In-House Legal returns with new host Randy Milch, the executive vice president and strategic policy advisor to the chair and CEO for Verizon Communications. Formerly the general counsel for Verizon, Randy has worked nearly his entire legal career in the telecom industry. In this episode of In-House Legal, Legal Talk Network producer Laurence Colletti interviews host Randy Milch as he takes the reigns of the show. Together, they discuss Randy’s path to becoming Verizon’s GC, the importance of having talented attorneys on your team, and the challenges faced in regulatory environments. In addition, they talk about the cost of patent trolls, the necessity of support staff, and relentlessly weathering pressure and uncertainty. Tune in to hear what Randy’s plans are for the show’s future as well as his advice for in-house legal departments. Randy Milch is the executive vice president and strategic policy advisor to the chair and CEO for Verizon Communications. Prior to that, he was the company’s executive vice president and general counsel. Mr. Milch has worked a career in the telecom industry and brings decades of legal experience to the In-House Legal show.

“I don’t measure my relevance or success by the number of people who report to me.” -Mark Chandler

As senior vice president and general counsel at Cisco, Mark Chandler has increased the efficiency and overall success of the legal department while dealing with non-practicing entities (patent trolls) and questions of security, privacy, and surveillance between the U.S. and Europe. His experiences in international business relationship building and working directly with sales departments has given him the skills to develop an in-house legal department that truly focuses on efficiency.

In this rebroadcasted episode of In-House Legal, Randy Milch interviews Mark Chandler about his path to general counsel at Cisco, how living and working in Europe helped him achieve success in a multinational company, and how he approaches the challenges he’s faced. The first half of the podcast follows Mark’s journey after law school, working in-house at the hard disk manufacturing company Maxtor and then transitioning to StrataCom, an IT service management firm later acquired by Cisco. He talks about living in Germany and France, Cisco’s production of internet infrastructure and cloud-based services and products, and what his position as general counsel involves. He also discusses why collaborative relationships between sales and legal departments are very important to the general success of a company.

In the second half of the podcast, Mark and Randy discuss the challenges a multinational technology company like Cisco faces today. Mark explains how he has used automation of repeated legal tasks to greatly reduce the legal department’s burden on the company as a whole. He then talks about potential solutions to the patent litigation issues that have increased exponentially in the past 15 years and U.S. government surveillance in Europe. Stay tuned to the end for Mark’s advice on running an in-house legal department that is truly efficient and works with the rest of the company.

Mark Chandler is senior vice president and general counsel at Cisco, a multinational technology firm based in the United States. In these roles, he oversees Cisco’s global legal activities and policies, as well as ethics, compliance and regulatory affairs, employee relations, investigations, and brand protection. Mark is a leader in the patent, security, and legal innovation spaces.

As we all know, the internet continually disrupts society on a global scale. It has become a platform for the international exchange of ideas and, more importantly, brought hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty. But with this disruptive platform comes challenges of safety and security, access to information, and censorship within multiple legal systems. How can we appropriately apply the legal standards and expectations from every country in the world to the internet which is, by nature, an international platform?

In this republished episode of In-House Legal, Randy Milch interviews Google Senior Vice President and General Counsel Kent Walker about his path to general counsel of Google and the current legal challenges the multinational technology company faces. Walker examines internet disruption and censorship and talks about how Google approaches the legal balance between personal privacy and the government’s need for access to information.

Walker begins by talking about his path through the U.S. Attorney’s office, AirTouch Communications, Netscape (which became AOL), eBay, and then ending up in his current position at Google and how different sources of training gave him the experience to be a successful general counsel. Through his history in tech companies, he has interacted with the evolution of information law in privacy and defamation, jurisdictional questions, intellectual property definitions, the limits on patents and copyright, and new questions about antitrust in a digital economy.

Milch and Walker then transition into a discussion on threats arising to the internet as it is today. As Google is intimately involved in the balance between necessary encryption and government access to information, Walker discusses how his legal department approaches this fine line. Discussion inevitably turns to censorship and the “right to be forgotten,” a misnomer actually meaning the right to be delisted from the search engines. They talk about self-censorship within tech companies like Facebook and Twitter, collaboration in Silicon Valley after the Snowden Revelations, and the international goal of access to information and freedom of expression.

As general counsel and senior vice president for legal, policy, trust, and safety at Google, Kent Walker is responsible for managing Google’s global legal team and advising the company’s board and management on legal issues and corporate governance matters. Before joining Google, Walker held senior legal positions at a number of leading technology companies. Earlier in his career, Walker was an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the United States Department of Justice, where he specialized in the prosecution of technology crimes and advised the Attorney General on management and technology issues.

