Welcome back to Inside Track. I'm Law.com reporter Dan Clark, and I'll be the author of this weekly email briefing from here on out, taking over from my editor, Rebekah Mintzer.

I'm excited to be writing Inside Track and even more excited to hear what you are all thinking about. What legal issues keep you up at night? Do you have questions or war stories about in-house life that you'd like to share?

On a slightly different note, It's still technically summer for a few more days, so I'm doing an informal survey of Inside Track readers: What books are on your summer reading list? Are you more of an audiobook person? Can you say you've read a book if you've only actually listened to it? I say no. But either way, I'm curious to hear from you.

I can be reached anytime through my email at [email protected] or you can find me on Twitter @DanclarkALM.

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Now that we've gotten through the formalities, lets jump into the news…

 

What's Happening-

 

 

You've Retired. What Now?

This week, in-house reporter Phillip Bantz spoke with general counsel who have left in-house practice for retirement, including Ed Ryan of Marriott (above). When the ride stops, according to the story, sometimes these attorneys have a lot of trouble filling the void that used to be full of meetings, phone calls, and legal questions. They've found interesting solutions though, including bike tours and documentary filmmaking.

Walking Away. With that story in mind, I checked in with Mike Evers of recruiting firmEvers Legal. He said he finds that GCs fall into two categories when retiring:those who leave because of a sale or a change in leadership and those who are at the age of retirement. In his experience, those who have hit retirement age “seem to have trouble walking off into the sunset.”

He said he has also met with many GCs who feel accomplished in what they've done and “are not looking to go back into the 24/7 fire.”

I also spoke to Gary Schmidt, who's been the top lawyer at several companies, including Dean Foods. He said that, in his experience, those who don't have hobbies outside of work are the ones who tend to miss work most. Though he personally misses working with his super intelligent ex-colleagues, he's happy now that he has more time for family.

“If you have a real general counsel job, you're talking 70 hours a week,” Schmidt said.

➤➤ What do you think? Have you planned a retirement by the lake or would you miss the daily grind of staving off legal threats and dealing with outside counsel? Let me know.

 

In-House At The U.N.

Last week I got the chance to speak to Alex Puutio, a Finnish in-house attorneybased in New York who works for the United Nations in the Department of Management, Procurement Division. Puutio admitted to me that after graduating law school, he didn't expect to take a job at the U.N. However, he ended up there eight years ago after what was supposed to be just a brief break from his law firm job wound up becoming a new career path. Here are some highlights from our conversation:

➤➤ Alex's responsibilities include helping UN entities with contracts and transactions. Part of his job is vetting transactions from UN peacekeeping missions, a function that he says combines compliance, strategy and internal audit duties, much like a “highly centralized decision-making body for an international conglomerate.”

➤➤ He also said he and his colleagues are big on strategy and planning when assisting UN missions with transactions and other goals. As he put it, ”In a corporate setting, an attorney is typically called in when something is on fire. I try to make sure that I'm as available as possible to make sure you don't have the kindling there.”

➤➤ Legal tech at the U.N. is about “five to six years late,” according to Alex. While the organization makes a lot of its own tech, he said he does get jealous of his friends at firms when he hears about the kinds of cool gadgets they are using.

Does Anyone Have a Map?

I recently spoke to some experts about the difficulties in data mapping around theEU's General Data Protection Regulation. Louis Diaz, the general counsel of Vision-e, described some of the difficulties companies face in manually findingwhere all of their data has been stored in order to become GDPR compliant.

That story led to a conversation with the co-founder and CEO of BigID, Dimitri Sirota. Dimitri knows all too well about the challenges in manually mapping data, which is why he co-founded a company that uses machine learning and identity intelligence to help companies figure out whose data they actually have.

“Historically, data discovery tools were more centered on mining types of data as opposed to who the data belonged to,” Dimitri said.

Using automation, a newer generation of companies are helping others to find ways to sort out the data and achieve GDPR compliance. Dimitri said that now companies are holding the data of former employees and former contractors who may also want access to their data. So automation is the way to go.

“It becomes very, very cumbersome [to track data subjects manually],” Dimitri said. “Over time our expectation is, just like in so many other areas, people will shift from manual to automation.”

Don't Miss-

Thursday, September 13-Friday, September 14. Prominent in-house lawyers will meet to discuss disruption and the changing role of GCs at Corporate Counsel Forum Europe 2018. The conference, which is co-chaired by two prominent general counsel, Sabine Chalmers of BT and Phillip Bramwell of BAE, will take place in the U.K. at Pennyhill Park, Surrey.

Wednesday, September 26- Thursday, September 27. GCs from all over the country and beyond will gather in New York at the General Counsel Conference. Expect to hear about risk and regulation, executive leadership strategies, cybersecurity and technology and much, much more. Speakers include top-level in-house lawyers from AIG, AT&T and News Corp.

Wednesday, September 26-Thursday, September 27. Or if you'd prefer to network and learn from GCs in the hedge fund space, you might want to attend the Hedge Fund General Counsel and Compliance Officer Summit in New York. Panels include a discussion of AI and machine learning for hedge funds as well as sessions about corporate governance and regulatory examinations.

Thursday, October 4-Friday, October 5. Where can you find a group of high-powered female in-house legal leaders getting honest about the challenges that women face in the profession? Check out Women, Influence & Power in Law, a summit in Washington, D.C. this fall. There are sure to be plenty of educational and networking opportunities, and speakers include big time in-house leaders from Pfizer, MetLife, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and more.

Sunday, October 21-Wednesday October 24. The ACC Annual Meeting is in Austin, Texas this year. Saddle on up to hear in-house lawyers speak on a variety of topics, from the first 100 days of the GDPR to pay equity and salary inquiry bans. High-powered in-housers from companies like Google, Clorox, Bayer, Honda and more will be taking the stage.

 

On the Move-

OMG New GC! News website Buzzfeed – which is also known for its listicles, quizzes and memes – announced on Tuesday that Rhonda Powell will become head of its legal department. She comes from Complex Media where she was the chief legal officer. Powell replaces Buzzfeed's first general counsel, Allison Lucaswho had been at the company since 2013.

Hiring Alums. The University of Virginia has hired a former prosecutor who is both a graduate of the institution and one of its critics. The university announced that Timothy Heaphy, who previously investigated UVA's response to last year's Charlottesville protests and found it lacking, will take over the company's legal department come Sept 1. Heaphy is currently a partner at Hunton Andrews Kurthand chairs the firm's white-collar defense and internal investigations practice. Heaphy will replace Roscoe Roberts who plans to retire later this year.

Relationships Matter. Energy company ConocoPhillips hired Kelly Rose, an attorney who has represented the multinational before, as its general counsel. Rose has spent her entire career at Baker Botts. She specializes in corporate and securities law and M&A transactions and has also represented Shell Oil and Halliburton. Rose will replace Janet Langford Carrig who will retire in September.

Climbing to the Top. Software company Riverbed Technology announced that its associate general counsel, Rebecca Hazard, is the company's new GC. Hazard joined Riverbed in 2007 after a three-year stint as an associate at Kirkland & Ellis. Hazard replaces Ryan Damon.

School Transfer. The Texas Tech University System announced last week thatEric Bentley would be leaving the University of Houston System to become Tech's general counsel. Bentley will become the general counsel and vice chancellor effective Sept. 10. Bentley will replace John Huffaker, who is retiring.