Driving Change Management: Lessons GCs can Learn from Legal Ops

Indira Cortes is a Project Manager Professional (PMP) and PROSCI Certified Change Management Practitioner with over 18 years of experience in process improvement and project management. Her experience spans several industries including fin-tech, aerospace, manufacturing, utilities and health care. Indira has led large organizational changes that have included standing up PMOs, implementing lean manufacturing processes, and driving the deployment of a vendor management workflow.

She is passionate about improving efficiency and productivity through standardization.

Indira earned her Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus and is certified as Six Sigma Green Belt.

Mary Baker is the Senior Vice President and Director of Legal Operations at U.S. Bank.

Suzanna O’Donohue is an experienced Sales Leader with demonstrated success in leading high-performing teams. With more than 20 years of sales and management experience, she possesses a deep knowledge of the legal and technology industry. She is currently the VP of Sales for the Corporate Legal segment at LexisNexis managing a team of 100 people who sell into in-house counsel departments within corporations and heads up State Net, a Lexis solution that tracks legislative and regulatory changes. She received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Bridgeport and a Master of Science in Counseling Psychology from Pace University. She is a past member of the board for the Design Thinking Certificate Program at Pace University, Lubin School of Business, and a recent member of the ABA International Section of Law Planning committee for the 2024 annual meeting.

Stacy Smith Walsh is AVP of Corporate Legal Operations at Travelers. She currently leads a team responsible for technology enablement and adoption, strategic planning and execution, communications, outside counsel management, and data and analytics for corporate legal groups. She works closely with the General Counsel and the Legal Services senior leadership team to execute on strategic priorities and initiatives. Stacy leads change management efforts, provides assistance to lawyers and others in Legal Services that are navigating operational or logistical challenges, and delights in working on projects that demand innovation and creativity.

Prior to taking the role in Legal Operations, Stacy was Senior Counsel in Legal Services at Travelers, working in the employment law and corporate compliance departments. In that role, she served as the lead employment law attorney for several business units, where she worked in partnership with employee relations and human resources to manage employment-related risks and compliance with federal, state and local labor laws. She also worked on the corporate compliance team, where she helped deliver the company’s annual code of conduct training and compliance awareness programs and led internal compliance investigations.

Prior to joining Travelers, Stacy was the Director of Human Resources at Day Pitney LLP, a mid-sized northeast regional law firm, where she served on the administrative leadership team of the firm. Prior to that, Stacy was an employment lawyer in private practice representing corporations, small businesses and nonprofit organizations in all aspects of employment law compliance and litigation.

Stacy currently serves on the Board of Directors of YWCA Hartford Region, where she formerly served as Board Chair. She is a Girl Scout troop leader and troop cookie manager, a lector at her church, and an active alumna of her law school. A native of South Carolina, Stacy now lives in West Hartford, Connecticut with her husband and three children, her mother, and their dog Romeo.

Stacy has a B.A. from the University of Alabama in Speech Communication, an M.A. from the University of Maryland, and a J.D. from Cornell Law School.