Contract Heroes
Each episode features a different perspective from a guest on how every organization can benefit from building better commercial relationships with vendors and customers by implementing a good contracting process.
Pepe Toriello and Marc Doucette talk with innovators with long experience in contract management. How can a company with no CM process implemented take a first step, how to manage relationships with vendors or clients when things go wrong and where technology, such as CLM, can be more useful.
Mar 27, 2023
The Impact of ChatGPT on CLM - Zach Abramowitz
On this episode of Contract Heroes we met with Zach Abramowitz, the founder at Killer Whale Strategies, a legal industry consultancy firm. He is a thought leader in legal innovation, regularly speaking at conferences, and has a newsletter covering all things legal-tech. During this episode, we explore the impact that ChatGPT will have on the CLM space and legal teams, the potential benefits and challenges of incorporating AI into organizations, and how it can revolutionize the way in-house teams work.
Mar 27, 2023
The Impact of ChatGPT on CLM - Zach Abramowitz
On this episode of Contract Heroes we met with Zach Abramowitz, the founder at Killer Whale Strategies, a legal industry consultancy firm. He is a thought leader in legal innovation, regularly speaking at conferences, and has a newsletter covering all things legal-tech. During this episode, we explore the impact that ChatGPT will have on the CLM space and legal teams, the potential benefits and challenges of incorporating AI into organizations, and how it can revolutionize the way in-house teams work.
Mar 16, 2023
Defining Contract Principles - Jerry Silber
On this episode of Contract Heroes Jerry Silber the Vice President & Deputy General Counsel at Verizon Business Group joins us to discuss 6 contracting principles to help your team simplify over-complicated agreements, understand what data is important to monitor post-signature and so much more!
Mar 06, 2023
LIVE: Procurement Change & Claims Management - Jerry Pessah
In this episode of Contract Heroes, we met with Jerry Pessah the Director II, Contract Manager at Flour Corporation. During his career, he has managed over 7 billion in procurement contracts and helped his clients save over $700 million in claims and negotiations. During our conversation, we discussed what claims management is, why post-execution contracting tasks are so important, and how a real-time procurement process can help businesses avoid potential claims by identifying issues early on in the process.
Feb 28, 2023
LIVE: Increasing Legal & Procurements Value Through Technology - Steve Brown
On this episode of Contract Heroes recorded live at the WorldCC Conference in Phoenix last year, we sat down with Steve Brown the Senior Manager of Legal Managed Services & Contract Lifecycle Management at EY Law. During our conversation, we discussed how technology can help both legal and procurement teams focus on high-value work, how to continue to maintain your CLM tool beyond go-live, and how to make sure all of your stakeholder's needs are met when evaluating vendors.
Feb 21, 2023
LIVE: Preventing Contract Revenue Leakage - Leandro Doca
On this episode of Contract Heroes, we sat down with Leandro Doca, the VP and head of CCM for Americas at Capgemini. Drawing on his years of expertise, Leandro shared many tips around aligning third-party and client contracts in order to prevent revenue leakage, tips on evaluating tools to help you your team advance in their contract management journey, and so much more.
Feb 13, 2023
Automating Outcome-Based Contracts - Anna Fink-Carratt & Phil Dungey
In our most recent episode of Contract Heroes Phil Dungey of Deloitte Legal and Anna Fink-Carratt of SirionLabs helped us break down the key points of codifying your contracts, especially in organizations with complex compliance standards. During our conversation we discussed: What outcome-based contracting is, what industries are using these types of contracts, steps an organization can take to evaluate their contract processes, and so much more!
Feb 03, 2023
Live: Common CLM Implementation Pitfalls - Lewis Bretts
On this episode of the Contract Heroes we were joined by Lewis Bretts, the Group Managing Director for LOD + SYKE in the US. During our conversation, we touched on a number of things including the main problems most customers face during CLM implementations and how to solve them, the importance of incorporating non-legal stakeholders in your CLM implementation process, advice on where to start the CLM journey, and what to avoid, and so much more.
Jan 17, 2023
LIVE: Departments Roles In The Contract Lifecycle - Nick Chatas
Nick brings a unique perspective to the discussion of CLMs, having held different positions all throughout GM during his career so far. His broad understanding of the various departments makes him well-suited to help select the CLM tool the company will eventually adopt.
Jan 10, 2023
LIVE: Integrating CLM Into Your Tech-Stack - Roderick Wade
Joining us for a second time on the show in this episode is Roderick Wade, the Vice President of Contract Management at MedImpact. Rod handles relationships with clients of all shapes and sizes with a focus in the pharmaceutical field. During our live discussion at the WorldCC event in Phoenix we discussed: Why a CLM's ability to integrate with other parts of your tech-stack is so important, leveraging a CLM as your source of truth, how to learn from your contract data and build new processes from it and so much more!
