Navigating the Intersection of Legal Ops and Procurement

On this episode, Sagi Eliyahu sits down with Mary Beth Blair, Director and Associate General Counsel of Legal Operations and Procurement at Coursera. Mary Beth shares her journey from in-house counsel at Panera Bread to her current dual role. She discusses the challenges and rewards of balancing legal operations and procurement, the evolution of legal ops and the impact of AI in the legal field.The views expressed are those of the guest and do not represent those of her current or former organizations.Key Takeaways:(03:13) Evolution and definition of legal operations over the past 10 years.(05:27) Running a legal department like a business and assessing its foundations.(08:49) Encouragement of innovation and permission to fail within legal operations.(10:43) The impact of AI and technology on legal processes and time-saving.(12:17) Focusing on quick wins and leveraging existing tech stacks.(15:39) The importance of managing relationships and understanding GC's objectives.(19:16) Leading people through change and optimizing processes.(21:06) Developing strategic thinking within legal teams and balancing tactical work​.(23:28) The struggle with knowing when to pivot and adapt strategies​.Resources Mentioned:Mary Beth Blair - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-beth-blair-99268516/Coursera - https://www.linkedin.com/company/coursera/Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) - https://cloc.orgThis episode is brought to you by Tonkean.Tonkean is the operating system for business operations and is the enterprise standard for process orchestration. It provides businesses with the building blocks to orchestrate any process, with no code or change management required. Contact us at tonkean.com to learn how you can build complex business processes. Fast.#Operations #BusinessOperations