1 Introduction
Successful legal departments are addressing the growing “more for less” challenge by adopting proven, relevant practices from other business functions. The most effective General Counsel and senior legal department leaders have stepped into
L.
Brown (*) • K. Chopra • P. Patel • J. Diggle • P. Eilhauer • S. Ganier • R. Dappen Elevate Services, Inc., 10250 Constellation Blvd., Suite 2815, Los Angeles, CA 90067, USA e-mail: liam.brown@elevateservices.com; kunoor.chopra@elevateservices.com; pratik. patel@elevateservices.com; jack.diggle@elevateservices.com; peter.eilhauer@elevateservices. com; suzanne.ganier@elevateservices.com; ron.dappen@elevateservices.com© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 397
K. Jacob et al. (eds.), Liquid Legal, Management for Professionals,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45868-7_25 their “C-suite of Legal” shoes, running the legal department with business discipline.
As any C-suite executive will attest, running a successful company or function is challenging, but fortunately the world of business has already developed, tested, and documented a range of applicable best practices that can be studied and applied. With few exceptions, executives succeed by adapting and applying proven strategies and tactics that have stood the test of time.
The good news for legal department leaders seeking to run their department successfully is that they too can draw on this rich base of best practices. Not only are best practices inherently effective, they are understood by other business leaders outside of the legal department—in Sales, Finance, Operations, HR and so on— which facilitates communication, understanding, cooperation, and even respect between the General Counsel and other executives in the company's C-suite.
So, what are these business disciplines specifically, and how are they being applied in leading legal departments? They fall into several major categories: strategy, systems and processes, use of technology, people and organization, right-sourcing, spend and supplier management, and metrics.