Mike Dillon of Adobe. Courtesy photo.

Last week, Adobe Systems Inc.'s legal leader Mike Dillon announced he would be leaving the company. He's been the computer software company's general counsel for the past six years, leading through transformations and legal department innovation. In total, he has spent more than two decades in-house, serving as general counsel of Silver Spring Networks and Sun Microsystems Inc. before moving to San Jose-based Adobe in 2012.

Now, he's ready to retire—but he'll be staying busy. Dillon's post-Adobe plans include welding, baking sourdough bread, fighting climate change—and publishing a book.

The Recorder spoke with Dillon to learn more about his time at Adobe and what comes next. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

TR: Thinking back to when you joined Adobe—what initially drew you to this position? 

Dillon: I was at a startup called Silver Spring Networks and we were getting ready for an IPO. I got a call about Adobe, and started interviewing here and very quickly saw what the company was doing generally in its business, becoming more of a cloud business, from a perpetual license model to subscription. Being a part of that transformation was incredibly exciting to me and an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

What has been the most rewarding project during your time at Adobe? 

It's helping to transform the culture of legal. Previously we had largely released products on an 18-month cycle, new update every month and multiple layers of channel partners. [Now we've] shifted to one where our products are downloaded and the products themselves are being updated on a daily basis. That's a dramatic shift in the mindset of all the employees in the company. So leading and supporting others in the company to have that different thinking is probably the biggest thing I'm proud of, and the company has done remarkably [well with the change]. 

I'm proud of how the department has recreated itself, and all the innovative things we've done. Not just that we've accomplished all of these things—we are one of the smallest organizations in the company, but we touch every single part of the company. Doesn't matter if it's our stakeholders, government officials, executives. We're the only part of the company that touches all of them, and so by creating a new mindset, a business mindset as a legal team, the breadth of our influence has been really remarkable. And that's the thing that gets me most excited.

In previous roles and at Adobe, you've promoted career rotations, the growth of legal operations and other innovations. What lessons can others take away from your time as GC? 

I hope that we are helping to change the legal services industry through some of the practices we've created at Adobe. 

We've got a very active intern program. One of the things we've done in parallel with our internship program and our relationships with preferred firms, [Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer] and Perkins Coie, we've created a Diversity 1L internship. A candidate can work at Adobe and at the law firm. It's a great opportunity for someone early at their career, and given the reaction we've gotten, we're likely to expand.

A few years back we created a style guide. Everyone is trained so we use it for external and internal communications. Our agreements, our policies, are clear, succinct and understandable. We open sourced it under Creative Commons license for anyone who wants to use it.

We run our department on our tools, tools that allow us to electronically manage and sign agreements, or creative tools to create engaging training.

On the career side, we have a career tracker here. Anyone who has an opportunity for projects or shadowing or job rotations, we post it so everyone is aware. Someone went on paternity leave in Singapore and someone from San Jose is filling in for them in Singapore. 

The culture of the company is truly unique, and of the department as well. We celebrate with Halloween costumes. There's an organization called the “Cheap Thrills Community,” that does something fun once a month on a budget. It's a really good environment, and that's something I'll miss a lot. 

So we won't be seeing you move to another law department after this? 

I am retiring, but I hate that word because I'll never retire. I'll have a different career. The thing is, what I came here to do, being a part of this amazing transformation, we're mainly through that … Now it's a new transformation and it's time to step aside and let the next leader take control of the organization. 

What will life after Adobe look like for you? 

I have never had a shortage of outside interests. Last year I went up to the Arctic, [to film] a movie on climate change. Like every lawyer, I've got a novel, and I've got it with an agent and I want to publish it. I like to travel, especially by bike. I want to learn how to make sourdough bread and do it in my own oven, and learn how to weld.

Sounds like you'll be pretty busy. When can we expect a new GC for Adobe? Is there a timeline? 

No specific date in mind. The commitment I made to the board is that I will stay on as long as they need to find the right candidate and to help coach them and ramp them up. We've kicked the process off but I don't have a specific date. 

---

➤➤ Stay on top of in-house developments with Inside Track, a weekly email briefing that breaks down the news, flags key issues, answers your questions, and keeps track of who's on the move.  Sign up here and get the next briefing straight to your in-box.