Only one in four legal leaders is confident in their ability to tackle strategic planning and resource allocation.1

A good strategic plan for the legal department elevates the GC from captain of a firefighting squad to savvy business partner, but how do you create one? In this installment of the Strategic GC, Gartner legal and compliance advisor Sarah Barrett-Vane and host Eliza Krigman discuss two essential elements: defining legal goals that align with organizational objectives and adjusting to changes in the business environment. 

Listen to learn what effective GC do to adapt well, such as capability planning, and find out what kind of events warrant a shift in tack.

New episodes publish on the last Thursday of the month. 

1 2022 Gartner General Counsel Personal Effectiveness Diagnostic: Gartner surveyed 93 GC against 185 attributes to determine the markers of a personally effective GC and the behaviors, activities and methodologies they implement that makes them personally effective. Data was collected from 1 January through 31 December 2022, and represents respondents in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand. All industry segments qualified for this survey, and organization revenue ranged from less than $250 million to $50 billion and greater for the 2022 fiscal year.

Sarah Barrett-Vane is a U.K.-based legal operations and procurement leader. At Gartner, she focuses on advising general counsel and heads of legal operations.

Sarah worked as a lawyer for 13 years before moving into legal procurement and contract management. She served for five years as director of legal operations at Royal Mail, where she focused on buying legal services, managing external providers, and implementing legal technology and process improvements. 

She started her own legal operations/procurement consulting business in 2018, advising corporate legal teams on topics including legal panel reviews, legal technology solutions and improving department performance.