As wonderful a product as Uber is, part of what makes it successful are the lawyers working behind the scenes. In this episode of In-House Legal, host Randy Milch talks to Salle Yoo, Uber’s General Counsel, about the state of Uber’s legal department today, what they expect from their lawyers, and how lawyers sometimes must leave their comfort zones to seize new opportunities. They also discuss handling crazy growth rates, as well as past and future Uber products. They conclude with thoughts on privacy and how the company is working to incorporate it into their services.

Salle Yoo is General Counsel of Uber, the world renowned app-based ride hailing service. Prior to that, she was litigation partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP where she represented energy, telecommunications, and technology firms, as General Counsel, ensures that Uber can rapidly expand its global presence and sustain long-term growth in existing markets.

In law firms there is often a gap between young, emerging lawyers and seasoned veterans. Jeffrey Jackson, chief legal officer at State Farm, has seen first hand that there are long-term benefits to closing this gap. In this episode of In-House Legal, he talks to host Randy Milch about investing in mentoring programs and building communities in which budding lawyers feel free to ask questions and speak their minds. According to Jeffrey, law professionals who put effort into personal relationships will strengthen their reputation and build trust with their clients while also providing young lawyers a safe space to grow.

Jeffrey Jackson is the chief legal officer at State Farm and has been with the company for more than 28 years. His specialty is in trial law and corporate governance, but in his former role as general counsel, Jackson oversaw all facets of State Farm’s legal department.

As new lawyers enter the legal marketplace it can be challenging trying to decide which job opportunities are best to gain the professional experience needed to advance one’s career. In this episode of In-House Legal, Randy Milch talks with CVS Chief Strategy Officer and General Counsel Thomas Moriarty about his current role, his occupational journey, and whether the experience of working for a law firm is vital for attorneys striving to be in-house counsel.

Thomas Moriarty is Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer and General Counsel for CVS Health.

As a naturally competitive person, Laureen Seeger thrived throughout her career as a litigator. After law school, she clerked and was offered a job in the Atlanta-based law firm of Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP. In the South during the 1980s, there were virtually no women in courtrooms and she had to fight hard for first chair privileges. 14 years later, she went in-house and eventually became general counsel at McKesson, a massive healthcare supplies provider. Now she is general counsel of American Express in another highly regulated industry requiring strong cybersecurity measures. So what advice does she have to offer from her experience as GC for these two major companies?

In this episode of In-House Legal, Randy Milch interviews Laureen Seeger about her path to AMEX, industry regulation and cybersecurity, and the importance of brand trust. It is important, she says, for small- and medium-sized firms to invest in security measures, which often involves educating staff on encryption and best practices. Seeger discusses the regular audits American Express administers to their third party affiliates, the benefits and downfalls of cyber insurance, and how her department prepares the AMEX board of governors with the cyber security  information they need to govern properly. She explains how cyber breaches can be much more expensive than periodically assessing business environment, putting protections in place, fishing internally for employees that need training, and encrypting information.

Laureen Seeger is executive vice president and general counsel of American Express Company, a position she assumed in July 2014.  As the corporation’s chief legal officer, Seeger oversees the law, government affairs and corporate secretarial functions for American Express and its subsidiaries. Prior to American Express, Ms. Seeger served as executive vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer of McKesson Corporation and was with the Atlanta law firm of Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP from 1992 to 2000.

As we all know, the internet continually disrupts society on a global scale. It has become a platform for the international exchange of ideas and, more importantly, brought hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty. But with this disruptive platform comes challenges of safety and security, access to information, and censorship within multiple legal systems. How can we appropriately apply the legal standards and expectations from every country in the world to the internet which is, by nature, an international platform?

In this episode of In-House Legal, Randy Milch interviews Google Senior Vice President and General Counsel Kent Walker about his path to general counsel of Google and the current legal challenges the multinational technology company faces. Walker examines internet disruption and censorship and talks about how Google approaches the legal balance between personal privacy and the government’s need for access to information.

Walker begins by talking about his path through the U.S. Attorney’s office, AirTouch Communications, Netscape (which became AOL), eBay, and then ending up in his current position at Google and how different sources of training gave him the experience to be a successful general counsel. Through his history in tech companies, he has interacted with the evolution of information law in privacy and defamation, jurisdictional questions, intellectual property definitions, the limits on patents and copyright, and new questions about antitrust in a digital economy.

