Amy Olli.

AMY FLIEGELMAN OLLI IS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL counsel of VMware Inc., an information technology company based in Palo Alto, California.

She received a degree in business administration from the State University of New York at Oswego and a law degree from Western New England School of Law. She worked at both CA Technologies and IBM. Then she worked at Avaya, where she was senior vice president and general counsel. In August, she became senior vice president and general counsel at VMware. Moreover, she supervises the company's government relations and public policy team. The company focuses on cloud infrastructure and business mobility. VMware overall has nearly 21,000 employees around the world.

LEGAL TEAM: Legal team members work out of VMware offices globally and the company headquarters. "Our staff is a mix of generalists along with those who have specializations, such as … litigation, employment, compliance, corporate securities and M&A," she says. "Obviously, you need to adapt your legal coverage and staffing model to respond to [a] company's size, strategic goals, challenges and growth trajectory," Olli says about her role as general counsel. "But there are basic operating principles [which] I bring to the GC role. … I see legal's role as helping the business find solutions to our customers' challenges by providing business-practical, innovative legal services to accelerate business success while reducing risk [and] … we need to be business-savvy and aligned to the priorities of our business leaders, continually calibrating legal department strategy to company strategy." The legal team regularly assesses which work should be handled internally, which could be outsourced to a lower-cost provider, and which needs expertise from internal or external experts. It uses an offshore legal process outsourcer for high-volume, repetitive work.

OUTSIDE COUNSEL: "We partner with our preferred provider law firms to handle material litigation and some of our M&A transactions. In specialist areas, such as privacy, we also seek support, if necessary," Olli explains. "However, we [are] … focused on insourcing some of our legal work by hiring internal subject matter experts, which has reduced our reliance on external law firms."

TYPICAL DAY: Her typical day starts early, with many calls and meetings with team members. She also meets with senior business leaders. Typically, she works at the headquarters in Palo Alto, but travels extensively. "I view my role as innovative problem-solver and business enabler who proactively figure[s] out ways to best mitigate legal risks while still pursuing business objectives in an ever-changing global landscape," Olli says. "Instead of simply communicating to our business clients why they cannot do something, I see our role as working closely with them, taking a holistic … view to find the best solutions to the complex problems that we face in a digital economy." Overall, VMware has adopted "EPIC" values: execution, passion, integrity, customers and community. Olli says these "really resonated" with her. "I enjoy working in an environment where people can bring their authentic selves to work and where diverse perspectives are respected and celebrated," she added. "In legal, we also have a real focus on diversity and recently won the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) 2017 George B. Vashon Innovator Award, which made me very proud of the team and their commitment to diversity." The legal team also has a global pro bono program.

LAST BOOK READ: "Tomorrow's Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future" by Richard Susskind.

PRIORITIES AS GENERAL COUNSEL: She says that mitigating risk is at the top of the list. "A general counsel has to lead by example and speak out about practices that could damage the company, and ultimately, our shareholders, our customers and our employees. This sends a message to the legal team that our fiduciary responsibilities need to be top of mind and balanced with delivering great business partnering," she says. Other priorities are: operational excellence; driving shareholder value through innovative people, tools and process initiatives to make it easier for customers to do business; developing lawyers by giving them challenging work; and promoting a collaborative and an inclusive environment to drive synergies that enable them to operate as a cohesive, globally connected team.