An Interview with Stephen George, Chief Legal Officer, Endless West & General Counsel, Voyage Foods
We talked to Stephen George, Chief Legal Officer of Endless West and General Counsel of Voyage Foods, about the ways flexible talent fit into his legal department's resourcing strategy. He uses Priori for traditional flexible uses like commercial contracts or filling gaps on his team, but has also tapped into our vetted talent network for a specialized role. Find out why he says that "having Priori in your pocket is kind of like a superpower" for general counsel who need attorneys who can onboard quickly and immediately make a difference.
What is compelling to you about Priori as a resourcing strategy?
Stephen George: When I think about how to resource a legal department—especially in a dynamic, high-growth startup of the sort that I’m a part of—it’s my sense that just waiting until there’s a fire that needs to be put out in an area where you don’t have capacity is not the right approach.
Instead, you should be looking around the bend to see what kinds of legal issues are likely to arise—especially in areas where you have gaps in your capability—and the frequency and cadence at which they’ll arise as you take on different initiatives and reposition your business. If you’re doing that work of looking forward and around the corner, you can develop an assessment of what skills you need to bring onto the team and when. Of course, that kind of advance work rarely aligns with an increase in legal budget that enables a new FTE hire.
So having Priori in your pocket is kind of like a superpower. You’re able to ratchet up your capability and expand your expertise in a way doesn’t require you to commit to long-term spend. Then, if you like what you’ve found, you can increase the work you’re giving to that person and even expand their portfolio consistent with their skill set. I find that to be extraordinarily valuable in a world in which we have limited budgets and an uncertain future.
What role does flexible talent play in your legal department’s resourcing strategy?
Stephen George: What Priori provides, in my experience, is a remarkable amount of elasticity. I’m able to ramp up and ramp back down the capabilities and the expertise of my legal team by using part-time talent who are available on a project basis determined by my company’s needs.
To me, that adds a lot of value. For most legal teams like mine, when we choose to hire a full-time in-house attorney, it’s a really big decision and a significant budget commitment. It’s also a huge investment in recruiting, hiring, mentoring and developing the individual on the team. It can be wonderful and super valuable, but I can’t make the decision lightly.
Priori’s service allows me to bring someone on the team for some time every week on an ongoing basis who can provide immediate value because of their flexible schedule and gap-filling expertise.
You’ve brought a Priori attorney on your team full-time. Can you tell us about that experience?
Stephen George: When I started using Priori, I had no intention of using it as a recruiting tool to hire someone onto the team in a full-time capacity. It was valuable in my mind for bringing part-time talent on and off my team as the workload dictated.
However, last year we engaged an attorney for some patent work we needed help with, and she served as a quasi-in-house counsel to help manage our IP portfolio and interface with our external IP counsel. It turned out she was really good at that, and she was good at a lot of other things too.
Over time, after giving her additional responsibilities, we ultimately decided that she would be an excellent full-time hire. We waited nine or 10 months before having that conversation with her, but by then, we envisioned a host of areas where she could help us beyond strict patent issues, based on the variety and quality of her part-time work.
By working with her over a number of months, by giving her work in a slow, iterative way and increasing responsibility, we were functionally able to test drive an employment relationship with her, with no downside. We’ve only done this with one Priori attorney, and we don’t plan to do it again, but the option is there if serendipity strikes and you find the right fit.
You’ve used Priori for one of our common use cases, commercial contracts. Can you describe that experience?
Stephen George: Early on, I found an experienced former general counsel commercial contracts specialist who has just been phenomenal. We’ve worked with him for the last three years, and I’ve hired him at two different companies where I’ve led legal. He’s been an incredible resource. He’s very efficient, his rate is reasonable—far more palatable than large law firms—and he’s very sharp and responsive. He knows contracts backwards and forwards, way better than I do. I often rely heavily on him when we need help reviewing and drafting complex commercial transactions. So that’s been a big win for us.
You’ve also used Priori for IP, which is a more traditional law firm practice area. Can you describe that experience?
Stephen George: When I first approached Priori for the IP role, I wasn’t sure that there would be anyone who would be the right fit. We wanted a patent lawyer with specific scientific expertise relevant to our industry and inventions. That seemed like such a specialized area, unlike commercial contracts which is pretty broad. Yet, sure enough, 48 hours after I submitted an RFP, I had five candidates offered up to me, each of whom seemed compelling in their own way. And the person that we hired exceeded expectations.
It was a little different than commercial contracts, because we didn’t just want someone for a project here and there. We really wanted someone to function as a quasi-in-house counsel, specifically related to patent work. The attorney we ended up hiring had a long practice history with patents, primarily at law firms, and now she was in a place in her life where she wanted more flexibility. She was the perfect resource for us in terms of quickly understanding the ins and outs of our business, interacting with the team in a really fluid way, and evaluating the work of our outside counsel, instructing them and focusing their strategy.
What was your experience using the Priori platform?
Stephen George: The RFP submission process was very intuitive, very fluid. Initially I thought, “I’m going to have to draft up a job description,” but when I jumped into the Priori platform for the first time, the model led me through a series of related blanks to fill in. I added a little detail, and what popped out was a better work product than I could have created on my own, at least in that amount of time. So that really helped seal the deal for me.
Where do legal department leaders see the most value in Priori?
Stephen George: I think that Priori is a great resource for legal departments who have spot work that they know will arise in an uneven fashion over the course of time, such as contracts that pop up and need attention. I think it’s also valuable if you’re trying to gain expertise in a particular area where your legal department has an expertise gap.
General counsels like myself tend to be generalists, and then when we build out our legal department, we sometimes begin by hiring other generalists, especially early on when you don’t have a specialized role that needs to be filled. As such, there are gaps in our capabilities that we can either turn to law firms to fill—or we can turn to Priori for a fraction of the price.
What I’m finding is the problem isn’t a lack of legal talent. The problem is getting connected to the right person at the right time for the right price. And Priori seems to have figured that out.
How does Priori enable your legal team to be agile?
Stephen George: The fact that Priori has a variety of ways that you can leverage its resources makes it a particularly useful tool for companies that have to constantly shift their priorities and change their approaches with respect to legal strategy and resourcing.
Using Priori, I can bring someone on just for a single project and not work with them anymore. I can bring someone on with the expectation that I’m going to give them roughly 5 to 10 hours of work a week, they carve that time out, and I can give them a variety of different projects that meet their skill set for those hours. I can bring someone on as a part-time in-house counsel in an area where they have particular expertise for a fraction of the price I would pay a law firm partner to do the same amount of work and, frankly, often at the same skill level. And, ultimately, if I really like someone that I’ve worked with, I can try to bring them on full-time.
What has your experience been like with the Priori team?
Stephen George: The Priori team has always been very helpful in supporting me in whatever aspect of the platform I’m trying to leverage. When I was first discussing the opportunity of working with Priori, the team was willing to guide me through the platform, show me its bells and whistles, and explain to me in detail how it could be beneficial for what I was seeking to achieve with my legal department.
The first time I decided to put together a project, I wasn’t just thrown to the wolves. I was led through the process and a Priori team member checked in after I received matches to ask if I had found someone I liked and to help facilitate further introductions if necessary. I felt well supported all the way down the line, and in each case I found Priori’s team to be extremely professional, knowledgeable about the industry, and helpful.
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