Culture of Law: Recent Episodes
Level7 Legal
On the final episode of Season 1, we sat down with Whitney Stefko Dover, Founder and CEO of Pollinate Legal.
Whitney is a recovering litigator, who shifted from a successful career in civil litigation to entrepreneurship through her activewear business, FitKnits LLC. After the successful launch and sale of her business, Whitney was inspired to continue her journey in law, via Legal Operations.
Taking on ad hoc projects highlighted the need for tech implementation, process innovation and data mapping. Whitney founded Pollinate Legal to connect legal teams, legal technology and data to optimize and automate legal operations.
Whitney shares her own experiences as a lawyer-turned-CEO and provides practical advice on how to take ownership of your legal career, explore different opportunities, and build a career path that suits your individual skills and goals.
Joining us on today’s episode, we have Tom Stephenson, Director of Legal Operations at Credit Karma and arguably one of the most influential members of the Legal Operations community.
Tom has worked with CLOC and Harvard Law as a speaker and author, helping to define the future of legal operations education. Tom is also the Co-Founder of Dear Legal Ops, an organization spearheading efforts to bring legal operations educational programs to universities and law schools.
Join us today as we learn more about Tom and what is in store for the future of the Legal Operations community and profession.
On Episode 5 of the Culture of Law, we are joined by Jonathan Johnson-Swagel, Senior Legal & Business Operations Manager at Uber, who embodies the spirit of the modern Legal Operations professional. Jonathan is a self-taught expert in Ops, CLM, change management and program management. Transitioning from a science background into Legal Ops, Jonathan studied his way to the top by networking, gathering cross-functional expertise and applying it to his role.
Jonathan is paying it forward on today's episode, which is absolutely packed full of technical discussions on change management and program management for legal teams. We discuss the top cross-functional methodologies available today and how they have worked when applied to a legal team. We discuss the unique challenges Legal Ops leaders face when bringing program management and change management into a legal setting.
Whether you are looking to gather skills to break into Legal Ops or are an active legal professional who is curious about best practices in our field, this is the episode for you.
Ever wonder what lawyers chat about when they are off-hours?
On Episode 4, we sat down and had a candid and very humorous conversation with Jonathan Williams, the Chief Operations Officer of Calame - The Legal Ops Company. Calame is an outfit that helps legal teams ✨shine✨ by improving organizational and operational efficiencies. In his past life, Jonathan was a prosecutor, a litigator and then an entrepreneur.
Jonathan’s journey to Calame was not the result of a conscious career strategy, but rather the willingness to look for opportunities, take risks, and roll with the punches. This approach, coupled with a firm belief that everyone should try to make a positive impact, continues to guide his personal and professional strategy.
We chat openly about our experience in law school, joining the legal profession and then veering from the "traditional" path into legal technology. We also discuss our hopes for future legal education and firm (and in-house culture). Full of anecdotes, lawyer jokes and some cheeky language (don't say we didn't warn you).
On Episode 3 of the Culture of Law, we are excited to welcome Omar Sweiss and Mark Harris from JusticeBid to the podcast!
JusticeBid is at the forefront of changing the depth and impact of DEI in the legal community, using data analytics to empower legal teams to track DEI metrics for their vendors (including outside counsel). JusticeBid’s initiative, “Operations Empowering Change'' rings true for Omar and Mark, who both lead mission-oriented lives outside of the company.
Tune in to learn about the origination of JusticeBid, how data is empowering change in the legal industry and how you can operationalize data to build an impactful DEI program.
For more information on JusticeBid, please visit their website or follow Omar and Mark on LinkedIn.
To learn more about Level7 Legal, visit our website or follow Charlotte and Marie on LinkedIn.
On Episode 2 of the Culture of Law, we welcome Memme Onwudiwe to discuss AI, Data, and the impact these are having on what it means to be a lawyer.
Memme is a founding member and the EVP of Business & Legal at Evisort, a CLM solution leading the industry with its advanced AI. Memme built Evisort with his classmates while attending Harvard Law. In addition to Evisort’s rise to success, Memme is known for his contributions to Space Law, Web3, and the African legal community.
A champion of AI, Memme knows better than anyone the impact data will have on the legal industry. By harnessing the data that Legal already passively collects, Legal will be able to become a more strategic partner to the business.
In today's episode, we will explore the use cases for data and how a data-driven team is in fact, a more human one.
To follow Memme's content and get to know the Evisort team, please follow him on LinkedIn and visit www.evisort.com.
To learn more about how to build leadership and transform culture on legal teams, follow Level7 Legal on LinkedIn or visit our website.
For more thought pieces and content from our hosts, please follow Marie Widmer and Charlotte Smith on LinkedIn.
Kicking off Season 1 of the Culture of Law, we are joined by Rajan Gupta, Director of Technology (Legal and Compliance) at Meta to discuss the rise of technology in the legal industry and its impact on culture and leadership.
With over 10 years of experience working in legal technology, Rajan offers unique insights into the future of legal, and what it means to lead teams enabling legal technology and operations.
To learn more about Rajan's experience in legal technology, please follow him on LinkedIn.
To learn more about how to build leadership and transform culture on legal teams, follow Level7 Legal on LinkedIn or visit our website.
For more thought pieces and content from our hosts, please follow Marie Widmer and Charlotte Smith on LinkedIn.