Milch and Walker then transition into a discussion on threats arising to the internet as it is today. As Google is intimately involved in the balance between necessary encryption and government access to information, Walker discusses how his legal department approaches this fine line. Discussion inevitably turns to censorship and the “right to be forgotten,” a misnomer actually meaning the right to be delisted from the search engines. They talk about self-censorship within tech companies like Facebook and Twitter, collaboration in Silicon Valley after the Snowden Revelations, and the international goal of access to information and freedom of expression.

As general counsel and senior vice president for legal, policy, trust, and safety at Google, Kent Walker is responsible for managing Google's global legal team and advising the company's board and management on legal issues and corporate governance matters. Before joining Google, Walker held senior legal positions at a number of leading technology companies. Earlier in his career, Walker was an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the United States Department of Justice, where he specialized in the prosecution of technology crimes and advised the Attorney General on management and technology issues.

“I don’t measure my relevance or success by the number of people who report to me.” -Mark Chandler

As senior vice president and general counsel at Cisco, Mark Chandler has increased the efficiency and overall success of the legal department while dealing with non-practicing entities (patent trolls) and questions of security, privacy, and surveillance between the U.S. and Europe. His experiences in international business relationship building and working directly with sales departments has given him the skills to develop an in-house legal department that truly focuses on efficiency.

In this episode of In-House Legal, Randy Milch interviews Mark Chandler about his path to general counsel at Cisco, how living and working in Europe helped him achieve success in a multinational company, and how he approaches the challenges he’s faced. The first half of the podcast follows Mark’s journey after law school, working in-house at the hard disk manufacturing company Maxtor and then transitioning to StrataCom, an IT service management firm later acquired by Cisco. He talks about living in Germany and France, Cisco’s production of internet infrastructure and cloud-based services and products, and what his position as general counsel involves. He also discusses why collaborative relationships between sales and legal departments are very important to the general success of a company.

In the second half of the podcast, Mark and Randy discuss the challenges a multinational technology company like Cisco faces today. Mark explains how he has used automation of repeated legal tasks to greatly reduce the legal department’s burden on the company as a whole. He then talks about potential solutions to the patent litigation issues that have increased exponentially in the past 15 years and U.S. government surveillance in Europe. Stay tuned to the end for Mark’s advice on running an in-house legal department that is truly efficient and works with the rest of the company.

Mark Chandler is senior vice president and general counsel at Cisco, a multinational technology firm based in the United States. In these roles, he oversees Cisco’s global legal activities and policies, as well as ethics, compliance and regulatory affairs, employee relations, investigations, and brand protection. Mark is a leader in the patent, security, and legal innovation spaces.

In this episode of In-House Legal, Yahoo General Counsel Ron Bell joins host Randy Milch for a conversation about national security vs. online privacy. For companies that provide access to online content worldwide there can be a fine line between freedom of expression and unlawful content. Just because something is legal in the U.S. does not mean that it’s allowed in other countries. And furthermore, if something is lawful does that mean a company has to provide access to it?

In addition to providing access to content, Randy asks Ron about his path to Yahoo, which had some interesting stops along the way. Originally starting as an associate at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Illinois, Ron set his sites on Silicon Valley fairly early in his career. Without being licensed in California or even an available position to apply for, Ron asked for a meeting at Apple Computer, Inc. As it turned out, a position opened during his visit and he was hired shortly after. Tune in to hear more about his story and what it takes to ascend to the top.

Ron Bell is the general counsel, secretary, and vice president at Yahoo. Prior to that, he served as deputy general counsel for several regions of the company as well as other legal positions as he advanced through the ranks. Before beginning his career at Yahoo, Ron served as senior corporate counsel at Apple Computer, Inc. and as an associate at the law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal.

Ivan Fong, senior vice president for legal affairs and general counsel of 3M Company, started in an unusual place for an attorney: as a chemical engineer with undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT. He attended Stanford Law School and subsequently built a distinguished career from a big law partnership to senior in-house positions in some of America’s finest legal departments. These positions were all punctuated by stints of public service at the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. But what advice does he have to offer lawyers looking to build a successful in-house career?

In this episode of In-House Legal, Randy Milch interviews Fong about the course of his legal career, how his time in public service set him up to go in-house at General Electric, and how he charted his course internally at such a big company.

Topics include:

• Fong’s decision to switch from engineering to legal
• Clerkships for Judge Abner J. Mikva and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
• Why he started in big law after law school
• Choosing the right company over a specific subject matter
• Appellate work, ecommerce, and patent litigation
• Fong’s position as Deputy Associate Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice
• Legal doctrines concerning unlawful conduct and the internet
• Moving in-house at GE and then becoming GC at Cardinal Health
• Doing pro bono work as a general counsel