Jan 06, 2023
LIVE: Legal Design and Contract Visualization - Stefania Passera
Stephania is the founder at Passera Design and the co-founder of the Legal Design Alliance. She is also the inventor of the Legal Design Jam, a sought-after keynote speaker, trainer, and published author. She holds a doctoral degree from Aalto University, where her empirical dissertation focused on how visualization can improve contract user experience and foster better business relationships. During our time together we discussed how the use of diagrams, images, and visually structured layouts can make contracts more understandable and engaging for their day-to-day users, why following a user-centered approach is so important when it comes to contract design and so much more!
Dec 12, 2022
How To Avoid Common CLM Implementation Pitfalls - Bernadette Bulacan
In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had the chance to speak with a well-known figure in the CLM space, Bernadette Bulacan. Bernadette is the Chief Evangelist at Icertis and has been working in legal tech for over 2 decades. During our discussion we touched on: How legal departments have evolved over the past 5-10 years, how can other departments in an organization benefit from a CLM tool, what Pitfalls to watch out for when starting a CLM implementation, how do you handle extracting and migrating data when moving to a new contract management tool and so much more!
Nov 29, 2022
Tips For CLM Vendor Selection - Lara Trope
In this episode of Contract Heroes, we met with Lara Trope. Lara has experience as both inside and outside counsel and now works as a legal operations consultant at InnoLaw. During our discussion, we talked about how to narrow your search for a CLM tool, what action items you should make sure your team and the vendors are taking to help make sure you're properly evaluating vendors, and also who on your team should be a part of the selection process.
Nov 17, 2022
Training the Next Generation of Contract Professionals - Jeanette Nyden
In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had the chance to chat with author and commercial contracting expert, Jeanette Nyden. Jeanette has written 4 books sharing her expertise in the contracting field and currently provides a range of online and in-person training programs to help contract professionals master the ins and outs of contract management.
Oct 25, 2022
Building Relationships Through Contracting With Alex Hamilton
In this installment of Contract Heroes, we sat down with the CEO of Radiant Law, Alex Hamilton. Alex set up Radiant Law in 2011 and helps his customers by optimizing how large they create, negotiate and manage their commercial contracts. During our conversation, we discussed how relationships play a pivotal role in contracting processes, how to create reasonable contracts, and tips for building playbooks & templates.
Oct 11, 2022
The Impact of CLM On Procurement With Prashant Dubey
In this episode of Contract Heroes, we sat down with VP of Contract Solutions and Disability Inclusion at Elevate, Prashant Dubey. Prashant hails from a varied background, starting out in healthcare for about a decade before moving west in the late 90s to switch industries. Throughout our conversation, Prashant drew on his extensive experience working with contract lifecycle management (CLM) software to talk about the growing impact of CLM on procurement departments as well as the key functionalities that proper contract management can accomplish.
Sep 20, 2022
The Journey From In-House To Outside Counsel - Jeff Pomeraz
In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had the chance to chat with founder of Pomeranz Law, Jeff Pomeranz. Before opening his own law firm Jeff worked as an in house attorney for 10 years making him a great resouce for others that work with contracts to learn from. During our discussion to talked about making the transition from inside to outside counsel, what information other department executives are truely looking for when meeting with the legal team, and what the value of a contract lifecycle management system is.
Sep 07, 2022
The Current State of Legal Ops- Susan Packal
In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had the opportunity to chat with Susan Packal, the Vice President of Legal Ops at Snyk. Throughout our conversation, Susan provided a wealth of information about the current state of the legal ops realm as well as some essential tips for anyone just starting out in the space and those looking to hire legal ops roles.
