge and support around legal operations. I have met so many new colleagues who have poured into me and have also allowed me to share my knowledge as well. The community itself is why I love being a CLOC member.
My advice for other legal ops professionals:
Keep reaching for Yes. In Legal Ops, we will always hear the word “NO” often. No is sufficient for the day, but there is always tomorrow. Just go back to the drawing board, re-arrange your PowerPoint and bring additional use cases to justify the need. Just keep going, keep planning, and be ready for the day you hear Yes.
A fun fact about me:
I used to run track and was sponsored by PUMA. I went to the Olympic trials in 1984. My highest ranking that year was 16th in the 400 meters. I was also a 14 time All American in college and inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994. I grew up in a sports family – my father played professional basketball – I believe it’s a true avenue to a successful future. All of my children received sports scholarships for college. I believe sports builds discipline and it helps you learn to multi-task while remaining focused, especially in college.
CLOC Member Spotlights provide an opportunity to showcase members within our community who are making a difference in their organizations, in their CLOC groups, within the CLOC community and/or the industry as a whole. Do you know of a really cool thing a CLOC member is doing? We invite you to nominate a member of the CLOC Community for a future feature in the CLOC Member Spotlights Series.
Following months of collaborating with the CLOC APAC Summit Planning Committee, we finally witnessed the results of our efforts in Sydney. After a five-year hiatus, returning to the APAC Summit was a moment of significance.
This year’s event was a strong representation of CLOC Strategic Pillars—Community, Content, and Conversations.
Community
The summit was a collective effort from regional leaders and the Education Advisory Council (EAC) who worked closely to develop a program tailored for the APAC community. Seeing the plans come to life onsite was deeply fulfilling. The energy in the room was palpable as attendees reconnected and made new connections, a hallmark of CLOC’s focus on peer-to-peer engagement.
The buzz of professionals, old and new, exchanging insights reminded us why these gatherings matter. The relationships built here are the foundation of an ever-evolving legal operations landscape.
Content
The program kicked off with a forward-looking panel on “The Future of Legal Operations,” where the evolving role of legal ops was at the center of the discussion. CLOC President, Jenn McCarron’s 2030 vision for legal operations—moving towards “strategic operations”—set the tone for the summit.
Keynote speaker Holly Ransom tackled the timely issue of change management, offering fresh insights into building the right support systems to drive meaningful change. She coined a memorable phrase: “Change can only move at the pace of trust.” Her advice to build a change management “cabinet,” made up of a supporter, sage, sponsor, and sparring partner, resonated with attendees.
The breakout sessions, developed through a regional call for proposals, provided practical approaches from local experts. The “AI in Practice” session by Olivia Perks and Deborah Hook gave an unfiltered look into piloting a GenAI chatbot at the University of Sydney. Meanwhile, Gabrielle Ahern and Lauren Ziegelaar of BHP shared how they demonstrated the value of a legal ops function in the session “The Legal Operations Evolution to Drive Impact at BHP.”
The Solution Labs showcased real-world collaborations between legal service providers and clients. From Morae’s focus on external panel management to Josef’s “build vs. buy” dilemma in adopting GenAI technology, and Epiq’s example of successful tech adoption, these sessions provided actionable insights.
Closing the day was an engaging debate-style panel on GenAI’s impact on law firm pricing. In-house leaders Anna Golovsky and Petra Stirling humorously tackled GenAI’s potential for positive change, while firm representatives Michelle Mahoney and Genevieve Collins argued that GenAI’s real value lies in enhancing services rather than reducing fees.
Conversations
Small group discussions provided an intimate setting for peer-to-peer learning, creating space for meaningful exchanges on the topics that mattered most to attendees. These moments of candid sharing and support embody the essence of CLOC—where the magic happens through dialogue.
The event also extended into the CLOC Talk podcast, where Jenn McCarron sat down with keynote speaker Holly Ransom and Craig Emery, General Counsel at Telstra. Holly expanded on her keynote by delving into the soft skills needed for the future of work, while Craig spoke about the challenges of changing user behavior and how legal operations is crucial to success.
