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Lessons I Learned in Law

Heriot Brown

103 episodes

5 days ago

Season 8 of Lessons I Learned in Law continues in partnership with Wordsmith AI, the legal-AI platform built for in-house teams. This week, Scott is joined by James Sullivan, an experienced General Counsel and business leader who most recently served as Group General Counsel at Bitstamp, one of the world’s longest-standing cryptocurrency exchanges. James shares an inside look at what it’s like leading legal in the fast-moving world of digital assets — an industry that blends rapid innovation ...

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Season 8 of Lessons I Learned in Law continues in partnership with Wordsmith AI, the legal-AI platform built for in-house teams. This week, Scott is joined by James Sullivan, an experienced General Counsel and business leader who most recently served as Group General Counsel at Bitstamp, one of the world’s longest-standing cryptocurrency exchanges. James shares an inside look at what it’s like leading legal in the fast-moving world of digital assets — an industry that blends rapid innovation ...

Show more...

Episodes (20/103)

Lessons I Learned in Law

Defining Legal’s Value: James Sullivan on Leadership, Risk and Reinvention in the Crypto Era

Season 8 of Lessons I Learned in Law continues in partnership with Wordsmith AI, the legal-AI platform built for in-house teams. This week, Scott is joined by James Sullivan, an experienced General Counsel and business leader who most recently served as Group General Counsel at Bitstamp, one of the world’s longest-standing cryptocurrency exchanges. James shares an inside look at what it’s like leading legal in the fast-moving world of digital assets — an industry that blends rapid innovation ...

5 days ago

41 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

🎙️ From General Counsel to Managing Director: Jonathan Cope on Reinvention and Leadership at RSA Group

Season 8 of Lessons I Learned in Law continues in partnership with Wordsmith AI, the legal-AI platform built for in-house teams. This week, Scott is joined by Jonathan Cope, Managing Director of the Specialty Lines business at RSA Group Insurance. After a decade as General Counsel and executive-team member, Jonathan made the rare move from legal leadership into a commercial managing-director role. He reflects on what it’s been like to step out of law after nearly twenty years and into a marke...

1 week ago

43 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

🎙️ Belief, Balance & Boldness: Portia Thornhill on Leadership and AI at Elixirr

Season 8 of Lessons I Learned in Law continues in partnership with Wordsmith AI, the legal-AI platform built for in-house teams. This week, Scott is joined by Portia Thornhill, General Counsel and Partner at Elixirr, the challenger consultancy competing with the Big Four. Portia shares her journey from nearly a decade at Allen & Overy to building a thriving in-house career that ultimately led to partnership an exceptional recognition for an in-house lawyer. Her lessons are grounded in res...

2 weeks ago

46 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

🎙️ Be Bold, Build Your Network: Frankie Williams on Leading Legal in AI at DeepL

Season 8 of Lessons I Learned in Law continues in partnership with Wordsmith AI, the legal AI platform built for in-house teams. This week, Scott Brown is joined by Frankie Williams, Chief Legal Officer at DeepL, an AI-powered language platform transforming how people and businesses communicate across borders. Frankie shares insights from leading a global legal team through rapid growth, reflecting on lessons learned from an in-house career that’s taken her through IPOs, acquisitions, and adv...

3 weeks ago

39 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

Multiple Truths Can Be True: Emilie Mathieu on Leading at Checkout.com

Season 8 of Lessons I Learned in Law kicks off in partnership with Wordsmith AI, the legal AI platform built for in-house teams. Emilie Mathieu, General Counsel at Checkout.com, joins Scott Brown to share her journey from Amazon and eBay into the fast-paced world of fintech, where she now leads legal, compliance, and enterprise risk across a global team of 110. In this conversation, Emilie reflects on stepping up from managing 14 people to an executive role in one of the world’s most dynamic ...

1 month ago

38 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

Over-Communicate and Find a Way: Doug McClure on Legal Leadership in Defence at Northrop Grumman

Doug McClure, Senior Counsel at Northrop Grumman, shares lessons learned from more than two decades of in-house practice across heavy industry, infrastructure, and now one of the world’s largest aerospace and defence contractors. Doug reflects on his eight years supporting Northrop Grumman’s European operations—navigating a highly regulated, high-stakes sector that demands clarity, trust, and creativity. He begins with the cornerstone of his approach: communication. Doug explains why over-com...

