Editor’s Note: We recently interviewed Matthew Goldberg, Vice President and General Counsel at ServiceSource International, Inc. about his career and current work. His full article is here. We asked Goldberg about how he leads the small legal team of a global company to handle all of its duties, getting the most from a team of limited size. Below is what he shared with us.
“Efficiency is key, so we focus on things like having standard business agreements that are balanced so they can, as much as is possible, limit negotiation on basic terms. I also try to educate our sales team on what they can do to help use the legal team’s time more effectively by being prepared with business terms and flushing out key issues with customers before we start the contract drafting process.”
“As far as running our legal team, we have a multifunctional group in that everyone works on incoming business deals and backs each other up where needed, though folks do have ownership of certain areas so they focus on making it work as smoothly as possible. For example, deals in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) vs. APJ (Asia-Pacific Japan), deals for certain product offerings, or things like IP filings. This helps drive consistency and faster processing for everyone.”
“I am also a big fan of sharing knowledge. With our Human Resources group, for instance, I’ll include them in legal discussions with outside counsel when fringe issues arise so they can become as educated as me on the subject and therefore be better suited to address it themselves going forward. This then limits what has to go through legal in the future.”
“And no matter what, you need to have trusted legal advisors outside of the company—specialists who can take on projects and oversight when needed.”
We encourage you to read Goldberg’s full article.
Matthews's Key Partners:
Anderson Mori & Tomotsune (M&A, Corporate) | Goodwin Procter (Data Privacy Counsel) | Wilmer Hale (IP Counseling) | Wilson Sonsini (Corporate Legal Matters)
Forefront Editorial Team
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