Prashant Dubey, Mike Haven
Description
General Counsel (GC) have rapidly become key executives in corporations and have taken their rightful place at the business strategy table. It is the
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rare GC who is viewed merely as a service provider to the organization, rather than principal risk adjudicator and strategic value creator. This ascendance was no accident.
About fifteen years ago, there emerged the profession of Legal Operations, or Legal Ops, as it is colloquially known. It wasn’t called that initially, as the initial remit was helping the GC become a better fiscal steward of legal department budgets. That quickly morphed into a role where technology support and administrative management were added to the remit.
Today, we see this role as a true profession, with the phrase “Legal Operations” a part of daily organizational parlance. We see Legal Ops leaders as a strategic lever for the GC to themselves become value creators. We believe that without Legal Ops, the ascendance of the GC would not have been so rapid.
We have observed this rise of Legal Ops manifesting in a new cohort we call Generation Operations, or GenO. These multidisciplinary professionals understand how to apply the law to the breakneck pace of the deal. GenO Legal Ops have transcended the roots of the profession, born from the need for law department efficiency, and have become true business enablers—viewed as critical players in a company’s quest to maximize revenue and profits while minimizing risk and accelerating cycle time. They are technologists, process experts, enterprise initiative champions. They blend hard and soft/power skills to influence and collaborate rather than command and control. GenO Legal Ops leaders are indispensable.
The most fascinating part of this transcendence is the speed at which it has occurred. Law practice in corporations evolved over decades—in comparison, Legal Ops went from transactional and tactical to strategic and indispensable … seemingly overnight.
In this book we chronicle the rapid rise of this profession through real-life stories of GenO professionals who have shaped the industry, made mistakes along the way, and led initiatives such as Enterprise Contract Management where previously the law department would have been viewed as a bit player. They are key drivers of AI strategy and programs. GenO has risen and arrived, and we have been fortunate that so many have blazed the trail for so many GenO aspirants and that we have been able to tell their stories in this book.
Thanks for reading this book. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed researching and producing it.
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