Brought to you by the CLOC Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Council 

In 2020, the Cruise Chief Legal Officer, Jeff Bleich, tasked Cruise’s Legal Operations team with building an industry-leading DEI program. Fast forward to 2023 and most of 2024, Cruise Legal was recognized by two legal industry awards for its role in DEI leadership and innovation, and is Mansfield Legal Department Certified.   

Rob Kwant, former Managing Lead for Cruise’s Legal Operations for 6.5 years (currently Head of Legal Operations at Snap), will share step-by-step how he approached this massive project from drafting a strong mission statement that laid out the department’s vision and goals, to building a multifaceted DEI framework, addressing each of the department’s goals in a manner where progress could be measured and tracked.      

Topics include:  

• Summarize the industry standard DEI resources and frameworks Cruise used to build its legal DEI program.  

• Discuss how to draft a DEI program charter and how to get stakeholder buy-in and engagement.  

• Explain how to measure representation in legal department hiring, and then how to take action within the legal department with hiring managers to achieve results in each stage of the hiring funnel.   

• How to build a framework to measure law firm DEI progress, then how to implement a law firm scoring program within the legal department to drive actual change with retained firms.   

• Show Cruise’s outside counsel DEI scoring framework. 

• Practical examples of how our DEI program led to operational excellence and attorney buy-in for broader law firm and matter management processes. For example, requiring Cruise attorneys to consider the DEI scoring of outside counsel prior to engagement and showing the impact of their outside counsel spend on DEI efforts within the legal industry as a whole. 

Note: This presentation was approved for public distribution by Cruise Legal. July 2024, Rob started a new role at Snap, and will not be sharing any information about Snap.

CLOC ReCharge Webinar Series – Optimization & Efficiency

Unable to source budget to invest in a market CLM tool, but still need to optimize your contract management process?  

Join Nigel Schilling, alongside Tom Orrison from Microsoft and Jake Fogel from HEARST, as they dive into the case study on how HEARST transformed its independent contract management process using a custom, cost-effective CLM application built on the Microsoft Power Platform. HEARST has since begun to clone the app for additional use cases. 

Hear insights from Jake Fogel on the developer’s perspective and Nigel Schilling on the business angle of custom CLM development and low-code digital transformation. This exclusive webinar, moderated by Tom Orrison from Microsoft, expands on HEARST’s practical approach to CLM, originally showcased at this year’s CLOC Global Institute. Don’t miss the chance to learn how you can optimize workflows and be inspired by the HEARST success story. Secure your spot for this enriching discussion by registering now!

CLOC ReCharge Webinar Series – Cultivating Strong Partnerships Track, sponsored by Integreon

In Legal Operations, we all love a good tech solution – but technology is only as effective as the people and processes within and around it. Many excellent tech solutions fall flat because we need to fully realize end-user adoption at the end of our change management cycle and to strategically seek continued adoption by upholding the usefulness and integrity of the tool and skillsets for the people utilizing it. Managing change for a solution doesn’t stop when implementation is complete; change is a verb and a continual process we must actively participate in. This presentation seeks to provide the audience, with practical tools, best practices and actionable steps, emphasizing that the Legal Operations role is crucial in ensuring end users embrace the tools you introduce within their entire lifespan in an organization.   

Deciding to invest in legal technology and picking the right solutions are only pieces of the puzzle. What comes before and after each purchase is what determines whether your implementation will be a long-term success.  

From justifying initial spend to leadership, driving excitement for a new process among peers, proving ROI, showcasing accomplishments, and driving continuous user adoption, join us for this expert perspective on building a sustainable legal tech stack. We’re bringing together two industry leaders who have learned from years of trial, error, and success in legal technology program development and longevity.  

After operating off of a homegrown solution for eight years, TD SYNNEX transitioned to Mitratech’s Matter Management and Workflow Automation platform (that now automates 600+ legal contract requests monthly). Meanwhile, after an unsuccessful IT-led program, the legal team at YUM! Brands are rolling out workflows to achieve cross-functional automation and collaboration. 

