About

In 2004, Lisa J. Konie joined Adobe, the world-leading digital media and marketing solutions provider, as a licensing lawyer supporting outbound licensing. Over the course of the next four or so years, she supported inbound and outbound licensing and strategic alliances, whilst also beginning to lead efficiency projects within the company’s outbound licensing team. ‘That led my boss to advocate to our general counsel for a legal operations role, not for the licensing team, but for the organisation more broadly’ Konie recalls, as she stepped into that newly created role and overseeing legal operations for the entire global department. She adds that this shift from being a licensing lawyer to overseeing departmental operations was one of her career highlights as she ‘gained exposure to an entirely new lens for viewing the provision of legal services’. Over the last 10 years at Adobe, Konie has covered legal operations, supported the company’s human resource organisation from a legal perspective and also transitioned to a chief of staff position. Appointed as senior director for legal operations and chief of staff in September 2018, she continues ensuring that initiatives within the legal and government relations function strategically support Adobe internally and externally. Supporting the general counsel in driving innovation and boldness, Konie provides thought leadership and change management to the organisation and industry. She has assisted Adobe’s corporate responsibility team on its praiseworthy work with organisations such as the Sundance Institute, National Geographic and more through Adobe’s “Project 1324” initiative. Commenting on changes she wants to see in the legal industry, Konie shared the following: ‘In-house teams need to exercise our voices, ideally collectively, to drive change and influence law firms and the legal industry more broadly. We need to require more diversity. We need to encourage firms to find better ways of attracting and retaining talent (other than continuing the staggering first-year salary increases). We need to influence law schools with the education model and the lack of focus on training business-minded lawyers’.