3 months ago

30 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

🎙️ Make Your Boss Look Good: Nick Havers on Leadership, Curiosity and Visibility at Lockton

Nick Havers, General Counsel for Europe and now also Managing Principal at Lockton, the world’s largest privately owned insurance brokers, shares three sharp, experience-driven lessons shaped across more than a decade in the insurance broking sector. Nick’s recent promotion to Managing Principal, an honour usually reserved for client-facing, revenue-generating leaders, is a milestone not just for him, but for how lawyers are recognised as true business partners at Lockton. His elevatio...

3 months ago

46 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

Focus on the stuff that matter: Law is Only Interesting to Lawyers: Pola Karolczyk on Communication, Courage and Career Shifts

Pola Karolczyk, General Counsel and Chief People Officer at Cowboy, joins Scott to share her dynamic legal journey: from competition law in Poland and US law firms, to regulatory work at Apple, and now building the legal and people functions at a fast-moving e-bike scaleup. Pola reflects on three powerful lessons, beginning with the need to ditch legal jargon and speak human. She learned early on that most people, especially in business, aren’t interested in the mechanics of th...

4 months ago

40 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

🎙️ Everything is Figureoutable: Tara Haig on Saying Yes, Showing Up, and Scaling as GC at Multiverse

Tara Haig, General Counsel at Multiverse, joins Scott to reflect on a legal career driven by curiosity, courage, and instinct. From saying yes to opening a New York office two years post-qualification to leading legal, privacy, and governance for one of the UK’s most prominent edtech scale-ups, Tara’s story is all about leaning into discomfort, and figuring it out along the way. Now part of the exec team at Multiverse, a $1.7B AI-powered apprenticeship platform, Tara shares her take on ...

4 months ago

39 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

🎙️ Eat Your Own Dog Food: Shelley McKinley on AI, Ambiguity, and Owning the Grey Areas

Shelley McKinley, Chief Legal Officer at GitHub and Vice President at Microsoft, joins Scott to share career-defining lessons from two decades at the sharp edge of tech, innovation, and regulation. Now leading GitHub’s global legal, policy, and trust teams, Shelley offers a behind-the-scenes look at the early days of GitHub Copilot, launched before ChatGPT put generative AI on the map, and shares what it really means to advise on emerging technology when the law hasn’t caught up yet. Sh...

4 months ago

45 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

🎙️ Forget the Patriarchy and Other Lessons in Leadership – Sam Plant, CLO at Müller UK*

Sam Plant, Chief Legal Officer at Müller UK & Ireland, brings a refreshing mix of humility, insight and honesty to this episode of Lessons I Learned in Law. From risk-taking in legal advice to speaking up about gender inequality, Sam shares three candid lessons that challenge the status quo. Leading the legal and compliance function across one of the UK’s best-known consumer brands—yoghurts, milk, desserts, and a vast B2B logistics network—Sam reflects on a career shaped as much by mistak...

4 months ago

1 hour 3 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

🎙️ Be Liquid, Fill Gaps: David Flavell on Global Experience and Strategic Influence at PepsiCo

David Flavell, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at PepsiCo, shares practical, hard-earned insights from a legal career that has spanned the globe—from Melbourne to Shanghai, Dubai to New York—culminating in one of the most senior legal roles in the Fortune 50. Now leading a global legal function of 500+ professionals, David speaks candidly about how in-house lawyers can step into a more strategic mindset. He explains why legal leaders must go beyond technical skill and embrace being se...

5 months ago

1 hour 6 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

🎙️ Trust Your Gut: Jorrit de Haan on Building Legal from Scratch at Mollie

Jorrit de Haan, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Mollie, joins Scott to share the honest highs and hidden challenges of building an in-house legal function from the ground up. Jorrit stepped into his first GC role at Mollie in 2021, tasked with transforming a handful of lawyers working reactively into a fully-fledged legal team. In this conversation, he shares the leadership lessons he’s learned along the way—starting with the golden rule that you can’t spend too much time on hiring...