These conversations, both onstage and off, will carry beyond the summit. The dialogues sparked here are the kind that will continue to influence the profession for years to come.
Closing Thoughts
As I reflect on the CLOC APAC Summit, I am filled with gratitude. This community—especially the APAC region—never fails to inspire through its openness, willingness to share, and commitment to growth. My favorite part of my role at CLOC is engaging with the incredible members and leaders who shape this profession, and this event was a perfect reminder of why that matters.
Strategies and insights from our white paper, “Turning Legal Into a Value Center”
Controlling costs is an evergreen concern for corporate legal departments. One incredibly important aspect of cost-saving projects is change management. In fact, a December 2023 survey showed that after cost containment, implementing business process improvements was the second highest priority for legal departments, with 46.7% of legal departments ranking it among the top three challenges they’re facing.
Priori and CLOC recently partnered on a white paper, “Turning Legal Into a Value Center,” which looks at different strategies that legal departments use to achieve cost savings. Unsurprisingly, change management was a key concept that underpinned many of the strategies discussed.
Below you’ll find some tips for handling change management—a key component of executing successful projects that optimize legal spend. To learn more, download the full white paper.
Packaging the Value Story – Change Management & Communication
Whether you’re launching a new internal initiative, implementing new legal technology or having conversations about spend with your outside counsel, clearly communicating your goals and expectations is necessary for success. Just about every task your legal department undertakes to drive business value and optimize legal spend contains elements of change management, and implementing change management well starts with communication.
There wasn’t one legal operations professional who we talked to that didn’t emphasize the role of communication. Here is some advice for approaching conversations and getting buy-in from stakeholders for your next project.
Start From the Top Down
When you’re launching a new initiative, it is important to get the top-level stakeholders on board from the beginning. If you don’t have the support of the people at the top, it can be hard to get other stakeholders and the teams that will help you execute to come on board and follow through with the vision.
Build Relationships
Starting with buy-in from the top sounds great, but how do you get there? Often, successful project management (in the legal operations space and elsewhere) is a long game. You want to show the stakeholders in your company that you understand where they’re coming from and what motivates their decision-making. Communicate throughout the year so you’re not just talking when something has reached a boiling point. The more you can empathize with and show respect for the work they do, the more they will be willing to trust you when the time comes to make a change.
Know Your Audience
Getting to the point where stakeholders trust you means learning about their roles: What their priorities are, the type of work they do, the pain points they experience related to legal, etc. Interview your business partners and get their perspective. When combined with metrics like projected cost or time savings, anecdotes about how a given project will help team members do their job better bring the narrative you’re trying to sell together.
Make the Business Case
Come into discussions with an inventory of what the situation is now, where you hope to get to upon completion of the project and recommendations for how to get there. This likely includes current data and projections about the project will affect those metrics (e.g., How much time does a task take now? How and why will this initiative reduce that time spent?). Show how the solution you’re recommending brings you from the current state to that desired end state.
Ultimately, getting buy-in for a project is about telling your value story. You want to bring your stakeholders along with you on this journey. The more you can get them involved and make them feel like they are a part of it, the more likely it is you’ll get approval and find success. Nobody should feel blindsided by the change you’re recommending, they should feel the opposite—that they had a say in how the project came together and are as much responsible for its success as you are.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming knowledge-based professions, and legal operations are no exception. As legal departments grapple with increasing workloads and tight budgets, AI offers a way to enhance efficiency and effectiveness without the need for additional human resources.
This blog post explores the implications of AI for legal teams, careers in legal operations, and the essential skills needed to thrive in this evolving landscape.
What Does AI Mean for Legal Teams?
Legal teams are increasingly required to do more with less. In-house counsel manages everything from corporate transactions, to litigation, to regulatory compliance, and they regularly interface with teams around the business including sales, procurement, finance, IT, and more. That breadth of scope means that legal teams need not only to manage a high volume of work, but also to switch rapidly between several different areas of expertise on a day-to-day basis. That requires organization, agility, and ready access to crucial business information — in short, impeccable legal operations.
