Interest Groups

ACC Legal Operations is designed to support ongoing member collaboration to advance law department management. Connect with others who are committed to identifying leading practices, sharing knowledge and resources, and helping one another find solutions to common challenges.

This space provides an overview of Interest Group activities in one convenient location. Interest Group leaders use the Events page to announce conference calls, webcasts, etc. If you wish to participate in any of the Interest Groups, contact lawdepartmentops@acc.com. To contact Interest Group leads, use the Member Directory.  

External Resource Management

This group is focused on best practices when managing outside counsel, vendors, experts, staff augmentation, contract attorneys, LPOs, consultants and associations/memberships.

Interest Group Lead: Sam Frasso with TIAA

Interest Group Co-Lead: Open

Monthly cadence calls are held the 2nd Thursday at 2:00 p.m. (EST). 

Internal Resource Management

This group is focused on best practices when managing internal staff resources (from lawyers to admins), including talent development and performance management, communications and department conferences.

Interest Group Lead: Staci Van Der Snick-Novack of McDonalds

Interest Group Co-Lead: Dawn Webster of Milliman

Monthly cadence calls are held the 1st Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. (EST). 

Information Governance & Discovery

This group focuses on advancing practices in information governance, including eDiscovery management.

Interest Group Lead: Jessica Morse of Oracle

Interest Group Co-Lead:  Lisa Ripley of Oracle

Monthly cadence calls are held the 3rd Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. (EST). 

Metrics & Analytics

This group focuses on standardizing metrics related to common areas of legal resource deployment (i.e., in-house resource metrics, outside resource metrics, law firm metrics, metrics related to fixed-fee arrangements, etc.) that will enable each of the companies to make informed decisions and develop justifications about appropriate resource deployment.

Interest Group Lead: Dan Young of Boston Scientific

Interest Group CoLead: Mike Stein of Qurate Retail

Monthly cadence calls are held the 3rd Thursday at 1:00 p.m. (EST).

Project, Process & Knowledge Management

This group focuses on practices and tools used to support team coordination for efficient and effective management and execution of the legal work.

Interest Group Lead: Marianne Troscinski of Navistar

Interest Group Co-Lead: Lauren Schultz of Lockheed Martin

Monthly cadence calls are held the 2nd Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. (EST). 

Strategic Planning

This group – for large law department COOs – is focused on processes to establish and manage strategic plans, while integrating those plans with enterprise strategy and goals.

Interest Group Leads: Bob Taylor of Liberty Mutual & Brad Rogers of TIAA

Technology & Tools

This group is focused on topical issues related to technology with respect to selection, deployment, driving adoption of legal tools and technology, as well as ongoing management issues, such as negotiating upgrades, keeping viable alternatives available and data security/privacy. Generally, this group will not focus on applications for metrics/analysis or project/process management that are covered in other Interest Groups.

Interest Group Lead: Chris Kopeck of Walgreens

Interest Group Co-Lead: Lorraine Bracy-Ward of PTC Therapeutics

Monthly cadence calls are held the 4th Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. (EST). 

Industry Group - Health Care Manufacturing Companies

Participants in this group will benchmarking around the legal operations issues and opportunities unique to the pharmaceuticals, device and diagnostics industries.

Interest Group Lead: Laura Ward of Abbott Laboratories

Interest Group CoLead: Katie Fedosz of Merck

Monthly cadence calls are held the 1st Thursday at 3:00 p.m. (EDT) (Apr, June, Aug, Oct, Dec, Feb). 

*Note that it is impossible to design Interest Groups that are mutually exclusive. Over time, we will add, delete or redefine them based on group projects and member interest.