• DEREK BENTON Director of International Operations, Lexis-Nexis Martindale-Hubbell, London
  Lawyers Network Differently as the World Grows Flatter
• PETER J. BESHAR EVP and General Counsel, Marsh & McLennan Companies, New York City
  Living Through a Corporate Crisis and Preparing for What Might Come Next
• JEFFREY CARR General Counsel, FMC Technologies, Houston
  Building a Better Legal Service Delivery System
• BRUNO COVA, Partner, Paul Hastings, Milan
  Reflections on Moving Inside to Outside, and European Counsel Must Improve Compliance
• E. LEIGH DANCE, President, ELD International, Inc., New York and Rome
  Introduction and European Counsel Must Improve Compliance
• JAN EIJSBOUTS, former General Counsel, Akzo Nobel, Amsterdam
  Foreword
• ROSS FISHMAN, CEO, Fishman Marketing, Highland Park, Illinois
  Focus: The Benefits of a Narrow Scope in the Face of Global Opportunity
• TIM S. GLASSETT, Former General Counsel, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Beverly Hills, CA
  Building and Motivating a High-Performing Global Legal Team
• ANN LEE GIBSON, Ann Lee Gibson Consulting, West Plains, Missouri
  Feels Like 1990 All Over Again: Law Firm Economic Cycles
• FADI HAMMADEH, General Counsel, Dubai Properties Group, Dubai
  The Regulatory Pendulum Worldwide: Where are we Headed?
• ALAN JENKINS, Chairman, Eversheds LLP, London
  Understanding the Importance of Culture in Managing a Global Law Firm
• PETER KALIS, Chairman and Global Managing Partner, K&L Gates LLP, New York City
  The Signature Legal Challenge of the 21st Century
• DESPINA KARTSON, Chief Marketing Officer, Latham & Watkins LLP, New York City
  The Role of Law Firm Values in Successful Global Expansion
• BRUCE MacEWEN, Founder, “Adam Smith Esq.,”, New York City
  Re-thinking Your Global Strategy: Geography, Talent and Management
• CHRIS MARSHALL, Pro Bono & Community Manager, Reed Smith and Chair, Board of Trustees, Advocates for International Development, London
  International Pro Bono – Broadening our Geographical Reach
• DEBORAH MCMURRAY, CEO and Strategy Architect, Content Pilot LLC, Dallas
  LAW FIRM 4.0: Considerations for the Global Law Firm in 2020
• MARY MULLALLY, Head of Networks, Practical Law Company, London
  How Corporate Counsel in the UK and Europe are Changing, and the Key Elements of Success
• MICHAEL O’NEILL, SVP and General Counsel, Lenovo Corporation, Washington D.C.
  Fit for Global: Operating Tenets for the General Counsel
• JOLENE OVERBECK, Chief Marketing Officer, DLA Piper, New York City
  Moving the Global Law Firm Through a Challenging Economy: Focus on Strategy
• NORM RUBENSTEIN, Partner, Zeughauser Group, Washington D.C.
  The Key to Credible International Branding
• THOMAS J. SABATINO, Jr., Executive Vice President & General Counsel, Schering-Plough Corporation, New Jersey
  Musical Chairs: How Today’s General Counsel Earns a Seat at the Top Executive Table
• HELENA SAMAHA, General Counsel EMEA, AlixPartners, Paris
  Transcending Legal Expertise to Get to the Heart of Serving Global Clients
• ADAM SMITH, General Counsel, EADS Defence & Security, Munich
  Laws are Local: How Can Corporate Legal Services Become More Global?
• JOHN H. STOUT, Partner, Fredrikson & Byron, Minneapolis
  The Fulfilled International Lawyer: Advice for a Successful Career
• DAVID SYED, Senior Partner - Europe, Orrick, Paris
  Changing Supply & Demand for Global Legal Services: The Multi-polar Dynamic
• MARY K YOUNG, Partner, Zeughauser Group, Washington D.C.
  Moving the Global Law Firm Through a Challenging Economy: Focus on Strategy

Global Best Practices for Corporate Law Departments

Corporate law departments of the world’s largest enterprises benefit from each other’s experiences to improve their management and structure for delivering legal services globally.  In-house lawyers seeking improved performance and productivity for their corporate law departments will find many best practices and practical approaches in Bright Ideas: Insights from Legal Luminaries Worldwide.  Many of the chapters are authored by leaders of global corporate law departments.

If your corporate law department faces new demands brought by global growth, increasing regulation and decreasing budgets, many structures and operating systems of the past no longer serve the law department today.  Global corporate law departments must improve efficiency and effectiveness to respond to:

• Complex laws and more aggressive regulatory enforcement in many jurisdictions
• Demands for legal advice and resources from many parts of your organization
• Requests for metrics to provide predictability on costs and demonstrate the value of the legal function to the business
• Expansion of your company into new global markets where legal approaches differ
• Opportunities for increased efficiency of the corporate law department through technology tools
• Increasing costs of disputes, litigation, compliance and outside counsel fees

Bright Ideas Editor Leigh Dance, a consultant to some of the world’s largest corporate law departments, finds that corporate law departments have many similar needs for structure and process, and can benefit greatly from each others’ best practices.  “Every corporate law department has its points of difference, but the issues are generally not unique.  There are many structures, systems and processes in place that provide more than a starting point for corporate law departments that want to improve.  Every organization has different needs, but it’s far more cost-effective and efficient to adapt from other corporate law departments’ approaches then to reinvent the wheel.”