Only 3% of top lawyers believed a recession was "highly unlikely in the next 18 months," according to a survey conducted by Russell Reynolds Associates.

That was last summer when 97% of participating top lawyers forecasted the likelihood of a recession. COVID-19, the novel coronavirus that sparked a global pandemic and forced millions to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus, indeed caused a recession earlier this year. As more companies find footing in a new economy of most employees operating from their homes, the impact is still present and may define the rest of the year and 2021.

Corporate legal departments are really feeling the weight of the warped business outlook. It's common for general counsel and chief legal officers to work on the "more with less" doctrine where more responsibilities may be piled on their teams while fewer resources are offered to them. But now "more with less" has exceeded new levels during the COVID-19 crisis.

Jessica Nguyen, the first-ever CLO at Seattle-based tech startup Lexion, spoke to Corporate Counsel on the pressure to perform at a higher speed without having everything she needs.

"I feel like now executives are putting the foot on the neck, like, 'No, you have to do more with less. Our revenue projections have been cut by 80% or 60% and legal is a cost center,'" she told Corporate Counsel. "So legal and other operational departments get cut first or get pressure to do more with less first."

She's one of several top lawyers who spoke with us to let the in-house community at large know the everyday struggles of managing a legal department in 2020. Even Trisha Kozu, GC and sole in-house lawyer for video platform startup Panopto in Seattle, describes weeks of intense work from her bed battling COVID-19.

"It was the fiscal year-end as well as the quarter-end, which means you have to do as many deals as you can," she said. "So it was really hard for me to think, 'Whoa, I need to take time off.' I've always seen the month of June as, 'You're going to do as many contracts as you can.' And I definitely had pressure to do as many contracts as I could because we are so small—I don't have backup." How is your legal department doing more with less under the impact of COVID-19? Please let me know at [email protected].

 

SPONSORED BY ALM

Announcing Two Incredible Keynote Speakers for the Women, Influence & Power in Law Conference

WIPL is known for having some of the most engaging and energizing keynote speakers attend to share their thoughts, experiences, war stories and tips on effective leadership. And this year is no exception. This year, we are grateful to welcome two remarkable women come and inspire us: Tina Tchen, the President and CEO of the "Times Up" Legal Defense Fund and Paula Boggs, Founder of Boggs Media LLC and Former Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Law and Corporate Affairs at Starbucks from 2002-2012. READ MORE

For GCs, right now, I think the toughest part is that we're being thrust into every decision. I think that because of the fact that so much of what we are facing we have not faced before. Most of the things happening right now have a legal aspect to them.

- CaaStle general counsel Tim Hirsch talks to Corporate Counsel about being brought into every decision amid the COVID-19 crisis. He will be a panelist at our annual General Counsel Conference.

What's Happening

 

Diversifying the Firm Panel

Honeywell International and Flex no longer have a single white-shoe Wall Street law firm on their panels of preferred outside firms, according to their GCs who spoke on the project of increasing diversity among outside counsel in collaboration with GC collective AdvanceLaw.

GC and senior vice president Anne Madden said Charlotte, North Carolina-based Honeywell now has a panel of 13 law firms, a reduction from 100 last year.

"We have to have the courage to be able to move away from that comfort blanket and move to firms that give us just as much quality but at a lower price point and really being thoughtful about who we go to for what sort of matter," Madden said.

Scott Offer, GC and executive VP for Flex, a global electronics manufacturer headquartered in Singapore with a U.S. base in Silicon Valley, said his company's panel also went from 100 law firms to 12.

"I think on ethnic diversity we just haven't done enough," he said. "Now, I think, is the time to act."

 

Getting Support from Business in Data Compliance

A group of in-house data privacy attorneys says the business side has to be on board for a company to comply with evolving data compliance during a webinar hosted by Exterro and the Data Protection World Forum.

According to data provided by Exterro, 99% of in-house counsel recognize the importance of having a data privacy plan, however, only 1 in 5 in-house legal leaders indicated they have such a policy in place.

Andrea Ruggieri, vice president of digital and privacy legal at GlaxoSmithKline in London, said her company has been able to leverage data for research and development purposes and insights into health care.

"The business in a couple of cases has come to us and said, 'We need to XYZ with the data' and the data governance side of that was quite important," she said.

 

Supporting Summer Interns Amid COVID-19

Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Association of Corporate Counsel Greater Philadelphia continued its Diversity Corporate Summer Internship Program, now in its 13th year.

The program pairs 1L and 2L students with participating legal departments at companies such as Cigna and Comcast.

Sadeq Khan, who oversees the program as co-chair of the chapter's diversity committee, is the chief compliance officer and deputy general counsel at Vertical Screen in Warminster, Pennsylvania. When law students miss a summer internship, he said the lost opportunity could derail their job prospects in the future.

"This is a program that is meant to foster diversity within legal departments and to give these diverse students an opportunity to experience in-house practice," Khan said. "If we weren't going to be able to do that, my fear was the impact it was going to have on these students."

General Counsel Conference

 

Network with Hundreds of General Counsel and Senior Legal Leaders from Your Home or Office!

Corporate Counsel's General Counsel Conference is going virtual this year on Sept. 15-16.

GCC is the premier forum for GCs to learn, network and evolve in their roles. With a focus on the in-house counsel's perspective, sessions will tackle topics covering law department operations and efficiency, and the evolving role of the GC as a business advisor, while also taking a deeper dive into industries like biotech/pharma, finance and real estate, and the regulatory, compliance and strategic issues they are facing.

If you're interested in attending the conference, then please register here.

Does Force Majeure Apply?

 

COVID-19 as a Trigger for Force Majeure: A Global Survey is a collaboration between ALM editors and McDermott Will & Emery lawyers Lisa Richman, Shawn Helms, Jason Krieser and Matthew Cin.

The authors developed the survey as a simple Q&A that allows companies and legal professionals to quickly access guidance for key questions across multiple jurisdictions, including globally. The ALM team designed the title to ensure easy access to answers as well as to the precedent underlying the guidance.

The publication, online and in ebook format, covers 10 countries and 16 U.S. jurisdictions, including California, New York, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas and D.C. The international sections help readers assess contractual obligations in Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico and the U.K.

The ebook can be purchased at Law Journal Press.

On the Move

 

 Bradley Gayton, who has spent his nearly 30-year legal career at Ford Motor Company, most recently as GC and chief administrative officer, announced he will serve as Coca-Cola's next chief lawyer. Gayton will leave the Dearborn, Michigan-based carmaker Aug. 31 and start his new role the following day at Coca-Cola's headquarters in Atlanta.

Formerly in-house counsel at Public Storage, Stefanie L. Forsey has stepped into the vice president and GC role at Watson Land Company. She started March 1, although the Los Angeles-based industrial real estate developer announced the leadership change last week. More companies are making their top lawyer appointments public after a slowdown amid the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent crisis.