In this Q&A, Denise Hansen dives into AI and shares an easy ice breaker for conversation with her.
Texas Lawbook: What are the factors you consider when deciding about hiring outside counsel?
Denise Hansen: Obviously, we are looking for someone with the right experience and resume for whatever kind of matter on which we are making the retention. We want to hire firms that understand us and our industry in most instances. But on top of that, rates and alternative rate structures are always a factor. In addition, we are interested in staffing strategies, how the firm will use AI in our cases, their strategy on e-discovery and other document gathering and production methods. Finally, it is also just a question of “fit”. The relationship and how we fit with our firms and outside counsel is key. I want our internal team to feel comfortable enough with the outside counsel we use that they can pick up the phone at any time and call to ask a question or talk about an issue.
Lawbook: What does outside counsel need to know about you?
Hansen: I’m a straight shooter. I expect my counsel to be the same. With me, what you see is what you get. I am very honest and straightforward and appreciate practical advice from someone who understands what I need and is not just looking to bill hours. You will always get more work if you respect that relationship and are not just looking at it as a one-time retainer. I consider us to be a team and expect to work as a team. I also rely on the budgets our firms give us, and I stand behind them with my business partners, but I expect external counsel to stand by them and manage them as well. This is crucial. I don’t want cookie-cutter advice that you would give to any client. I want our firms to take our needs and those of our company and its unique circumstances into account when you give advice or work on a matter for us. That means they need to understand how our company works so we get the best overall outcome. Also, I am a die-hard Texas Aggie, and I love college football and just about any sport at the collegiate level. So that’s always a great icebreaker for conversation!
Lawbook: How is AI impacting your work?
Hansen: Getting the SEI North American legal team to truly “buy in” to the careful and approved use cases for AI in our daily work and creating new use cases. We recently held a global AI Gamechanger competition for our legal and compliance colleagues to propose use cases, agents or examples of daily uses for AI to simplify and speed up our work processes. Of the eight finalists, seven were from the North America team, and all three medal winners were all from our NA team! I was very proud of all the submissions. Lawyers can be innovative, too!
We see the impact in efficiency, speed in doing simple tasks, summarizing emails or documents, even searching for emails or documents to get what we need faster. We use it for research, applying internal policies to specific situations, summarizing processes and advice for specific questions presented by business partners. We use it in contracting strategy and negotiations, summarizing changes, comparing contractual positions across customers, making timelines and also for preparing presentations. My team is far more adept at using AI than I am, but I am learning! I am a nightmare when it comes to preparing PowerPoint slides, formatting, adding in pictures or graphs, etc. Now, I can just ask AI to do it for me once I load in the data I want to use, and I look like a pro! I would describe AI as the first-year associate I used to work with at the law firm. I am still the partner that must finalize it and apply my experience and voice as needed. But it is a powerful tool to execute our daily tasks in a much more efficient manner. I need to use even more than I already do, and our team has ongoing workshops to brainstorm new use cases and exchange ideas so we can knowledge-share and get better at using it!
Lawbook: How is AI impacting your work and relationship with outside counsel?
Hansen: This is something that is definitely in the works. We are starting to interview our external counsel about their use of AI in relation to when they are and are not allowed to use it on our cases and how it will impact billing practices and work product. I think this is a fascinating developing arena that GCs and their external counsel are going to be navigating over the next years, and I really cannot wait to see where it goes. We are on the edge of a new frontier here. Anyone who is not having that conversation is going to be left behind. Questions such as using AI ethically, using it safely in order to protect our proprietary and confidential data and the billing surrounding the use of AI are topics both firms and their clients are going to have to partner on as we move forward to ensure there is alignment and a true partnership there.