(L to R) Connie Brenton, Director of Legal Operations, General Counsel Matt Fawcett; Elizabeth O'Callahan VP legal; Emily Teuben, Senior Legal Operations Manage. (Photo: Jason Doiy/ALM)

The in-house legal department at cloud services and storage company NetApp harnessed Robotic Process Automation to reduce contract processing time from 15 minutes to 2.5 minutes, freeing up half a full-time equivalent position to do more complex work. NetApp's legal team also saved more than $4 million through the use of workflow automation technology. GC Matt Fawcett also became a leading in-house voice in the ongoing discussion about mental health issues in the legal profession.

That combination of factors landed NetApp the honor of being named Most Innovative Public Company Legal Department of the Year as part of The Recorder's California Leaders in Tech Law and Innovation Awards. The Recorder recently caught up with Fawcett to discuss the in-house legal team's increasing use of technology.

The Recorder: What are the distinguishing characteristics of your in-house legal department at NetApp and the lawyers and staff that make it up?

Matt Fawcett: The NetApp Legal Department is composed of serial innovators and beta testers of new technology. We have gone from using three technologies in 2011 to using 23 technologies in 2019, half of them being added in the last three years.

We are constantly evolving how we work and looking for ways to work more efficiently, invest our resources wisely (whether through fixed-fee arrangements, redesigning processes or leveraging impactful technology), and to lead the way on important topics like diversity and wellness.

Over the past year, we were the first department at NetApp (after IT) to use Robotic Process Automation (RPA). We leveraged it in the contracting sphere to reduce agreement processing time from 15 minutes to 2.5 minutes, freeing up staff for more complex work. Additionally, we saved over $4M USD in 2018 via TAP workflow automation technology, with over 50 use cases, enterprisewide.

Finally, although we are a geographically disparate team, we make it a priority to build and maintain connectivity and community. We host a variety of meetings in Europe, Asia and the U.S., and frequently bring remote colleagues to our Sunnyvale HQ.

What was the biggest challenge your in-house team faced in the past year and how did you overcome it?

Our industry (enterprise IT) is transforming quickly, at a time where geopolitical instability is increasingly the norm and the regulatory landscape is unpredictable. Our challenge is to help the company navigate this landscape by anticipating changes, creating new tools and solutions to accelerate business and evolve risk mitigation strategies against this backdrop. Some of the ways we are addressing these challenges include the establishment of a government relations function, the formation of a Global Legal Shared Services organization to focus on delivering friction-free tools for commercial work and the creation of a Privacy Evangelist to educate customers, partners and our teams on this pressing issue.

Besides that challenge, what was your legal department's most significant accomplishment of the past year and why?

The continued use of legal technology. The members of the NetApp Legal department are comfortable with (and expectant of) the use of technology; with the continued advancement of technology, the Legal department is able to leverage these opportunities to provide value, enable the business and deliver superior service.