Join this webinar and learn firsthand how they have navigated the landscape of 

1. Building a compelling business case 

2. Fostering buy-in at all levels of the organization 

3. Strategically pinpointing where to begin their automation journey 

4. Nurturing user adoption through effective change management strategies 

5. Refining, measuring, and optimizing their investment 

In the fast-paced world of legal operations, managing high volumes of Subpoenas, Law Enforcement Responses, Garnishments, Levies, Liens, and DSAR’s can be a daunting challenge. These requests can present complex issues of jurisdiction and enforcement and a substantial, sometime insurmountable, constant burden on companies. Many of these repeatable processes can be outsourced at lower process points without increased risk, freeing key resources to focus on higher-value work. 

Join us for an insightful webinar where legal industry leaders from Liberty Mutual and DoorDash will share their innovative strategies and solutions for efficiently and effectively handling high volume, lower risk processes that are eating away at your shrinking budgets. 

What You’ll Learn: 

• How they partnered with an ALSP to offload some of the burden, saving time and money 

• How to identify and define processes that are ideal for outsourcing 

• How best to select the ALSP that has the experience to help 

• Use cases highlighting successful implementation of these strategies 

• Best practices for ensuring compliance while maximizing efficiency 

Gain insights into the dynamic world of legal operations, where technology, innovation, and data drive significant transformation in the legal industry. This session will explore the catalysts behind establishing legal ops functions and the evolving role of legal ops leaders within senior leadership teams. Attendees will learn how in-house legal departments are leading this change, pushing the boundaries of traditional roles and responsibilities. Discover the rise of legal operations as a critical function, focusing on strategic planning, data analytics, and efficient resource management, and learn about the core functions of legal ops as defined by the CLOC Core 12 and their impact on the legal department’s effectiveness and efficiency.

Key Takeaways:

• Clearly understand the evolution of legal operations and its impact on the legal industry.
• Identify and articulate the critical role of legal operations within a legal department and the impact that this role provides to general counsel’s across all levels of experience 
• Apply key strategies to drive success and navigate the transformative changes in the legal landscape.

Speakers

• Frances Pomposo, VP of LGA Strategy & Operations and Chief of Staff to the General Counsel at Splunk
• An Trotter, at Senior Director of Operations, Office of the General Counsel at Hearst

Brought to you by the CLOC Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Council 

Fewer in-house legal departments are making law firm diversity information a high priority when deciding to hire outside counsel.  17% in 2023 reported it as a high priority versus 23% in 2022, according to the Thomson Reuters Institute Law Department Operations. In addition, 39% reported in 2023 that their in-house functions had a diversity initiative in place compared to 47% in 2022. This apparent reduction in priority has more to do with a fast-changing and dynamic risk landscape and regulatory framework and less to do with D&I lessening as a priority. Indeed, the importance of D&I as a main source of talent attraction is not going away soon. So, how can legal departments provide ongoing efficiency in the operations of legal functions as the scope of their responsibilities expands, while at the same time continue to drive efficiency in outside counsel D&I metrics and reporting?  What tools are the most useful?  In this session, you will hear from two legal ops professionals on the innovative practices and tools they are using to ensure their D&I initiatives remain a high priority amongst an ever-increasing workload.   

Rates are still going up: the recent State of the Legal Market report from the Thomson Reuters Institute shows that negotiated rates rose 6% in 2023, for the fifth straight year of major increases. In-house counsel are responding with better tools and more data to manage spending.  Beyond that, some are aggressively moving work to smaller or cheaper firms. 

But how do you ensure that you’re getting quality work and consistent outcomes when increasing efficiency? And how do you manage the relationship with those big firms that are now getting a smaller piece of the pie, but still handling your most important, bet-the-business work? 

Join us for a webinar with Thomson Reuters that will discuss both what data-driven matter pricing looks like, and how to get there. An expert panel will cover: 

• Why RFPs are vital, and how to use them well. 
• How automation can help price individual matters consistently. 
• Introducing competition to drive cost and performance benefits. 
• Using spend and outcome data effectively. 
• Managing change within your department and with outside counsel. 
• Making clear comparisons among hourly rates, AFAs and other options. 

Presented by

This webinar will share the findings from an upcoming white paper produced by CLOC and Priori, as well as feature discussion with some of the legal operations professionals who participated in the white paper. You’ll learn about trends in how legal departments of all sizes are approaching legal spend and gain insights into their decision-making processes. 

Topics to be covered include a framework for prioritizing legal spend projects, key considerations for analyzing legal spend (such as internal resources and work assessment, legal technology and outside counsel and other external resources), and how departments consider these factors and make decisions that optimize spend.