53: Go For It! with Microsoft’s Lucy Bassli

Don’t Be Left Behind

Let’s hear from the other side of legal business development table. This is the first of several in-house General Counsel interviews on LeftFoot.

Lucy’s Bio on LinkedIn

Assistant General Counsel, Legal Operations and Contacting / Corporate External and Legal Affairs at Microsoft, Lucy Bassli practiced law at Davis Wright Tremaine before joining Microsoft where she oversees legal operations and a centralized contracting office specializing in process efficiencies and automation.  She recently moved into the Office of the President to expand Legal shared services and implement operational improvements.

Listen in to hear:

  • The most rewarded attribute of the in-house counsel at Microsoft
  • The multiple risks, not just legal risk managed by in-house counsel
  • The importance of staying within budget for each piece of work
  • The inherent bias that successful organizations face from outside firms and service providers
  • Strategies for bill predictability
  • Advice to firm Associates, Sr. Associates, and New Partners
  • What the legal market requires today to secure clients like Microsoft
  • What Lucy enjoys most about her role

Episode mentions include Author, Dr. Heidi Gardner – ‘Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and their firms succeed by Breaking Down Silos’; Dr. Silvia Hodges Silverstein of The Buying Legal Council; and Roger Meltzer, DLA Piper’s Global Co-Chair, and Americas Co-Chair.

This episode is sponsored by CLOC – the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium:

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