Event Report

On 3 October, The Legal 500, in partnership with McCann FitzGerald, celebrated the launch of the 2018 GC Powerlist Ireland Teams, in the company of Ireland’s leading in house counsel.

The publication profiling the cream of Ireland’s in house teams was launched for the first time and we were privileged to welcome Mo Zain Ajaz, Chief Counsel of National Grid Property and Group Operational Excellence at McCann FitzGerald’s Dublin offices.

Mo is no stranger to driving legal operational excellence and he was generous in sharing his insight on the drivers for ‘legal operational excellence’ and facilitative leadership ‘systems & design thinking’. This moved into a fireside chat with Barry Devereux, Managing Partner, McCann FitzGerald. Each shared and engaged in a lively and insightful debate on; technology audit, decision trees, value adds and relationship management. More to follow in our toolkit.

Despite having a number of in house counsel standing due to the packed nature of the event, many questions followed on the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ in design thinking and systems thinking. One of our attendees reflected on their experience, which was echoed by so many. ‘Thank you and The Legal 500 team and sponsors for a thoroughly enjoyable and insightful evening on Wednesday. Our team were delighted to be acknowledged by The Legal 500 as part of The Legal 500 GC Powerlist: Ireland Teams. My team enjoyed the evening immensely and it was a wonderful opportunity to network and exchange ideas with colleagues and hear about innovative approaches being taken by in-house teams to influencing their businesses.

Our grateful thanks to McCann FitzGerald’s championing this initiative in Ireland over the past 4 years and for recognising the importance of acknowledging and supporting talent within the in house community in Ireland.’