Perhaps you played the game “Follow the leader” as a child, happily taking directions on the playground from the group’s designated “leader.” While we no longer play childhood games (at least not as often as we may like), many of us are in leadership positions, and all of us have to take directions from others — whether from our CEO or the board of directors. These directions, both given and received, are all intended to benefit the organization. Whether we’re updating processes, using new technologies, or staying up-to-date on trends, we learn a lot from others — even those working outside of our organizations or industries.
A set of directions can be compared to Leading Practices, which are practices that have become widely accepted and are used by many people. A good example lies in the ACC resources that are produced in order to create efficiencies in our legal departments and community. These resources are in essence an array of best and leading practices contributed by your in-house peers, and this issue of the ACC Docket offers several.
Outside of this issue of the Docket, which includes best practices on effectively managing a brand migration, leveraging law department metrics strategically, and more, I encourage you to take a look at ACC’s Leading Practices Profiles. These profiles include insights from lawyers detailing how their legal departments have addressed the various matters that cross a GC’s desk, and recent profiles focus on crisis management, corporate governance, and the legal operations function.
As I come to the end of my time as ACC’s chair, I can’t help but reflect on the evolution of the organization over the last 12 months. Today, ACC has more than 40,000 members, who are employed by over 10,000 organizations in 85 countries. Think about the leading practices that can come out of a network that diverse! Furthermore we have released cutting-edge research. Two very well received and highly cited surveys are the ACC Foundation: State of Cybersecurity Report and the ACC Chief Legal Officers (CLO) 2016 Survey. This targeted research gives GCs and CLOs — who are looked upon more and more to guide their organizations in this area, and play a significant role in implementing best practices and regulations — insight into common practices and what’s working and not working for legal peers (www.acc.com/surveys).
I’m also proud of the launch of our global Women In the House (WITH) Initiative through the ACC Foundation. The initiative is off to a wonderful start, having already hosted successful events, including one in June at the United Nations for the Global Women in Law reception and honors dinner. The event brought together high-level women in the profession who discussed how to break through traditional barriers and also served as a place to announce a new WITH initiative and partnership with OnRamp Fellowship, “OnRamp In-house.” The program works to connect women returning to practice following a hiatus with in-house legal departments. Again, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with all of the wonderful things ACC and the ACC Foundation are doing.
You can’t develop leading practices or create groundbreaking initiatives without strong leadership and support. Luckily for us, ACC’s board of directors is full of the kind of leaders you want to follow. It has been an honor serving as your chair this year and I would like to welcome your new ACC Board Chair Iohann Le Frapper, chief legal officer and company secretary Gulf Bridge International (GBI). I leave this position knowing that you are in good hands, with an experienced chair who will share many of the best practices he’s learned along the way, while offering a diverse perspective and new ideas that will only propel ACC forward.