Despite ever-burgeoning workloads, however, hiring budgets for legal operations remain constrained. In fact, eighty-seven percent of surveyed legal departments in 2020 expected their total number of in-house, full-time employees to stay the same or decrease. This scenario necessitates innovative solutions to scale up operations efficiently. AI is poised to fill this gap by automating routine tasks, enhancing document review processes, and providing data-driven insights that enable teams to operate leanly while managing higher volumes of work. By leveraging AI, legal departments can optimize their resources, allowing human professionals to focus on more complex, value-added activities.
What Does AI Mean for Careers and Job Skills?
The integration of AI in legal operations is reshaping the skill sets required for success in the field. Professionals who can work effectively across functional silos and drive collaboration on multidisciplinary projects will be highly prized. These individuals will drive significant value for large organizations by bridging gaps between different departments and enhancing overall operational efficiency.
To that end, tech-savvy individuals who embrace, leverage, and champion new technologies will thrive. The ability to adapt to and utilize AI tools to augment productivity — and enable co-workers to do so as well — will become a critical competency in the legal operations landscape.
Getting Ahead in the New World of AI-Powered Jobs
In a recent survey, 62% of respondents said that the effective use of generative AI will separate successful law firms from unsuccessful firms within the next five years. However, success is not as simple as just picking any AI platform and calling it a day.
To excel in AI-powered legal operations, professionals must focus on (1) choosing the right technology, and then (2) providing what technology cannot: human intelligence and experience. Choosing the right technology entails understanding what AI can and can’t do, and which platforms offer the capabilities that the team truly needs. The human element includes making connections between different disciplines, understanding nuance and context, and fostering human relationships.
Legal ops professionals must also recognize and value factual accuracy, ensuring that they’re using AI they can trust and avoiding decisions based solely on AI-generated information, which can sometimes be flawed or misleading when it comes from the wrong source. Furthermore, making value-based judgments about goals, costs, benefits, and strategies will remain a uniquely human responsibility.
By combining AI capabilities with human expertise, legal ops professionals can navigate the complexities of their roles more effectively.
Conclusion
AI is revolutionizing legal operations by enabling teams to manage increasing workloads without expanding their headcount. As AI becomes more integrated into legal workflows, the demand for multidisciplinary, tech-enabled professionals will rise. Those who can provide human intelligence, understand nuance, and make strategic, value-based decisions will lead the way in this new era. Embracing AI while honing these essential skills will be key to thriving in the future of legal operations.
Strategies and insights from our white paper partnership with CLOC
Legal technology is an increasingly important factor for corporate legal departments’ spending priorities. According to a recent report, 78% of legal departments say that “legal technology is a ‘must-have.’”
We recently partnered with CLOC on a white paper, “Turning Legal Into a Value Center,” that shares best practices around cost-saving strategies from legal operations leaders. It was no surprise that one of the most important ways legal departments are reducing cost and optimizing their spend is through efficiencies created by technology.
Below you’ll find an overview of five of the most common types of legal technology the legal ops teams we spoke to are using, and how they impact cost savings. To learn more, download the full white paper.
Optimizing Spend With Legal Technology
Rather than providing a comprehensive overview of types of legal technology (which could fill an entire white paper on its own, if not a book), in this section we’re highlighting five technologies that the legal operations professionals we spoke to found useful, particularly for optimizing legal spend and achieving cost savings.
Several of the legal operations professionals we talked to recommended intake platforms as a good starting point for legal operations initiatives. They can be thought of as a “legal front door” and help your team gather information about internal requests for legal services. You can determine which business partners are requesting work, who is requesting the most work, what that work looks like, who is doing the work and much more. This can be extremely helpful for making resourcing decisions. While off-the-shelf products exist for this function, it can also be built using project management tools that many companies already use for other business functions, or even common tools like spreadsheets.
#2 External Spend Overview – E-billing Systems
When it comes to legal spend, e-billing may be the most common type of legal technology. In addition to managing ongoing billing, it’s also a key source of historical data about the money you’re spending on outside counsel and other external resources: What types of matters your company is spending the most on, the vendors those matters are going to, trends in practice areas, timekeeper rates, hours spent on projects and much more. Looking at this data gives you a picture of your external legal spend and can help you identify places where you may be able to shift resources to save costs.
