General Counsel, In-House Counsel, Technology

alt.legal: The General Counsel Of GE Thinks Lawyers Are The Answer

Alex Dimitrief, General Counsel of General Electric, shares insights with alt.legal columnists Joe Borstein and Ed Sohn.

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Alex Dimitrief

Alex Dimitrief

My fellow alt.legal columnist Joe Borstein and I really believe in legal innovation, whether it’s in technology or in services. (By the way, if you haven’t already, apply to our innovation awards and show us that you’re a believer too.) We believed in it enough to leave the practice of law and join a company providing managed legal services and technology. And in our circles, some of our brethren who have left the practice like to use phrases like “I’m a recovering attorney” or “I’m an ex-lawyer.”

I don’t think of myself as an ex-lawyer, just a lawyer who hasn’t been practicing lately. Yes, my professional focus is now on equipping legal professionals with the technology and managed services to succeed. But I have tremendous respect for the practice of law, at times a return to practice actually still haunts me, and I will always approach every practicing attorney with personal, unwavering respect.

Which brings me to the conversation du jour.

“Our profession continues to be a noble profession,” said Alex Dimitrief, General Counsel of General Electric and immediately among the greatest lawyers I’ve ever shared a room with. Sitting in our Thomson Reuters offices at Three Times Square, he looked me in the eye and smiled. “For all the jokes about lawyers, I still think it’s an incredibly honorable profession.”

I grunted thoughtfully, exercising restraint by not reaching across the table for a high five.

A Yale graduate in ‘81, Harvard Law ’85, and a former White House Fellow under the Reagan Administration, Dimitrief forged a career as a star trial lawyer and litigation partner at Kirkland & Ellis.  For his second act, he joined GE, where he now sits as the top lawyer commanding a legal department spanning the globe and responsible for managing the risk of a $280 billion company.

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“I’m proud to be a lawyer,” Dimitrief declared, rightly. “I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished as a lawyer and I’m proud of my colleagues in the legal profession. For every one thing you can criticize it for, there’s ninety-nine things it has done well.”

Sitting in the room with him, I can tell this pride he speaks of is a quiet one, because there’s no hint of arrogance about him, only excellence. Dimitrief speaks with a professorial kind of insight, navigating from idea to idea with aplomb and incision. More than an academic, though, he also carries the easy persuasion of a seasoned master litigator. He is approachable and curious, like every great leader I’ve ever met, but every detail about him also radiates impeccability. And all of this in a classic, old-school way: the man could hold a clinic on steady eye contact and wearing suits like a lawyer should, skills lost in a world of Snapchat and Pokémon.

Joe and I spoke with Dimitrief for about an hour. We covered a wide variety of topics, from good writing (“it’s more important to the legal profession than ever!”) to getting outside counsel bills (“most firms waste bills as the perfect opportunity to explain, defend, and promote the value of their work”). We chatted about technology (“going to be a huge driver of innovation”) and the trend towards insourcing more work (the “make versus buy” decisions).

But throughout the entire conversation, the note that sounded so clearly was Dimitrief’s confidence in lawyers to take on the challenges of an ever-changing legal practice. Again and again, Dimitrief defended and promoted the capabilities of attorneys.

“I think lawyers are incredibly smart, I think they are incredibly adaptable, I don’t think we need help from non-lawyers to come in with entrepreneurial ideas. I think we just need to have a little more guts, a little less hesitation about taking some chances, and become entrepreneurial ourselves.”

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For some reason, that really struck a chord with me, because even though in context, Dimitrief was talking about lawyers at law firms who are able to drive innovation, I really connected with the general idea of courageous lawyers capable of innovating. In fact, at the risk of sounding presumptuous, I’d like to believe he’s really talking about me, about us in the alt.legal movement, about the lawyers who are still attorneys deep in our DNA but with the guts and chance-taking to really advance the profession. I want to believe – need to believe, really – that the path we’re forging in the alt.legal community combines the perspective of our noble profession with disruptive innovation, in a way no one else can.

Because I, too, am still proud to be a lawyer, albeit not practicing.

So without further ado, we present here our next episode of the alt.legal podcast: part 1 of our conversation with Alex Dimitrief. Listen in to hear about Dimitrief’s view on the significance of bad writing, the Ed Koch test, examples of successfully increasing in-house capacity, predictive coding, and much more.  Part 2 will be released in two weeks, with Joe’s post.

Enjoy!

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Ed Sohn is a Senior Director at Thomson Reuters Legal Managed Services. After more than five years as a Biglaw litigation associate, Ed spent two years in New Delhi, India, overseeing and innovating legal process outsourcing services in litigation. Ed now focuses on delivering new e-discovery solutions with technology managed services. You can contact Ed about ediscovery, legal managed services, expat living in India, theology, chess, ST:TNG, or the Chicago Bulls at edward.sohn@thomsonreuters.com.

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