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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Lists and commentary researched and compiled by RSGI and FT editors
One striking development in the legal industry over the past 20 years has been the rise in status of business professionals in law firms and operations experts in corporate legal departments.
Pejoratively described in the past as “non-lawyers” or “fee burners”, their ability to drive innovation, new business and profitability now wins increasing respect from lawyer colleagues.
The first such “non-lawyer” to feature in an FT Innovative lawyers shortlist, in 2012, was Elliot Moss, now chief brand officer at Mishcon de Reya. He was shortlisted for efforts to change the brand perception of the firm as focused on private clients to being just as able to serve business clients. He was one of the first business professionals to become a UK law firm partner.
Another milestone promotion to partner was Kerry Westland at Addleshaw Goddard in 2019. It showed the value to a law firm of professionals specialising in innovation. Westland started at the firm as a paralegal, eschewing a traditional legal career path to make automation and efficiency her expertise.
20 years of outstanding individuals
Read about the other 80 individuals across four categories who collectively epitomise how the legal sector has changed since the Innovative Lawyers series began
Some of the law firm intrapreneurs — that is, entrepreneurial talent — are formally designated as heads of innovation. The role did not exist in law firms when the FT Innovative Lawyers series began in 2006 but it has proliferated over the past 10 years.
As demand for expertise in efficiency became more acute, some lawyers decided to make innovation, in effect, a core part of their practice areas. They include Wendy Butler-Curtis at Orrick, Ben Allgrove at Baker McKenzie and David Wakeling at Allen & Overy, now A&O Shearman.
The need for greater efficiency underpinned by innovation led many law firms to set up separate delivery arms to streamline how they provide legal expertise to clients. A standout example is Christopher Georgiou, who heads Ashurst Advance in Emea and the US.
Some of these delivery arms have become adjacent and standalone business lines to the firms’ legal practice areas that deliver consulting services to in-house legal teams. Leaders in the field include Caryn Sandler at Gilbert & Tobin, and ex-army officer Ben McGuire, previously at Simmons & Simmons.
Technological aptitude or enthusiasm is clearly a hallmark for many though not all of the intrapreneurs in the list. At Freshfields, Charlotte Baldwin, one of the first digital officers appointed in any law firm, introduced many software and engineering concepts into legal practice for the first time.
However, not all the intrapreneurs are tech wizards. For some, the ability to achieve organisational change manifests in different ways: Scott Rechtschaffen, chief knowledge officer at employment law firm Littler, was one of the first in the field to embrace how data could augment and improve legal advice. Alastair Morrison, previously a Pinsent Masons partner and a former head of its clients and markets practice, influenced shifts in organisational culture and galvanised colleagues to approach strategy and purpose differently.
Another long-term influencer is LeeAnn Black, chief operating officer at Latham & Watkins. The firm, the world’s second biggest by revenues in 2024, was also one of the first to run itself as a straightforward business rather than a professional partnership. Black, with her accounting background, has played a key role in this. A similar change took place at White & Case, where Michael Hertz had a broad remit covering business development, marketing and innovation in a 15-year tenure.
Reflecting the incursion of the Big Four accounting firms in the legal sector is the inclusion in the list of Sandeep Agrawal, head of PwC’s global NewLaw legal services business. Initially a partner at PwC India, Agrawal has integrated legal technology products into the firm’s global offering to clients.
The in-house legal intrapreneurs in the list tend to be pioneers in operations. Two were instrumental in building the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (Cloc), a members’ forum that aims to lift the role of the in-house operations professional. Mary O’Carroll served as its president, and Aine Lyons as its Emea representative. Both have backed internal change at their organisations: O’Carroll at Google and then at legal tech provider Ironclad; and Lyons at VMware and now Workday. Rose Battaglia at Deutsche Bank was one of the first legal operations professionals to exert influence and was a role model for many others.
Matt Galvin was head of compliance at global alcoholic drinks company AB InBev, adding ethics to his role as the company realised the power of his work with data and analytics to effect more compliant behaviours in its workforce. Craig Emery’s influence saw the legal team at Telstra adopt so-called agile working practices.
Christina Demetriades at professional services firm Accenture similarly exemplifies the rise of the in-house legal intrapreneur. Committed to transformation in-house, she is now selling this concept to the legal sector for the firm, via consulting and delivery services.