#3 Tracking Tasks Efficiently – Matter Management
Matter management tools are extremely powerful, but they also are most useful for larger companies that manage many different projects going to outside counsel or other alternative providers. Often, they are integrated with the e-billing systems discussed above. For legal departments whose outside spend is limited, it might make more sense to track matters using tools the company already has access to, like project management software or spreadsheets. However, for large legal departments, off-the-shelf matter management software can greatly enhance efficiency, storing key information about matters and giving the necessary attorneys, paralegals and other staff the ability to easily collaborate and keep track of statuses.
#4 Doing Business Faster – Contract Lifecycle Management
Contract lifecycle management (CLM) tools are very popular and for great reason. One of the most visible ways legal impacts other business units (and has a direct line to revenue) is by way of contracts. CLM systems track the life of a contract as it’s touched by people throughout the organization and, ideally, drastically reduce the amount of time it takes for legal to review and approve contracts. In some cases, through automation or features of particular CLMs, legal can be removed from the loop entirely, especially for low-complexity contracts. Contract management is also a space where artificial intelligence and generative AI are creating efficiencies—one company we spoke to said that leveraging AI for standard contracts like vendor agreements and Non-disclosure Agreements (NDAs) cut their review times down from as high as an hour to 5 to 10 minutes.
#5 Self-Service Solutions – Knowledge Management
For just about all of the legal operations professionals we talked to, knowledge management was a priority (one referred to it as the legal department “white whale” because of its huge potential and the difficulty of doing it well). Why it’s a priority is clear: When your business partners can self-serve information they would otherwise go to the legal department for, it’s a huge win. Not only does your department save that time but it also enables your business partner to get their work done faster, increasing efficiency at both ends. Organizations often use internal hub sites (e.g., wikis or FAQs) to track reference materials but more and more companies are experimenting with chatbots to surface the right information to the right people at the right time.
For Sake of Comparison – RFPs & Decision-Making
For many of the organizations we talked to, one of the most important aspects of evaluating legal technology is sending out requests for proposals (RFPs) to potential vendors. Usually, this comes at a stage where you’re close to making a decision and have narrowed your sights to a few options, although the process can still be helpful even if you’re just evaluating one solution and the question is whether to buy it or not. It’s likely larger companies will have an RFP process for technology procurement that you can leverage and tweak to meet your legal department’s needs. That process involves sharing your company’s current position, what you would like to achieve with the technology, the specific deliverables and timeline for the project, the budget (if possible) and other details that are relevant to the project. From there, you collect and compare the information you received and use that to inform your decision-making process.
Insights from our recently-released white paper, “Turning Legal Into a Value Center”
Providing more value for legal services is one of the top initiatives for most legal departments this year. According to a recent Thomson Reuters report, 78% of legal departments say that controlling costs is a high priority. Seeing this general sentiment in surveys and in our conversations with legal operations professionals, we partnered with CLOC to put together a resource that provides a window into the strategies legal teams are using to address this priority.
The result is our white paper, “Turning Legal Into a Value Center,” which is based on interviews with 16 legal industry leaders and offers a jumping-off point for any legal department team looking for ideas and best practices around cost-saving strategies. In addition to giving a bird’s eye view of legal spend concerns, the paper discusses project prioritization, internal work allocation, the role technology plays, outside counsel management and more.
Cost-Savings Strategies for Outside Counsel Management
Many legal operations professionals and others throughout the legal industry have noted that there has been a mindset shift around the approach to outside counsel over the past decade or so. Corporate legal departments are looking more closely at their relationships with law firms and the value they provide.
Alongside this increasing focus on value, more alternatives to traditional outside counsel have been created including legal staffing firms, Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs), legal marketplaces and other “New Law” companies. This has put legal department leaders in the driver’s seat when it comes to optimizing legal spend through outside counsel decision-making. The strategies discussed below are important parts of the value conversations you should be having both internally and with your outside counsel partners.
