We’ve been lucky enough to work with a range of professionals from solicitors to compliance experts, trade mark and patent attorneys to knowledge management professionals and more.

Today we meet Christine – a complete outsourcing solution for anyone who touches the world of intellectual property.

We’ve been lucky enough to work with a range of professionals from solicitors to compliance experts, trade mark and patent attorneys to knowledge management professionals and more.

Today we meet Christine – a complete outsourcing solution for anyone who touches the world of intellectual property.

“I am old enough to have been practising during the dot com bubble “tech wreck” of the late 90s and the GFC of 10 years ago. I have never seen anything like the current crisis.”

And with that, we set the scene for our latest profile with Colin – a senior commercial contacts lawyer and former general counsel who, like many of us, is navigating the COVID-19 crisis for both his clients and his own practice.

A selection of legal tools that are providing free/generous offers to in-house legal teams during the Coronavirus crisis.

Maurits Fourier is on a mission to make legal information compatible with modern business. It's a mission that goes beyond plain language, to using visuals informed by user research to present legal information in a more usable way, through Legal Design.

We spoke with Maurits in late 2019 and discussed the latest trends in legal design and the challenges faced by law firms and in-house teams.

Here are the takeaways.

It’s a story we hear quite often here at InCounsel – elite, city-lawyers who’ve given up the hustle and bustle of our nation’s capitals to practice and live a more balanced life in coastal or rural towns.

It’s a transition that can bring enormous rewards, yet has its own challenges, which became very real during our sit down with competition and regulatory specialist, Cicely in late 2019.

Here’s how it when down.

“You mean like a ‘virtual CFO’? But for General Counsel?” Asked my accountant.

“Yep, but not strictly virtual – an outsourced general counsel can work a mix of on-site or remotely, depending client needs,” I explained.

“Well I have bunch of clients who’d be up for that!” She exclaimed.

This conversation took place shortly after we’d met Paul Napier. As the former GC of an ASX listed company and Minter Ellison lawyer before that, Paul had seen an opportunity to provide outsourced general counsel services to high-growth and established businesses that didn’t yet have (or necessarily want) a permanent GC or in-house lawyer.

Coming up to two years on, we caught up with Paul to see how he’s tracking and how his outsourced GC offering is being received by clients.

Wendy Rubas runs compliance training a bit differently. As the incoming general counsel at VillageMD in 2017, she believed that when incidents occur, it's mostly because people don’t have the right information when they need it. She knew training was part of the answer, but that it had to be concise, practical and easy to tune into. And so, the VillageMD Working Smarter podcast was born.

We spoke to Wendy to get the backstory – from producing podcast episodes using microphones bought from Amazon to learning that interviewing is a skill that she didn’t initially possess, Wendy reveals the tools that were used, and key learnings she took away, to maximise success in a changing health care environment.

Managing legal spend is a pain point for many businesses, particularly as they mature. As your operations expand, so do your legal bills. There are more risks to manage and more contracts to sign. 

If you’re spending a lot on legal fees, you might realise that you’ll soon reach a point where it’s cheaper to employ a salaried in-house lawyer. Someone senior enough with the range of experience to deal with most of your day to day legals, and can pre-empt and manage any legal emergency

But hiring your first lawyer is a big step – it’s a significant cost, a lot of commitment and perhaps you’re just not ready?

Word of mouth recommendations work like magic. Last year one of our clients suggested we get in touch with Evan – a former top tier senior associate, now based in Delhi, India. He’d been freelancing remotely for Australian firms, carving out a unique offering at a cost-effective rate.

Since then we’ve introduced Evan to a growing number of clients to work on commercial, general corporate and M&A matters, with great results.

Until recently, our interactions were limited to phone calls and email, yet his professionalism, responsiveness and integrity were clearly evident.

We caught up for coffee during his brief visit back to Sydney, and we’re delighted to report he makes for excellent company too!

Here’s his story.

Provider Assist’s Managing Director, Victoria Kelly got in touch with InCounsel in 2017 to see if we could assist in providing an outsourced general counsel to take on the growing legal requirements of the business. 

