What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The United Franchise Group family of affiliated brands has seen a lot of change since January 2021. There have been four brands sold to new ownership groups, and two brands have been acquired. All transactions have occurred since January 2021.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

This is a much more important factor than I ever would have thought upon accepting this general counsel position. Coming from a litigation background, my pitch to in-house counsel was focused almost exclusively on industry knowledge and success rate, because what in-house counsel wouldn’t want a smart lawyer who wins? Being on the other side now, there’s so much more nuance that goes into selecting outside counsel, and company values are a substantial factor. As a multi-brand, multi-industry, international franchisor, our outside counsel needs to understand the importance of both franchise sales and franchisee support, and how the specific service that lawyer is providing directly impacts the timing and economics of both. I am lucky to have inherited at least one outside counsel who works well within that framework, but I have looked at those criteria while re-evaluating other firms who our company has historically worked with.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

Technology and remote work are two trends stand out to me that corporate legal teams need to be on board with.

There is such a plethora of legal technology now available to in-house legal teams. Contract management and task management software, data security software for data protection regulations, and other security legislation compliance, eDiscovery software, software for completing legal forms, and others. As the head of a company’s legal department, I think it’s important for any general counsel to identify ways that technology can help the legal department specifically, or the company as a whole, become more organised or more efficient.

Our time through the pandemic has taught employers that remote work is here to stay. As the head of the department, the general counsel, and their business partners, need to be on the same page with the acceptability of remote work. What jobs does remote work make sense for? Would it be beneficial to replace an employee in the home office with a remote employee who is more qualified but remote? How do you monitor remote work for hourly employees? Can the work being performed by that remote worker be replaced with legal tech? General counsels need to do a complex cost/benefit analysis to see if and how remote worker is ideal for individuals who work in a company’s legal department.