Right-Sourcing the Right Way
The concept of right-sourcing is really where the rubber hits the road regarding this outside counsel mindset shift. Put simply, right-sourcing means sending legal work to the provider that offers the most value for that type of work. For most legal departments, this means first analyzing the type of work before deciding where to send it.
Many factors can go into this decision, and it usually involves consideration of things like complexity, risk, scale and scope. Do you have a highly complex, bet-the-company litigation matter that you need handled? That should probably go to one of your trusted Big Law firms. But does it make sense to send less risky and less complex transactional work to that same firm and pay their premium rate? Probably not.
Many of the legal operations professionals we talked to tier or score work to help determine the right provider. For example, one company used an “ABC” format where work that was scored as an “A” would go to the top level of providers (e.g., Big Law firms, senior in-house counsel), “B” work would go to a middle level (e.g., specialized small and boutique firms, solo practitioners and some ALSPs), “C” work would go to a lower level (e.g., ALSPs, LPO, paralegals and other paraprofessionals, etc.) and so on. This type of analysis can also be visualized similarly to the cost-benefit analysis discussed above. Below is a simplified example of what this process might look like.
Cost savings is one of the biggest benefits of right-sourcing. Utilizing small, midsize and boutique law firms or ALSPs to do work that you used to send to large law firms can reduce your legal spend substantially. Multiple companies we talked to said that analyzing your legal work with right-sourcing in mind was the key to reducing external legal spend and getting more value from outside counsel. Some companies encourage the process by creating a specific target—saying that a certain percentage of work has to go to midsize firms or ALSPs, for example, and anything over that percentage requires approval.
Another important aspect of right-sourcing is it provides legal departments with more access to diverse law firms and legal providers. It’s no secret that the largest law firms are generally lacking in diversity. One legal operations expert described this as an easy “win-win”: Small and midsize firms are more likely to be diverse and they are more cost-effective. Right-sourcing work can help you support these important company initiatives and optimize spend at the same time.
Less Is More – Panel Consolidation
A common but more involved method for optimizing outside counsel spend is building a preferred law firm panel program. The idea behind a panel program is that you consolidate the outside counsel you work with and choose a smaller number of firms to give panel membership to. You then send the majority of your legal work to these preferred firms and in return the firms give you better terms, whether that means alternative fee arrangements, locked rate increases or volume discounts. Additionally, it can strengthen your team’s relationship with the chosen firms and improve the quality of work because the firms become more familiar with your company and how it operates.
One legal operations professional we talked to did a panel consolidation project and reduced the number of firms their company regularly worked with by almost 90%—from around 700 to about seven. Not only did this drive efficiency by making it easier for the legal team to manage outside counsel work (fewer firms to onboard, communicate with, review invoices for, etc., means less time spent on administrative work) but it also drove spending down through better negotiations with those firms. Another company we talked to found great success by asking panel firms to agree to locked rates for a determined time frame, which was incredibly helpful for budgeting as the company could depend on known rates for the projects those firms took on.
Building a panel is a huge change management project that requires a lot of time and attention. And it’s not always the right solution for every company, particularly companies with smaller outside counsel needs. If it’s something your legal department is curious about exploring, here are a few tips that the legal operations professionals with panel experience shared.
Quick Tips for Panel Success
Consolidate, but not too much. If you make your panel too small you could lose bargaining power and actually see your rates increase.
Review your panel on a regular schedule. Usually yearly, most companies running successful panel programs review the cost, performance, timeliness, and other aspects of their panel firms on a regular basis to decide to continue with current panel members and/or bring new firms on.
Utilize it consistently. The more you allow “step-outs” to your panel firm, the less useful the data you collect will be. For companies that use it consistently, panel data gives a great window into legal spend and aid budgeting and forecasting processes.
Consider a hybrid panel. For companies with large regional needs or lots of niche work, a panel might not make sense at first glance. But you still may be able to create a panel of firms for high-profile, “bet-the-company” cases and make a significant impact on those costly matters.
