Welcome back to Inside Track. I'm Law.com reporter Dan Clark. It's been a busy week in the legal world. In this edition of the briefing, we're looking at what to think about when the law department expands internationally–it's harder than it sounds. Plus, how one major Hollywood studio's efforts to increase diversity measure up.

But before we dive in, a quick question for you all: I'm definitely curious about where you get your news– besides this fine weekly newsletter and law.com, of course.

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

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What's Happening-

 

 

Building Your Overseas Law Department

On Tuesday, Law.com reporter Phillip Bantz reported on the challenges companies face when they have to open up a branch of their legal department overseas. He found some companies took their departments global to save on outside counsel spend in those jurisdictions, while others simply wanted to establish a presence in a given country.

Culture Shock. Phillip found that cultural differences are a challenge when operating overseas. He spoke to Fernando Merino, former Brazilian GC for JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch, who said you should try to“ 'tropicalize' your policy in a way to do business with the local culture.”

And when it comes to operating the new outpost, like in so many parts of life, communication is key. Fernando told Phillip that as the top legal officer at the company's headquarters, you may have to use some of your travel points to visit these overseas legal departments.

Patience is a Virtue. These things take time, according to Mark Smolik, the GC for DHL Supply Chains Americas. “For the first six months it's about trying to get your feet underneath you and establishing that you're willing to help,” Mark said. “The second half of the evolution is “trial and error where people within the business say, 'OK, I'll try them out and see how business-oriented they are.'”

It's In The Rider…

Law.com reporter Kristen Rasmussen wrote recently about WarnerMedia's new first-of-its-kind commitment to include more women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community in its upcoming productions. Part of the plan is to use inclusion riders in all future WarnerBros, HBO and Turner projects.

Actor Michael B. Jordan, who helped launch the new policy, was inspired by this year's Oscars speech by Frances McDormand. He said that when he heard her talk about an inclusion rider, he realized it could be a standard practice.

This story made me wonder what other companies are doing (or not doing) to promote diversity. Here are some recent developments…

Google: In June, Google, which has been in the crosshairs of diversity controversy many times before, released its 2018 Diversity Report, which indicated it has a lot more work to do on D&I. It did say, however, that since 2014 the company has spent over $1 billion with businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans, disabled people and and members of the LGBTQ community as part of its Supplier Diversity Program.

Slack: The company responsible for so many workplace conversations seems to be creating a lot of positive talk with its diversity practices, which the Atlantic recently reported get better results than those at many larger Silicon Valley companies. The article noted Slack's use of “blind auditions” for programmer positions, in order to eliminate bias.

 

Leave The RFP Behind

Barclays plans on really shaking up the way they select and review their outside counsel. I spoke to Stephanie Hamon and Chris Grant. Both work at Barclays and are responsible for reshaping outside counsel relationships so the bank can be more flexible about picking up and dropping firms from their panel.

Forget the RFPs Hamon says starting in 2021, the bank will have a nomination process for firm selection and leave their traditional RFP practices behind. The nomination process will be followed up by a probationary period to determine if the firm is a good fit with the bank.

Goodbye to the billable hour. Also by 2021, Hamon and Grant hope to only have 20 percent of legal work paid for using the billable hour. The rest of the work, Hamon said, will be negotiated under some kind of “effective fee arrangement” (read: AFA).

Barclays wants to have a deeper relationship with its firms and created a six-pillar system that it will give a qualitative and quantitative score to evaluate its firms' service. The pillars are collaboration, thought leadership, value for money, legal advice, diversity and inclusion and technology and innovation.

Don't Miss-

Wednesday, October 3. The GLL is hosting a Business Across Borders event in Bray, U.K. And on Wednesday, October. 24 GLL will hold a session titled, Managing Risk In an Age of Disruption in New York. GLL is an invitation-only membership group offering general counsel a global platform for in-person collaboration to exchange ideas and receive advice and guidance from peers. For more information, contact Meena Heath at [email protected].

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 morewill be taking the stage.

On the Move-

 

Are You Ready For Some Football!?!? The NFL season started up last week, but as far as legal hires are concerned, all eyes are on the XFL. Vince McMahon's attempt at a football league is set to come back in 2020 and leading the legal team this time is former Tampa Bay Bucs GC Roxanne Kosarzycki. As the league's top lawyer, she'll be facing issues of TV licensing, player contracts and workers comp. She'll likely be working closely with the commissioner of the league, former NFL quarterback andFulbright & Jaworski associate Oliver Luck (also father to Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts).

Yippie Kayai…Search-focused tech company Yippy Inc. has tapped Robert Aber, the former general counsel of NASDAQ, to step in as its executive vice president and its authorized counsel. Aber is the company's first top legal officer, but he's not new to the company. He previously held an advisory role on Yippy's board of directors and worked in-house for companies owned by Boeing.

The Lawyers' Lawyer. Global legal services provider Axiom has named Lisa Youngas its new general counsel. Young started in August and told Corporate Counsel that she has three in-house lawyers on her team whose permanent job is to support the company's business. Young has previously held in-house roles at Enova International and JP Morgan Chase.

Drilling for oil. Last week, Cox Oil announced that Vincent DeVito, a former attorney for the Department of the Interior, has left the public sector hoping to strike Texas gold. DeVito is the oil company's first GC. While at the Interior Department, DeVito was criticized for delaying federal protections for endangered species. He also once reportedly called the department “the office of energy dominance.”

Gone Crypto. A former general counsel for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been named chief legal officer for the crypto financing company Circle. Gus Coldebella, who once oversaw a legal department of more than 1,700 at DHS, is the first CLO in the company's history and should be able to bring his government experience to bear as regulations spring up in the crypto space. Curious about crypto? Check out some other lawyers who have recently moved into companies in this space here.