When GCs and Legal Ops Join Forces, Everyone Wins

Key Takeaways

• Legal ops can free General Counsel from administrative and operational tasks, empowering them to focus on high-impact strategic priorities.
• Clear communication enables General Counsel and legal ops to work together more effectively.
• A legal ops professional can pay for themselves many times over.

Introduction

Paragon Legal’s Legal Operations Manager, Yesenia Santiago, recently discussed the synergy between General Counsel and Legal Operations with Eric D. Greenberg and Letitia Haynes-Frasier. Eric serves as Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary for Cox Media Group (CMG), and Letitia is the Manager of Legal Operations & Employment Practices at the same organization.

The discussion centered on how General Counsel and Legal Operations can work together to advance the work of the legal department. Although these roles sometimes operate fairly independently, by working together, they can accomplish much greater things.

Meeting of Minds: First Impressions and Initial Collaboration

Letitia’s Approach

Letitia and Eric have worked together for around three years. Letitia was at CMG prior to Eric’s arrival, and she prepared a variety of materials showing important metrics and data at the company.

She quickly discovered, however, that Eric was not the sort of General Counsel who gave orders for his Legal Ops Manager to follow. Instead, he was looking for a much more collaborative relationship. Letitia’s neatly-ordered, data-driven, hierarchical approach was unlikely to resonate with Eric. 

Eric’s Strategy

Eric quickly recognized that his weaknesses were Letitia’s strengths, and encouraged strengths-based interactions with her. He understood that while he had the legal knowledge, Letitia knew the inner workings of the legal department. By trusting her insight, he was able to get up to speed much faster.

Key Projects and Collaborative Successes

Developing Outside Counsel Guidelines

Letitia and Eric first worked together on creating Outside Counsel Guidelines for CMG. Up to that point, they had been relying on guidelines created for a previous iteration of the company. 

The project required a lot of give and take between Eric and Letitia. At first, she took a very structured approach, but Eric encouraged her to consider the importance of relationship building. Eric says, “That project really illustrated our different perspectives. Letitia’s pragmatic approach combined with my desire for a collaborative relationship with outside counsel resulted in a balanced document.”

Overhauling the Contract Management System

The next project involved moving contracts from procurement to legal. This was not a simple task; it required creative solutions. While Eric was unsure about taking on the project, Letitia’s vision never wavered, and she provided the structure necessary to implement a change of this magnitude. Ultimately, the project resulted in increased efficiency, as well as strengthening Eric and Letitia’s working relationship. 

Daily Workflow and Communication Dynamics

Interaction Patterns

After three years, Eric and Letitia have established a communication pattern that includes planned weekly meetings with a lot of day-to-day communication. Letitia says “he can just send me an email with one sentence and I know instinctively what he wants, what he needs and how it needs to be carried out.” Eric calls their relationship a partnership, where both can serve as sounding boards for the other. 

Problem-Solving and Efficiency

This partnership leans on their individual strengths, with Eric sharing his overarching vision and Letitia filling in the blanks to bring the idea to life. This back and forth between them allows each to do what they’re best at, driving departmental efficiency while leaning into the creativity that leads to innovation.

Elevating Legal Ops within the Organization

Building Visibility

Eric was surprised when Letitia initially mentioned that she was held in higher regard in the company because of his emphasis on legal ops. He realized that the collaborative relationship between the two of them was not the norm in legal departments. Eric champions the legal ops team within his department because he sees the relationship between the GC and legal ops as “foundational.”

Collaboration as an Engine of Innovation

Resources are not unlimited, and legal departments are constantly being pushed to handle more and more. In order to keep from falling behind, it’s valuable to investigate new areas that can improve efficiency and lower costs. However, this sort of exploration can often get lost in the day-to-day of running a legal department.

Eric leverages Letitia to help in this area. He will identify an emerging concept or technology that could be useful and mention it to Letitia. She then investigates and determines if and how it could work in their department, along with the next steps to take. Eric then has substantially more information to determine whether (and how) to implement that idea. 

Achievements and Challenges

Success Stories

In their three years working together, Letitia and Eric have accomplished the following:

• Created comprehensive guidelines for working with outside counsel.
• Implemented a new document management system, which improved document handling and correspondence management.
• Transferred contract management responsibilities from finance to legal, leading to cost savings and better operational efficiency.
• Negotiated better rates and volume discounts with outside counsel.
• Improved in-house efficiencies by implementing weekly meetings where the GC and the Legal Ops Manager could discuss efficiency opportunities.

Challenges and Solutions

There have also been some challenges, including:

• Initial misunderstandings of roles and expectations. It took Eric and Letitia some time to learn how to best communicate with one another and lean into each other’s strengths.
• Navigating budget constraints. Letitia negotiates better rates with outside counsel, and she and Eric work together to determine ways to control costs.
• Internal team buy-in for new tools and processes. Departmental change is always difficult for some employees. However, Eric’s faith in Letitia and her abilities paved the way for other team members to respect her ideas, leading to smoother implementation.

Q&A Highlights

Reducing Legal Spend

Question: What is the biggest step you’ve taken to reduce legal spend?

Letitia responds that the biggest step has been negotiating discounts with outside firms, including volume discounts. Internal law firm evaluations have provided insight into the different types of cases individual law firms handle, allowing Letitia to consolidate who they’re working with. This, in turn, makes them more attractive to top-quality outside firms, who might not want to take on a small one-time project but might be interested in more ongoing work.

Adding Headcount for Legal Ops

Question: What would be your biggest selling point in seeking headcount to add a legal ops professional to a legal team?

Eric says “it pays for itself multiple times over, period.” He mentioned that lawyers often do not like negotiating rates with outside counsel, and Letitia can often handle that for those in the CBG legal department. It’s easier to get buy-in if the attorneys on staff understand exactly how a legal ops professional can support them.

Conclusion

It’s clear from listening to Eric and Letitia that their collaboration has truly created something that’s bigger than the sum of its parts. Their interaction with one another simplifies Eric’s role as General Counsel both through having a brainstorming partner and by clearing away a lot of the day-to-day duties that distract from legal work.

For those looking to emulate this successful collaboration, finding the right legal expertise is crucial. Paragon Legal specializes in providing experienced attorneys who can seamlessly integrate into your legal team, offering the flexibility and specialized knowledge needed to drive significant improvements.

Whether you require support for specific projects or ongoing legal assistance, Paragon’s attorneys can help. Contact Paragon Legal today to learn how we can elevate your legal operations to new heights.