What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have recently been involved in?

Acquiring Dunkin’ Brands in December 2020 represented the fourth of four multi-billion-dollar acquisitions we have completed in the last five years. Since then, we have been focused largely on (i) post-acquisition integration and solidifying the shared services platform that supports all our brands (Arby’s, Baskin-Robbins, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin,’ Jimmy John’s and Sonic); and (ii) refinancing our debt capital structure to take advantage of the historically low interest rate environment.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

It is absolutely critical. At Inspire Brands, we are a values-driven organisation with a clearly defined purpose, vision and behaviours, and any external vendors we work with must operate in partnership with us under a common value system. In a large and complex organisation like Inspire Brands, it is critical that I empower and entrust the attorneys on my team (both in-house and external counsel) to make important and impactful decisions. In an environment characterised by decentralised decision-making, I am more confident placing that level of trust in a team of people who share the same value system. We all approach the decisions entrusted to us the same way: with diligence, fairness, objectivity, and an open mind. So, as a team, we do not try to anticipate every type of decision we may face and then align around specific answers. Instead, we talk about things like risk tolerance, materiality, integrity, and various analytical frameworks for making decisions consistently.

How do you suggest in-house lawyers build strong relationships with business partners?

Learn accounting and finance. It is the universal language of business. It transcends functional areas, industries and even borders. It is what is spoken at executive team meetings and in board rooms. As in-house lawyers, we cannot expect our business partners to learn our language, we must learn theirs and then communicate legal principles and our legal advice in the language to which they are most accustomed. It speeds things along and allows legal counselling to keep pace with business decision making. When I receive an unsolicited compliment about an attorney on my team (or a piece of legal work the team has done), it is almost always about how well the attorney(s) knew and understood the business issues, not the legal issues. Folks expect you to know and understand the legal stuff, what sets you apart is truly understanding the business issues presented. Beyond that, treat your colleagues in other departments as clients who deserve excellent customer service, just like the best clients of the best law firms expect. I remind myself all the time that there are lots of other lawyers out there who would love to have a chance to do my job better than me.