Aug 22, 2022
Strengthening Small Legal Teams - Stefanie Frank
During this episode with Stefanie we cover: - Best practice tips for small legal teams - How to make the most of outside counsel - How Stephanie and her team adapt to the ever-changing regulations in the Healthcare space - What her team was looking for when searching for and choosing a CLM tool
Aug 15, 2022
AI & Contract Management - Jim Chiang
Throughout our conversation with Jim, we discussed: - The potential of AI technology and CLM - Why some vendors stretch the truth when it comes to what their AI is capable of - Where AI capabilities really are useable at this stage of product development - What the future holds for CLM and AI
Jul 25, 2022
The Rules of Redlining - Nada Alnajafi
In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had a chat with contracting superstar Nada Alnajafi. Throughout our conversation with Nada, we discussed: - Negotiating tips - Redlining tips - How and why she started her blog - The many other take aways from her book Contract Redlining Etiquette
Jun 20, 2022
Building an in-house legal team from the ground up with Jack Terschluse
Building an in-house legal team from the ground up with Jack Terschluse We recently sat down to chat with Jack Terschluse, the corporate counsel for Balto based in St. Louis. Jack started his career at a large law firm, however, once the pandemic transitioned everyone into remote work, new opportunities became available and he moved to the in-house side of the law. He accepted a position as corporate counsel for Balto as a legal team of one and has since helped their team grow the legal department into what it is today. During our conversation we discussed: - Tips & tricks for a legal team of one - How to successfully build a business case and implement a CLM solution - How to build out a legal ops team at your organization
Jun 06, 2022
Tips for Developing Soft Skills with Patrick Barry
In this episode of Contract Heroes, we had a chat about soft skills with Patrick Barry, the GC of Emerson Electric's Commercial Residential Solutions. Our focus during our chat with Patrick was based around: - His list of soft skills that lawyers and sales associates can use to cut through the bureaucracy involved in the contracting process - The process his team went through when finding and implementing their CLM of choice
May 31, 2022
How Stanford's Codex is shaping the future of law with Roland Vogl
In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had a chat with a long-term legal tech expert Roland Vogl. Roland is the executive director of CodeX, the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. Throughout our conversation with Roland, we discussed: - The foundation of CodeX and what the program has meant to him as well as the students of Standford - How the legal-tech space has changed since Roland started working with technology - What it takes to create a legal-tech start-up - Tips for those looking to branch out to other forms of work in legal other than law firms
May 13, 2022
The Evolution of the Legal-Tech space with Nick Rishwain
The Evolution of the Legal-Tech space with Nick Rishwain In this installment of Contract Heroes, we sat down with fellow legal tech podcaster, Nick Rishwain. Nick started his show, LegalTechLIVE, in 2015, when the realm of legal technology was still in the process of ramping up. With over 130 episodes, it's safe to say Nick knows his way around this space. In our episode we covered: - The evolution of the legal-tech and how it has exploded in recent years - How he has built a community and seen many organizations grow to the giants they now are in the space - Tips for selling to in-house leaders and what many of them are looking for when it comes to software
Apr 21, 2022
Building the Bridge Between Business and Legal - Dan Hendy
This episode of Contract Heroes featured Dan Hendy, the Executive Vice President of Corporate and Commercial Solutions at UnitedLex. Dan has been working in legal operations since 2015. Throughout our conversation, we discussed: - Dan's experiences with how the world of legal operations has evolved since its early days - Some of the biggest mistakes he's seen when choosing a vendor - The two goals every organization should have when it comes to implementing your perfect CLM tool
Apr 14, 2022
The Contract Management Quadrant - Kris Kwiatek
In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had the opportunity to chat with none other than Krzysztof Kwiatek, the associate director at Deloitte Legal. Kris works in legal management consulting with a focus on CLM tools. We focused our conversation around: - What makes a successful implementation? - The correlation between high user adoption rates and happy customers - How to go about choosing from the wide variety of CLM solutions currently available on the market.
Mar 28, 2022
Choosing A Partner For Your CLM Journey - Lucy Bassli
Lucy is the former Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft, during her time there she completely changed how the legal department supported the contracting process. Lucy left Microsoft 4 years ago to start her own consultancy, InnoLaw, where she now works with her team to help corporate law firms better understand how to manage their contracts. In this week's episode we discuss: - How the in-house legal and tech industry has grown over the past few years - Why AI isn’t all it’s cracked up to be when it comes to CLM tools - What to look for from a technical standpoint when evaluating tools for your organization - Things to look for beyond product fit when choosing a vendor or consulting partner
Mar 14, 2022
Advancements in Legal Ops Training - Mat Jakubowski
In this installment of Contract Heroes, we had the opportunity to chat with Mat Jakubowski. Mat has over 10 years of legal experience at companies like Thomson Reuters and Dentons. This experience has given him a unique blend of skills that he now uses to both run a legal ops department and also provide world-class Legal Tech training and mentoring to aspiring lawyers and legal professionals at Silvertown Legal. In this week's episode we discuss: - Free Legal-tech resources that are available to everyone - Why hiring the right employees is just as valuable, if not more valuable than purchasing the right technology - How to start your search for the perfect CLM tool - Understanding how to gain high user adoption to make the most out of our new technology purchases
Feb 18, 2022
Resources to help the modern in-house lawyer grow - Avi Weiss
Avi is currently an in-house lawyer at Coinsquare, a cryptocurrency company based in Canada, but he also manages Counselwell simultaneously. His passion for in-house counsel and the drive to provide resources for his peers in this versatile and demanding profession have led him to take on both jobs, often working nights and weekends to achieve his goals. Throughout the episode, we had the opportunity to learn more about Counselwell and its early days while also gathering some of Avi’s essential tips for anyone looking to find a job working as in-house counsel. Though a bit different from our typical subject matter, Avi’s perspective provides a great look at the world of in-house counsel, what it’s like, and how to get your foot in the door.
Jan 17, 2022
Picking the Right People for Contract Management - Kim Miller
Kim is currently the Senior Director of Supply Chain Management at L3Harris where she strives to better the understanding of how businesses engage with their supply chains and customers. Both in her current role and throughout her experience so far, she has had the opportunity to work with contracts on multiple levels, including subtier contracting and supply chain contracting, making her an excellent resource to discuss the inner workings of the contracting process.
