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Business Law Podcast

Cultivating Creativity; Rejecting Swim Lanes; and Reimagining What it Means to be a “Legal Executive”

David Hamm

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Conversations with GCs: Episode 5.2

Olga is the CEO of Parley Pro, a next-generation contract management company that has pioneered digital negotiation technology, a former GC and prolific writer and speaker. Olga was generous enough with her time to be the first repeat guest. This conversation is just as inspiring as the first. We spend a good amount of the conversation talking about practical and actionable advice for aspiring GCs at every stage of the journey - from law school, firm life, junior in-house roles to how to think through GC offers.

Olga then provides some very helpful thoughts surrounding how lawyers can move from creating “random acts of creativity” to “intentional acts of creativity.” Her definition of creativity is both practical and insightful. She argues that creativity is “solving a problem in a different way that gets better results” and is absolutely essential to succeed as an inhouse lawyer.

We end the discussion talking about how the GC role should be viewed not as the end of the journey, but as a point on one’s journey that can lead to all sorts of other executive and board roles. Her thoughts on rejecting “swim lanes,” reimagining the meaning of “legal executive” and the current climate for lawyers becoming directors are clearly the result of deep and extended thought and you don’t want to miss it! 

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