Legal Team size:   Eight 

During the past year, what are your teams’ proudest accomplishments?   

Our team has handled a tremendous quantity of work, given the size of the department.  Our legal department handles work for more than nine franchise companies, plus other ancillary companies which operate alongside the franchisor brands. 

What strategic priorities are guiding you and your team in 2024?   

Firstly, we would like to be able incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) where we can.  Legal operations technology is changing on almost a daily basis, so my department must be well-versed on what technology is available, how it can help our department, and implementing it as needed. The second priority is to ‘stay ahead’, given the number of companies for which the department does work, the department can get stuck only being reactive to the work it receives.  I challenge my team daily to be proactive by identifying problems or concerns before they happen or start on a project that will get us ahead to help our companies meet their 2024 goals. 

Do you have a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about? 

I’m passionate about mentoring, whether it’s another lawyer in the industry or a young employee in my company.  I do think younger professionals, across all industries, are built a little different because the working culture they are trained and brought up in are different now than they were even ten years ago.  I think there’s value in giving advice to young professionals about the skills I learned that helped me be successful and help them try to apply those same principles into this new workplace environment.