Mike Fekete & Jennifer Thompson “It’s pretty rare for a law firm to undertake something like this”  (Mike Fekete (Technology Partner and National Innovation lead @ Osler) and Jennifer Thompson (Head of Osler Works)).  Mike and Jennifer joined me for this podcast to discuss how Osler is driving innovation, building tools, and launching platform solutions with reusable elements to help clients work better.  In this talk, we focused on one of their many solutions – Osler Capture – a collaborative information sharing platform hosted on Microsoft Azure allowing lawyers and cli ..read more

Chris Clearfield and Jason Barnwell “On the edge of the uncomfortable“. Words spoken by Chris Clearfield (Coach, author, consultant) as he reflects with Jason Barnwell (Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft) and Candice Carr (Senior Corporate Counsel, Storyteller at Microsoft) on tackling change and complexity. How do we get comfortable with the uncomfortable (the podcast in its entirety – no timestamps necessary!)? We talk about the genesis of the work between Chris Clearfield and Jason Barnwell (2:48) and the great partnership with Modern CELA during early stages of our team’s development ..read more

Join Modern CELA as we speak with Alan Gibson (Attorney, Business Developer at Microsoft) and Matt Kral (Director, Digital Risk Solutions at PwC) about their partnership in building predictive analytics tools. We know data is important. We know it helps us to make better decisions, spot trends, and mitigate risks. As an attorney, I always thought that was to be left to data analysts and I could not see the value to my practice. Alan and Matt have changed that narrative by using Microsoft technology to build incredible solutions that helped our legal department better support our business clien ..read more

In Part 2 of this 2-part series, Candice Carr speaks with Beth Henderson (Pro Bono Director and Senior Corporate Counsel at Microsoft) and Pablo Castro (Business Program Manager for CELA Programs at Microsoft) about the digital transformation story supporting an incredible pro bono initiative that tackles the right to information. First, Revisit Part 1 for refresher and inspiration. Second, listen to this podcast to learn from Beth and Pablo about the challenge they tackled (3:14); the technology building blocks they used (5:10); how the team built something seamless with universal ..read more

In Part 1 of this 2-part series, Jason Barnwell speaks with Thomas Burke (Partner and Chair, Pro Bono & Social Impact Committee at Davis Wright Tremaine), Beth Henderson (Pro Bono Director and Senior Corporate Counsel at Microsoft), Sima Sarrafan (Senior Corporate Counsel at Microsoft), about their partnership in the “Protecting Journalists” pro bono program. Learn about the issue being solved (1:45) and how a CLE inspired Sima to expand her pro bono portfolio (2:25).  Microsoft’s Corporate, External and Legal Affairs department prioritizes pro bono work, and ..read more

Microsoft’s Pro Bono program supports its employees in doing righteous work.  Jason Barnwell speaks with Beth Henderson (Pro Bono Director at Microsoft; Senior Corporate Counsel), Megan Yoshimura (Principal Corporate Counsel), and Jen Scully (Assistant General Counsel) about their experiences with various Microsoft Pro Bono programs. They discuss Beth’s unique role in an in-house counsel legal department (0:54), her responsibilities and goals (2:56), the new Microsoft Annual Pro Bono Report (6:04), and the challenges she faces as they work to tackle unfairness (8:39).  Learn about Me ..read more

Nicola Shaver (Managing Director, innovation and knowledge, at the law firm Paul Hastings) was recently named 2020 Innovative Leader of the Year in the International Legal Technology Association’s Distinguished Peer Awards. Candice Carr (Senior Attorney, Storyteller, Modern CELA at Microsoft) sits with Nicola to discuss her innovative solution around empowering new attorneys with digital transformation skills – LegalTech University. They discuss Nicola’s role [1:25], challenges and gaps identified when creating LegalTech University and its importance [4:26], how LegalTech got started [9:0 ..read more

Kenneth Kozakura (Advisory Analytics & Automation Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers), Rob Greenall (Sr. Program Management Manager-Legal Operations at Microsoft), Tom Orrison (Director of Legal Operations at Microsoft) talk with Jason Barnwell (Assistant General Counsel-Modern CELA (Legal) at Microsoft Corporation) about the decision to partner with PwC [2:26], the kinds of digital transformation projects that the PwC team does for Microsoft [5:15], challenges that brought Microsoft’s Legal Operations to Ken’s team [7:33], end-to-end engagement for this project [11:30], how the teams sele ..read more

David Rudin (Assistant General Counsel – Open Source and Standards at Microsoft) talks with Jason Barnwell (Assistant General Counsel-Modern Legal at Microsoft Corporation) about David’s path and interest in law [5:57], standard’s in open source [8:04], training process to become an attorney [8:55], big to small common ground [9:51], skill sets to solve the problem [10:47], does it scale [12:53], transactions that scale to practice [16:30], quantum standard license agreements [17:30], bring automation to large volume to scale [18:25], partnering with engineering [19:20], make things simple in ..read more

Jeff Carr (race car driver, Manhattan Mixologist and former General Counsel) talks with Candice Carr (Senior Attorney, Storyteller, Modern Legal at Microsoft Corporation) and Jason Barnwell (Assistant General Counsel, Modern Legal at Microsoft Corporation) about his journey through his career [0:50], business of law [4:46], role of general counsel within a business [8:12], progress with the operator, manager, and leadership roles [13:13], key values [16:40], defining culture [21:40], shifting ourselves to a preventative mode [23:23], having a discipline structure [27:44], general counsel adapt ..read more