How to Work Effectively & Be Innovative as a Small Legal Team

As GSD’s General Counsel, Julisa provides strategic advice on legal matters and corporate compliance.

Prior to joining GSD in April 2023, Julisa spent over fifteen years advising international nonprofit organizations in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Africa. She focused her practice on governance, sustainable finance, international transactions, and intellectual property matters.

Julisa is a native of the Dominican Republic and holds a Licenciatura en Derecho degree from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra. She was awarded Master of Laws degrees from the University of London, Queen Mary College as well as the George Washington University Law School. Julisa has been admitted to the bar in the Dominican Republic, the District of Columbia, Virginia (Corporate Counsel), and New York.

Laura Wood is the General Counsel of Zoro Tools, Inc., the wholly owned subsidiary of W.W. Grainger, Inc. and operator of Zoro.com, a B2B website dedicated to helping its customers navigate an assortment of 11 million maintenance, repair, and operating products so they can find, buy, and get what they need and get on with their day.

As the first General Counsel of Zoro, Laura is responsible for developing and advising on a risk-aware legal strategy aligned to the business’s fast-paced, high-growth endless assortment model. Prior to joining Zoro, Laura served as the lead attorney for commercial contract negotiations for Grainger’s Merchandising & Supplier Management organization.

She also spent time in the legal department of Anixter Inc., focusing on supplier and customer contract negotiations, as well as in private practice at the law firms of Ice Miller in Indianapolis and Burke Warren in Chicago, focusing on mergers and acquisitions.

Laura received her Juris Doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and her Bachelor of Science in Business from Indiana University Bloomington.

Leah Yadegar is the Senior Corporate Counsel for Material, (formerly LRWGroup), a leading integrated marketing services company that leverages deep human understanding to help brands deliver material outcomes and experiences for their customers and the communities they serve.

Along with her General Counsel, Leah supports over 1250 employees in over 20 offices around the world. Leah is responsible for enterprise-wide legal, and risk management functions spanning across Material’s eleven entities. Leah most enjoys spearheading client contract negotiations, vendor onboarding, employee and independent contractor matters, data security and training others in the art of negotiation.

Before joining Material, Leah was a litigator in a boutique civil litigation practice in Beverly Hills. Leah has been active on the board of several international non-profit organizations and in 2017-2018 was appointed the Director of the StandWithUs legal fellowship, which provides practical, hands-on legal training to law students from the five Los Angeles based law schools. Leah holds two bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California, Santa Barbara in History of Public Policy and Sociology (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa), a J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law, and a Certificate in A.D.R. from the prestigious Straus Institute.

Outside of her passion for law, business and negotiating, Leah is an avid international traveler, and enjoys skiing, and tennis. When she’s not at work, she is busy running after her three young sons and adventuring with her attorney husband.

Heather Nevitt is the Editor-in-Chief of Corporate Counsel, Inside Counsel and Global Leaders in Law. Heather brings Valuable content to the various publications sites she manages while building communities and developing new event ideas to engage readers.

Heather joined ALM in 2005 and was the Editor-in-Chief of Texas Lawyer. Before joining ALM, she practiced law and earned her JD from Michigan State University College of Law in East Lansing, Michigan.