Advising Case Study: A Roadmap for Optimizing the Legal Team of a Mission-Driven Financial Organization

Client Need: Assessment of the Established Legal Department

The client is a regional financial institution that stimulates and boosts the development of the communities it serves. With the previous Chief Legal Officer retiring and a new CEO who values having a strategic legal partner, the client sought a full assessment of the effectiveness of the legal department. The goal was to transform their established department of ten into a best-in-class legal department.

Challenges:

• The client maintains a unique position in the financial industry. Thus, the client needed consultants who could relate to the industry’s challenges and understand the importance of the client’s mission.
• The client sought to ensure that the legal team’s work aligned with the organization’s mission. The assessment was also an opportunity to increase the value the legal team brought to fulfilling the mission.
• The client sought the right person to lead and develop the best-in-class legal team and contribute to moving the organization forward.

Solution:

BarkerGilmore approached the engagement over 18 months in three phases:

1. Legal department assessment
2. Recruiting a new Chief Legal Officer
3. Accelerator Coaching for the incoming Chief Legal Officer

BarkerGilmore enlisted two Strategic Advisors and Coaches to complete the consulting and coaching portions of the engagement. Both Strategic Advisors have extensive experience as General Counsel in the financial industry—one with 30 years of experience at a leading global financial institution and the other with more than 18 years as a General Counsel at an established financial services organization.

Roadmap to Making a Best-in-Class Legal Department

BarkerGilmore’s Strategic Advisors and Coaches conducted an assessment by interviewing the business and legal teams. The Advisors gathered the teams’ perspectives on the legal function, including what worked and what could be improved. The Advisors reviewed documentation about the department, including position descriptions for the staff.

Ultimately, BarkerGilmore presented a list of recommendations, providing a roadmap for the legal department to increase its effectiveness through changes to the organizational structure. The roadmap also included steps for how the legal team could support the growth of the business. Additionally, the team also compiled a profile of the leader who would be able to implement the changes and lead the legal department successfully.

Recruited the Right Leader to Implement the Recommendations

BarkerGilmore conducted a national search for a mission-driven financial services leader. Using the profile for the Chief Legal Officer created during the assessment, BarkerGilmore focused on finding a solutions-oriented strategic legal leader within the client’s unique sector of the banking industry.

BarkerGilmore presented the client with a diverse slate of candidates matching the client’s needs. The finalist was an external candidate with significant industry experience who the client knew to be an industry leader. The client’s CEO and board had a high degree of respect for the candidate and believed the finalist could provide significant value from day one.

Accelerated the Chief Legal Officer’s Onboarding and Impact

The new Chief Legal Officer accepted a competitive compensation package and began the Accelerator Coaching phase of the engagement. The goal of the 12-month Accelerator Coaching was to advance the new CLO’s onboarding so the CLO could provide value quickly.

Results: A Roadmap for an Efficient, Forward-Thinking Legal Department

The CEO and board were thrilled with the results of the consultation, executive search, and Accelerator Coaching. As a result, the client had a plan for optimizing the legal department, as well as an experienced industry leader ready to lead the team, implement the changes, and support the growth of the business. The client found the organizational assessment extremely helpful and was impressed with the recommendations. Lastly, the client appreciated how BarkerGilmore stated a timeline at the beginning of the engagement and stuck to it.

The new Chief Legal Officer also expressed delight with the Accelerator Coaching. The CLO considered the coach well-positioned to address the types of issues a CLO faces. The coaching allowed the Chief Legal Officer to address the concerns the CLO was struggling with in real time. Finally, the Chief Legal Officer valued how coaching reminded the CLO to redirect the focus from one concern to all the items on the CLO’s plate.