Victor Topadze became group legal director at Russian classifieds business Avito in 2012. He saw his team grow from a four-person outfit to a 15-strong department in only two years, as the company transformed from the start-up it was in 2009 to the multibillion dollar company it is today. Continue reading “A different dynamic: managing an expanded legal team”

GC: What initiatives has Microsoft and its legal department pioneered to promote race and ethnic diversity within its workforce?

Mary Snapp (MS): Microsoft’s legal department has had a focused diversity team for 12 years. Brad Smith [Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer] and I collaborated to start the diversity team within the department, which grew to include 85 people. Continue reading “Change partners: How can law firms and in-house departments promote race and ethnic diversity?”

Last year, GC magazine ran a series of features on in-house lawyers around the world involved in diversity initiatives, both as role models and as practical architects. Continue reading “GC Special Report: Diversity and inclusion in-house – the bigger picture”

‘Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.’

So said Warren Buffett. But when it comes to deciding who knows best about enterprise risk, how should a company decide? For some sectors, notably financial services, there might not be much of a choice. Continue reading “Law: a risky business?”

Incorporating Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, the GC Powerlist: Nordics countries share common history and economic values. With small populations, but open and affluent economies that balance free market capitalism with significant social welfare services, the ‘Nordic model’ represents high living standards with low income disparity. Continue reading “GC Powerlist: Nordics”

Unless you manage a multinational team, you probably don’t know that at 1:30pm in London it is 7:00pm in Bangalore and 7:30am in Milwaukee. For a small, crucial window of time, this is the most convenient hour or so in which everyone can come together. Continue reading “Time travel and the art of managing a remote team”

Moving in-house

When I left private practice in 1992 there was a misconception that moving in-house was somehow a second division role, or an area where people could go for a change of lifestyle.  An interesting thing I found was that I was working every bit as hard as when I was in private practice, but actually I resented it less because I could clearly see the purpose and was not being driven by billable hours targets or client retention. Continue reading “What I now know: Keith Ruddock, recently retired general counsel, The Weir Group”

First up on the agenda for our discussion was big data. Nick Maltby of Genomics England is general counsel for the 100,000 Genomes Project, a UK government initiative which collects DNA data from patients with rare diseases and cancers. Continue reading “GC Roundtable: the new frontiers of IP, London”

I’ve been advocating for some time that the ‘Trusted Adviser’ description of in-house counsel and GCs has the potential to encourage too much detachment between those lawyers and the organisations that employ them. While I condone some level of professional detachment, I equally encourage proactivity. Continue reading “Who do you think you are?”