It’s rare to hear a good news story when it comes to the preparedness of law students entering practice, and this one surely takes the cake for 2019.

The Learned Crew and ACC Australia have successfully piloted Australia’s first ever structured in-house clerkship 🚀

And they’re back for more in 2020 with two programs in Sydney and Melbourne, with in-house team applications for the Feb-Jun 2020 (Sydney) due by 22 November.

We spoke with Jessie Porteus (The Learned Crew) and Ingrid Segota (ACC) for the low-down on this year’s pilot.

It’s refreshing (and all too rare) to see young lawyers branch out on their own at the pre-senior associate level.

They’re not only brave, but have the confidence to back themselves knowing that their smarts and training have given them more than enough know-how to deliver excellent value to clients, unbound by the modus operandi of the traditional law firm model.

Anne is a unicorn among her peers. Smart, capable and building a solid practice that balances work and life in a way that most lawyers have never experienced.

Here’s her story.

I’ve been lucky enough to witness a former supervising partner get the best of a small army of partners, SA’s and juniors on the other side of the negotiating table, and think: “gee… the other side are paying for all that!”.

Meeting Peter reminded me of that encounter and how time in the market, a global perspective and a range of experience in reputable firms and legal departments can create a powerful combination of expertise and commerciality that clients long for and trust.

Having trained at King & Wood Mallesons in Sydney and London, Peter then spent 15+ years in senior, general counsel roles at ISL Marketing in Switzerland and at Lion in Melbourne and Sydney, before branching out solo to leverage his GC heritage to deliver strategic commercial solutions for his clients.

We sat down with Peter to learn more about his journey.

Step into the future with this wide-ranging conversation with Juro CEO, Richard Mabey about his company's take on the future of contracting as detailed in their recent White Paper – Machine-readable contracts: A new paradigm for legal documentation.

L’Oreal’s Executive General Counsel, Anna Lozynski is not only one of the rare examples of GCs who’ve synthesised their learnings (and passion) into a book, but she has done so in a way that has won her an admirable readership both within and outside of the legal profession.

I caught up with Anna near her Melbourne HQ and couldn’t resist some follow-up questions and the opportunity to share some of her journey with you.

Listening to war stories over a hot drink, and learning from the most experienced lawyers in their sectors is something we cherish at InCounsel.

Last week we sat with Mark, who has spent over 25 years as a Partner specialising in insurance, risk and litigation in some of Australia’s leading insurance practices.

Mark now brings his expertise and 14 years worth of inclusions and recommendations in Best Lawyers: Australia and Asia Pacific Legal 500 for insurance law into his sole practice firm, which he launched in July this year.

We covered a lot of territory, but here’s a brief snapshot.

We’re constantly inspired by the lawyers on the InCounsel panel and this month’s featured member is no different.

Meet Brooke: former Head of Business & Legal Affairs for Entertainment One Australia and a soon-to-be-published author of a children’s picture book.

We sat down with her to learn more.

It’s not every day you see lawyers work with designers to create a legal document that’s functional, easy to read and, quite simply, beautiful. That is exactly what Melbourne-based digital marketing agency, August have done with their privacy policy, in collaboration with Hive Legal.

Here’s the story of how it all came together.

It’s not every day you meet a former barrister who has successfully transitioned to become a sought after contractor for in-house legal teams.

That’s exactly what Nicholas has done after leaving the bar in 2017 to set up his own IP, litigation and commercial law practice. Since then, he has contracted to a variety of corporate legal teams such as Telstra, Nine Entertainment Co. and Fairfax.

We sat down with Nicholas to learn more.

I first met Sarah Gaidzkar when she was Acting General Counsel at Envato, and she described working hand-in-glove with their tech team using ‘project circles’ and lean, agile methodologies for their legals.

Now as General Counsel at PageUp, I caught up with Sarah to get another taste of what running an agile in-house legal team looks like at her new home, and the tech tools they use day-to-day.

In this week's edition, we experiment with a simple automation that allows your internal clients to submit legal requests to your team, and have them piped into a visual workflow tool to track its progress.