FROM SUPPORTING TO STRATEGY:
ENGINEERING THE NEXT-GEN LEGAL DEPARTMENT
Agenda Day 1
8:00 am - 8:30 am
REGISTRATION & COFFEE
8:30 am - 8:35 am
OPENING REMARKS FROM IQPC
8:35 am - 8:45 am
OPENING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIRPERSON
Justin Turman -
Founder, Owner,
Automate Office Work
8:45 am - 8:50 am
LIVE POLLING
8:50 am - 9:20 am
CASE STUDY: FROM MEASURES TO MATURITY – LEGAL OPS MODELS AND USE CASES FOR STRATEGIC IMPACT
Saideh Ahmadloo -
Global Lead Counsel,
Kraft Heinz
The future of high-performing legal departments isn't about choosing between legal ops and legal strategy—it's about making them inseparable. Drawing from my experience leading legal transformation across complex global organizations, I'll share the uncomfortable truths about where legal ops creates genuine business value versus where it becomes expensive overhead.
Using insights from ACC-CLOC maturity assessments and PwC's latest benchmarking, we'll examine how leading organizations break down silos between legal strategy and operations to drive measurable business outcomes. This isn't another framework presentation—it's a strategic reset based on real-world wins and failures.
9:20 am - 9:50 am
CASE STUDY: SAFE SAAS – HOW ONE GLOBAL OIL COMPANY REDUCED THEIR COSTS BY SWITCHING FROM ON PREM TO CLOUD
Dan Ruderman -
Director Strategic Alliances,
CounselLink
Technology has the transformative power to improve the efficiency of in-house legal teams allowing lawyers to spend more time on valuable tasks ultimately driving the productivity of the whole team, leveraging AI and automation tools. Technically advanced legal teams have implemented tools to automate processes such as contract management, e-discovery, legal research, compliance-specific tools and even scanning contracts to highlight and suggest improved clauses.
- Hear real-life case studies where AI and technologies have improved the efficiency of day-to-day menial tasks
- Learn how to identify automation opportunities and select the appropriate tools to implement
- Gain insight into the implementation process to ensure this is effective from day one and you can realise their benefits immediately
As companies grapple with AI, cultural readiness has emerged as a key determinant of successful AI adoption. Shifting an organization’s mindset from scepticism to curiosity requires leadership, clear communication, and cross-functional collaboration. One of the most significant barriers to implementation is risk aversion – but does adopting AI truly demand a binary approach to risk, or is there room for informed experimentation and innovation? Join this session to discuss how companies can foster a more open, innovation-friendly culture while teams with the skills and knowledge to balance risk with opportunity.
- Learn to assess your current culture, and how you can model curiosity and trust in AI, enabling your team to view it not as a threat but a strategic enabler
- Discuss how to overcome implementation hurdles with cross-functional alignment from legal, IT, operations, and business units to help demystify AI and embed it responsibly
- Redefine your role in the implementation of AI and shift from gatekeeper to strategic advisor, prioritising governance over paralysis
Candice Dawe-Poultney - Legal Operations Manager, Royal London
Whether you're stepping into legal operations for the first time or steering a mature function across global teams, the fundamentals matter. Legal operations leaders in this day and age must take stock of what they have, design for what they truly need, and lead others through adoption and enablement. From structuring your team to embedding sustainable tool usage, it’s a blueprint for setting up legal operations that actually works—today, tomorrow, and beyond. The goal is to create systems that empower, not confuse, build trust across stakeholders, and evolve with intention.
• Learn how to assess and articulate your current legal ops setup – processes, people, tools – and align it with future goals
• Explore techniques to drive adoption, manage change fatigue, and support the end user beyond rollout
• Discover how foundational clarity enables smarter growth, better cross-functional collaboration, and long-term tool sustainability
11:40 am - 12:25 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION: DRIVERS OF CHANGE, PIONEERS OF DEVELOPMENT – WHAT WILL THE FUTURE OF LEGAL OPERATIONS LOOK LIKE?
Arta Koxha -
Legal Operations Manager,
Collinson Group
Anastazja Zimowska - Director, Global Head of Legal Operations & Chief of Staff to General Counsel, Ciena
Peter Carlsson - Head of Group Legal Operations, NORDEA
Gabriel Buigas - Executive Vice President, Contracts, Compliance & Commercial Services, Integreon
A recent study suggested that nearly 20% of in-house lawyers would consider leaving their roles if their department did not invest in AI, with 65% stating technology skills would be crucial in the next three years. It comes as no surprise, then, that 44% also believed legal operations would become increasingly critical in the coming years. While this is already the case, it is becoming more and more clear that legal operations are the key to whether a legal department falls behind or not – it is up to them to drive and lead the change proactively rather than wait for it to happen to them.