5 months ago

43 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

🎙️ Healthy Laziness & Win-Win Lawyering: Roel Staes on 22 Years at FedEx

Roel Staes, until recently General Counsel International at FedEx, joins Scott to reflect on a 22-year in-house legal career that scaled from Benelux counsel to overseeing a 500-strong international legal, regulatory, security, and government affairs team. In this wide-ranging episode, Roel shares candid lessons from the top—on everything from managing complexity in global organisations to learning how to communicate with clarity, brevity, and precision. A strong believer in over-communicatio...

6 months ago

54 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

🎙️ No Jobs for Life: Emma Moloney on Crisis Leadership, Career Pivots, and Speaking Human

Emma Moloney, experienced General Counsel and in-house leader across media and tech, joins Scott to reflect on a career that has spanned continents, contracts, and crises. From early GC roles at National Geographic Channel and News UK, to launching crisis management workshops and mentoring lawyers, Emma’s journey blends legal leadership with creative problem-solving. In this episode, Emma unpacks the lessons that have shaped her approach. She shares why mastering difficult conversations is a ...

6 months ago

47 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

From M&A to Merlot: Jane Hyde on Embracing Career Detours and Speaking Human

Jane Hyde, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary at RWS Group PLC, shares a refreshingly non-linear legal career that took her from City law to investment banking, via a sabbatical in wine tasting — all the way to the executive team of a global AI-enabled language services business. In this unfiltered episode, Jane reflects on the pivotal moments that shaped her leadership journey. From leaving Freshfields for the trading floor at JP Morgan, to taking a career break and topping the glob...

6 months ago

49 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

People First, Always: Daniel Winterfeldt on Leading with Purpose at Jefferies and Beyond

Daniel Winterfeldt, General Counsel for EMEA and Asia at Jefferies, shares his powerful journey from Wall Street to London and from capital markets partner to in-house legal leader and diversity champion. In this candid conversation, Daniel opens up about his early experiences as an openly gay lawyer navigating the stark culture shock of moving from New York to London in the early 2000s — a time when being out in the legal profession was far from the norm. This culture gap eventually led him ...

6 months ago

1 hour 1 minute

Lessons I Learned in Law

Trust Your Instincts: Amos Carrington on Finding Fulfilment at Low Carbon

Lessons I Learned in Law with Amos Carrington, General Counsel & Company Secretary at Low Carbon Amos Carrington, General Counsel at Low Carbon, talks to Scott Brown about making the leap from private practice to leading a mission-driven renewable energy legal team. In this episode, Scott catches up with Amos Carrington, General Counsel at Low Carbon, a fast-growing renewable energy company. Amos shares practical, candid lessons about trusting your instincts, prioritising work...

6 months ago

44 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

From Specialist to Strategic Leader: Mike Sosso on Curiosity, Courage, and Career Growth at BP

Mike Sosso, EVP for Legal at BP, joins Scott Brown to discuss his transition from specialist competition lawyer to strategic global leader of a 400-strong legal team. In this episode, Scott welcomes Mike Sosso, Executive Vice President for Legal (Group GC) at BP, overseeing a global legal team of over 400 professionals. Mike shares candid insights into his journey from an antitrust specialist to one of the most senior legal roles at BP, highlighting how curiosity, allyship, and commercial thi...

7 months ago

47 minutes

Lessons I Learned in Law

"From Working Bee to Strategic Leader: How Katja Roth Pellanda Rose to Lead a Global Legal Team of 500+"

In the final episode of Season 6, Scott Brown is joined by Katja Roth Pellanda, Group General Counsel at Zurich Insurance. Katja shares her journey from a corporate law associate to managing a global legal function of 500+ lawyers. Her story is a masterclass in career growth, highlighting how being visible, strategic, and vocal can elevate your career. Key Lessons from Katja: Visibility Matters: Early in her career, Katja focused solely on delivering exceptional legal work, believing it would...

10 months ago

42 minutes