In the Balance

Like many of you, I’m a podcast listener. My podcast lineup is mostly filled with endless chatter about the NBA. But when I want to feel like I’m more connected to the news of the day and the politics behind it, I listen to the Ezra Klein Show (fear not, the connection between podcasts and the legal industry—specifically the world of legal ops—is coming soon!) On the September 16th episode, Ezra discussed the Biden administration’s legislative accomplishments, such ...

This year, McKinsey Legal launched the Legal Innovation Competition (LIC)—a global innovation competition across the department. To the best of our knowledge, this competition is the first of its kind for an in-house legal department. The goals of this (friendly) competition were to enhance our creative-thinking skills, unlock innovations in how we work as lawyers and serve as thought partners, and encourage global connectivity among our colleagues. The leaders of LIC—Jim ...

I find it amusing that I’m known for running in the Legal Department. I joke that I run neither far nor fast—except it’s not a joke, and I’m not being modest. It’s simply a fact. So, why would someone who is not a particularly impressive runner, and who enjoys running mainly because it is time I get to spend alone, organize a team of 12 colleagues to run a two-day, nearly 200-mile relay race together? Spoiler: It’s not the smell of the van on Day 2. Rather, I had decided to organize another ...

See this post in Italian here. On 27 June 2022, our legal team had the pleasure and honor of taking part in a panel that started a series of sessions dedicated to students at the Faculty of Law at the University of Milan (Italy). The sessions aim to provide students with information and insights about three types of legal professions: in-house counsel working for domestic and international companies, private-practice lawyers working for international law firms, and lawyers working for ...

We have the privilege here in the McKinsey Legal Department to work closely with QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey. The data scientists, data engineers, and technologists within QuantumBlack are at the forefront of cutting-edge developments in AI, spanning a wide range of industries and use cases. At the top of our mind in all of the conversations we have with these teams are the principles that are emerging around ethical AI. We engage deeply with these teams on these ethical topics, both because ...

See this post in Spanish here. I was 18 when I decided to study law. I had just spent one year in Norway as an exchange student, and my choice of career had shifted from psychology to communications to law; all of which are bachelor’s degrees in Mexico. One of my favorite uncles was a successful litigator, but other than that, I had no relationship of any type with lawyers. I was born and raised in Oaxaca in southern Mexico. My closest contact with Mexico City was from summer vacations at ...

Please note that the below is an English translation of this article which was originally written in French. Click here to access the original French version. Music has always been a part of my life. From a young age, I collected it on all existing media, depending on the era: vinyl, cassettes, CDs, and then digital format. I liked listening to the pieces, dissecting them, classifying them, and creating playlists adapted to every moment of my life, to accompany me at all times. Since the ...

“Necessity is the mother of invention.” No overused quote is more fitting for the motivation behind our decision to develop and launch McKinsey Legal Lab (MLL), a first-of-its-kind innovation incubator and accelerator for a global legal department. And that necessity was twofold. On the one hand, we were entering year two of fully remote work and zero travel in an organization used to movement and personal connectivity. Each of us was feeling varying degrees of disconnectedness (on ...

Stephanie Spangler: We’re so happy to speak with you today about data governance! You were a keynote speaker at a McKinsey Digital and data and assets knowledge sprint last fall, where you spoke about data trusts. You have an informative website on your academic work in data protection, have recently coauthored a research article, “Data protection for the common good: Developing a framework for a data protection-focused data commons,” and recently completed the fall 2021 ...

For the last several years, I have led a large team of more than 20 legal colleagues, which includes lawyers, contract professionals, and paralegals. Through my experience, I would like to share some tips I’ve adopted from the myriad of literature out there on the topic of leadership. Some of my favorite leadership gurus include Adam Grant, a professor at the Wharton School, Brené Brown, a University of Houston professor, and Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of PepsiCo, among others. I ...

Stephanie Lowell is an associate director of talent who works with McKinsey’s legal and risk functions. Over the past few years, Stephanie has partnered closely with McKinsey Legal’s leadership team and the firm’s general counsel, Pierre Gentin, in developing a dynamic community of world-class legal professionals around the globe. Pierre recently interviewed Stephanie on a range of topics including how a talent professional can partner effectively with a company’s legal ...

About six years ago, I started a New Year’s tradition. I choose a word to center around for the year. I always write it down to memorialize the word. If a beach is conveniently nearby (and for some years it was), I would write the word in the sand and watch the waves slowly and rhythmically wash it away. It is a metaphoric and cathartic way to start the year. For 2022, I chose a word that applies personally and professionally: collaboration. Coincidentally, collaboration is a theme on ...

“Debt” tends to carry a negative connotation—a word rooted in borrowing something and ultimately carrying responsibility for its repayment. But the concept and its capability carry meaningful dimensions, too. Debt can also mean enablement—for example, when owning a home and getting a mortgage, or launching a venture and getting start-up financing, or injecting capital into public needs, such as government bonds. The list goes on. Across various contexts, the accumulation ...

What have we built at McKinsey Legal? McKinsey Legal has built a knowledge-management platform with robust technological sophistication. Launched in February 2021, the department’s “Legal Playbook” is an online portal designed to be the starting point for our legal professionals—you either search the collection to find the resource you need or click on a link to take you where you need to go. The intuitive layout expands through a folder and subfolder interface to make ...

Cultural diversity is an integral attribute of McKinsey’s legal department. With our colleagues calling 46 different countries “home” and speaking over 20 different languages, our efforts to promote cultural diversity are driven by both necessity and a desire to celebrate the unique backgrounds and customs of our colleagues. This gives our legal team the ability to dive into the value of our team’s diversity and learn how to incorporate the richness of cultural identity. ...