Investing in a mentoring relationship can have a powerful career impact, but is it worth the time and effort? After all, mentoring is time consuming, mentees can resist advice, and even worse, some who consider themselves mentors do not have a full appreciation of what it takes to be a successful mentor. But if done well, with someone who is both skilled and really cares about being a mentor, the answer is it is absolutely worth the time and effort!
While the primary goal of the relationship is career development of the mentee, mentoring goes beyond simply offering career advice. It is not a one-time or short-term fix. Mentoring is an investment in an ongoing relationship designed to guide, support, and expand an individual’s growth.
Mentoring fuels professional goals, engaging regular and periodic “face time,” whether virtual or in-person, to delve deeper into the mentee’s aspirations. This ongoing dialogue allows the mentor to address specific challenges and opportunities, while adapting to changes in roles and professional environments.
The value for the mentee is in gaining guidance, insights, and encouragement from an experienced leader who they admire as their career progresses. The value for the mentor is in the satisfaction of helping someone else grow, learn, and succeed while further solidifying their leadership skills.
Guidelines for Getting Started
When commencing a mentoring relationship, first establish two critical ground rules:
A mentor should never assume the role of a supervisor. Performance evaluations hinder mentoring dialogue. Sessions are not something done once a quarter over lunch or video with an assigned mentee.
The mentor and mentee should have their motivations aligned. They must have a clear understanding of goals and desired outcomes: is the mentee hesitant to take on a new project, considering a different career path, trying to get promoted? It is imperative that the mentor fosters a safe space to brainstorm, identify gaps in skills, and explore potential solutions and paths forward.
Attributes of a Successful Mentor
A great mentor is motivated to cultivate a relationship that empowers the mentee to grow and achieve.
Mentors focus on leveraging strengths with genuine enthusiasm in sharing knowledge and expertise. A mentor who is reluctantly forced into the role as a job responsibility and who lacks this desire to help others almost always does a poor job.
Great mentors celebrate the wins and consider lessons learned when providing constructive feedback and encouragement when setbacks or disappointments occur, creating a safe space along the way. Most people consider feedback a valuable gift, but it needs to be delivered constructively and with care.
Adapting one’s style shows respect for the mentee’s individuality and sets the stage for a successful and rewarding relationship. Mentoring is never a one-size-fits-all approach. Although mentoring is a collaborative effort, it is incumbent on the mentor to take responsibility for ensuring goal alignment.
Active listening and communicating for understanding are key. Trust and openness will be established in the relationship when the mentee feels listened to and understood. A mentor guides but does not direct.
The mentor should stay alert to external influences which can impact the mentee’s trajectory. In today’s competitive landscape, a career journey can detour as unanticipated complexities increase. Focus on situational changes including leadership transitions, re-organization, and the creeping impact of workplace politics.
Elements of a Successful Mentoring Program
Mentoring fosters invaluable guidance and support. There are several essential principles to consider that will cultivate an impactful relationship:
Mentors should be selected by the mentee, and never assigned.
Mentoring is collaborative and requires equal investment between the mentor and mentee. Both should always be well prepared, be open, and commit to follow-through.
A great mentor will help the mentee navigate company politics. Whether or not one agrees with certain company initiatives, this is an essential career skill.
Relationships that embrace Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging also tend to be successful for the mentee and the mentor and can have a positive impact on company culture. Diversity can be cross generational, ethnic, gender, demographic and other differences or preferences which embody inclusivity.
Mentoring relationships developed outside one’s department or company can be very valuable. Mentees will benefit from different points of view that offer fresh perspectives.
Building and expanding one’s network also has far reaching impact. The mentee will be guided to other networks of professional contacts throughout the industry, both internal and external to the company. Mentees should be encouraged to use LinkedIn to connect with potential mentors and expand professional networks.
Importance of Self Awareness
Self-awareness is equally important for both the mentor and mentee. To cultivate self-awareness, the mentor and mentee must embrace open communications and vulnerability. Being open, honest, and direct in discussions is key. This fosters trust and allows for a deeper understanding of each other’s perspectives.
It is essential to determine the self-awareness of the mentee. Those who are keenly self-aware own their strengths and weaknesses, seek others’ perspectives, and embrace constructive feedback. They are adaptable, accountable and have comfortable, realistic self-confidence. Those who trend low in self-awareness are often defensive, assign blame, challenge feedback, and tend to be inflexible.
