What I do: I help C-suite executives and business owners instill management discipline in Legal -- to cut waste and prevent liability.Why I do this work: Ten years into my legal career, I accepted a corporate client's offer to run one of its divisions as a general manager. I changed seats at the client / lawyer table, leaving the practice of law to run a business unit. Upon becoming a client, I learned for the first time how Legal can really help -- and how Legal can really hurt -- the company it is meant to serve. What I bring to this work: I bring two complementary sets of skills and experiences. First, as a former executive at Whirlpool and then at GE for over a decade, I have had firsthand successes implementing cost control and proactive risk management. I identify with my corporate client because I understand firsthand what it takes to run a business.Second, I am an attorney who has practiced law for over two decades, beginning at Cleary Gottlieb right out of law school, followed by service as a prosecutor in Manhattan under Robert M. Morgenthau. I have tried 20-plus cases before juries, negotiated and closed transactions valued at up to $500 million in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East, and counseled the C-suite on how the legal system is likely to treat their decisions. So I have mastered the legal technicalities of courts and deal-making, and I know how to deal with the most sophisticated lawyers, judges, and regulators. Stated another way, my BS Detector is in good working order when I talk with “experts” whose agendas might diverge from my client’s interest. My outlook: Management discipline is as necessary in Legal as it is in any other corporate function. But most lawyers, including those who run the corporate law function, view the management of people, operations, and budgets in ways that are poles apart from the outlook of most business executives I have known. I sympathize with these attorneys, because I labored under the same professional blind spots myself, until I changed places at the client / lawyer table ten years into my legal career.So I would welcome the chance to talk with business leaders who want to instill management discipline in Legal – to cut waste and prevent liability. I can be reached at 847 693 0950, at joel [@] webberpc.com, or at Joel A. Webber, P.C, 717 Forest Avenue, Suite 388, Lake Forest, IL 60045.