- Assess the role AI will play in reshaping the role of legal professionals, and what new skillsets will be necessary to adapt to the new functioning of the legal team in future years
- Discuss the role legal operations will have to play in the ethical matters concerning the AI tools they choose to establish, and what new ways of thinking they might have to adopt to navigate growing complexity and continuous change
- Explore the changing role of legal operations as it continues to move from support function to central driver of organizational strategy, and what it means to shape business outcomes as opposed to simply enabling them
Anastazja Zimowska
Director, Global Head of Legal Operations & Chief of Staff to General CounselCiena
Gabriel Buigas
Executive Vice President, Contracts, Compliance & Commercial ServicesIntegreon
Budgets are limited, desks are piled up with work, and the legal department continues to face a bad reputation as a project staller or a cost centre. However, legal operations are instrumental in quashing these issues, as they have the tools to gather information around the logistics and functions of the department. With the right ones, and the power of AI, the goal is to showcase the tangible value of the team, in this way building relationships and securing buy-in. But another question also poses itself – how can legal operations provide visibility of the intangible value of their team to members of the C-suite? Increasingly, they are having to bridge the gap between the legal team and the business, meaning that a business-minded approach is now imperative. Join this session to discover the now, next and later aspects of AI and how they will help you deliver better work products faster while cementing your operations group as the substrate that holds the department (and the company) together.
- Delve into the expectations of each member of the team, and what you can provide within your significant role to help move the collaboration along
- Weigh in on a variety of different strategies to present your case to the rest of the business and secure buy-in and support
- Explore different tools to help you access the right data and metrics for your team to help kickstart a conversation with the rest of the business
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
LUNCH
2:00 pm - 2:05 pm
LIVE POLLING
2:05 pm - 2:20 pm
QUICK FIRE CASE STUDY: INSIDE L’OREAL’S COMMUNITY – SKILLS OF THE FUTURE FOR LEGAL
Isabel Abella Bule -
Global Legal Operations Manager,
L'Oréal
2:20 pm - 2:50 pm
PRESENTATION: REAL TIME REACTION – PUTTING DATA LIQUIDITY AT THE CENTRE OF YOUR LEGAL OPERATIONS STRATEGY
Timely access to reliable and actionable data is no longer a luxury for the legal operations team – it’s a necessity. In such a fast-paced and demanding landscape, data liquidity and easy-to-access data need to be embedded into the core strategy to reduce friction across workflows and future-proof the legal function. This session will take a look at strategies to break down data silos, enhance system interoperability so that you know where things are at all times, and empower the legal team by putting insights into their hands as and when they need them.
- Learn to identify and eliminate data bottlenecks across your legal tech stack to improve agility and responsiveness
- Discover strategies for achieving data interoperability between legal, compliance and business systems
- Understand the value of real-time insights in optimising matter management, spend forecasting and risk mitigation
When managing global functions, choosing the right model of local vs global (or glocal!) in processes, standards, teams, and technologies is a highly complex and strategic decision. Whether you're managing cross-border teams or simply trying to align tools and processes across departments in the same building, achieving consistency without sacrificing flexibility is a big challenge. This session will explore the models in how to think about this challenge and practical steps to implement transformation at a global level – from navigating regional nuances, aligning stakeholders with varying priorities, and ensuring your tech stack works cohesively – even when your teams don’t share a time zone or a floor.
- Explore strategies to balance global standards with local flexibility across teams and jurisdictions
- Learn how to create alignment between disconnected tools and workflows without over-engineering
- Delve into managing communication and stakeholder engagement in fragmented or hybrid environments
4:40 pm - 5:25 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION: THE CONFIDENT CONNECTOR – TRUST, CHANGE, AND LEADERSHIP IN LEGAL OPERATIONS
Caroline Graham -
Head of Legal Operations and Transformation,
Howden
Legal ops professionals are often the linchpin between ambitious transformation and operational reality. In environments where uncertainty and hype swirl – especially around tech – it’s easy to lose sight of one’s strategic purpose. Whether you’re assembling a new team or embedding tools across departments, success comes from building a people-first strategy and cultivating legal operations as a trusted internal service. It is time to reconnect with your “why,” manage cross-team expectations and lead change initiatives with clarity and courage.
• Learn to build change initiatives from a place of self-trust, not trend-chasing
• Explore strategies to manage expectations with empathy and connect business needs with legal capacity realistically
• Position legal ops as a strategic partner that connects dots, balances ambition with execution, and enables confident decision-making