Self-awareness is crucial for navigating one’s career path effectively. This provides an open and clear path to successful mentoring which will enable tangible results. When individuals are self-aware and are clear on their values, they are better equipped to navigate career goals.
Interestingly, keen self-awareness helps boost one’s self-confidence. This leads to comfortable openness in refining one’s skill set.
Reverse Mentoring
Consider reverse mentoring, where the relationship is flipped for a specific skill. The mentee with more experience in a selected area guides the more senior employee, often a leader. Reverse mentoring has been around for decades and can be very valuable. Mentors who set aside egos will be welcoming of reverse mentoring and be that much more successful.
Not surprisingly, reverse mentoring often centers around technology, use of social media and other digital platforms including Gen AI. Reverse mentoring can provide the mentor with deep insights into company/department culture from an avenue they may not directly access regularly. Perspectives represented from the “front lines” can be particularly insightful in supplementing the leadership team points of view. Reverse mentoring further fosters trust in the mentor/mentee relationship and enhances leadership skills for the mentee. And it’s fun.
Why Do Mentoring Relationships Fail?
Keep in mind factors that can lead to a failed mentoring relationship, including the lack of alignment and understanding of goals. Without clear objectives, the relationship will struggle.
Be sure that the mentee is fully comfortable with and confident in the mentor’s approach. It is better to cancel the program and re-direct to help the mentee find the right mentor early on. If one of you does not feel the relationship is a good fit, it will not work and should be terminated.
A mentor who is motivated by money or self-interest, (e.g., “checking a box”) in their leadership track will fail. And remember, the mentor’s primary role is to develop, not supervise. Performance evaluation can hinder progress.
A mentor who embodies these qualities can become a powerful force in the mentee’s life, helping them achieve their full potential. With the investment of time and ownership in a well-structured mentoring partnership, both mentors and mentees will reap significant rewards throughout their careers. Is mentoring worth the time and effort? Absolutely!
About the author
Juanita Luna recently retired as Director of Legal Operations, Administration and Claims at Pacific Gas & Electric Company. She continues active in the Legal Ops community, speaking frequently at industry conferences. Juanita is a very active and passionate mentor to several mentees around the country.
Suzano, with over 500 contracts generated monthly, recognized the need for agility and efficiency in their contract management processes. That’s why they embarked on a journey to revolutionize their approach. Through collaboration with internal stakeholders, user feedback and a thorough analysis of systems, they adopted DocuSign and meticulously mapped all contracts and created prioritization based on impact, as well as developed automatic templates and workflows, and integrated with other existing systems. The results speak for themselves: 46% of procurement contracts are now generated automatically, reducing lead time to just 6.8 days. Additionally, the contract sending process has been optimized, taking only 10 minutes. Further, they possess an unwavering commitment to training and stakeholder engagement, with 18 sessions conducted and over 500 users trained in just four months. This holistic approach has not only improved efficiency but also bolstered security and compliance across the organization.
In 2020, Trane Technologies charted a new course, to boldly challenge what is possible for a sustainable world. Among the company’s core purposes was the creation of a world class Lean Enterprise. Executive leadership mandated the Legal Department to identify obstacles to efficiency, engage key players, and expand the journey of continuous improvement. This endeavor resulted in the creation of Lean Legal Operations (LLO), which applies lean principles to legal operations, creating efficiencies, common work, and information sharing to reduce duplicative efforts. LLO highlighted the need for a single point of access for all legal applications and today, it is becoming the bedrock of the Trane Technologies Legal Department.
Irdeto initially relied on an external tool to maintain compliance with GDPR regulations, but found that their process was creating inefficiencies and contributing to poor data quality. Over the course of nearly 9 months, the Irdeto Legal Operations team partnered with internal business units to initiate new processes and create automated workflows within existing systems. The outcome has resulted in reduced time, costs, and efforts across multiple teams, as well as allowed Irdeto to work in-house, without reliance on an external tool.
