LexTalk Live Lab

Learn. Solve. Connect.

Optimizing Partnerships with External Counsel: Practical Strategies for Cost Management, Quality Assurance, and Seamless Collaboration with Law Firms

Join a powerful virtual roundtable + speed networking session

where top legal minds decode real AI use cases in legal

operations.

September 12th, 2025 I 11:00am ( PST ) I Virtual Event

Duration: 60 Minutes (45-50 min discussion + 10-15 min Live Q&A)

Unlock the Full Potential of Your External Counsel Partnerships

In today’s complex legal landscape, optimizing how organizations work with external counsel is more critical than ever. This session offers practical strategies to help legal and business professionals maximize value, control costs, ensure consistent service quality, and strengthen relationships with law firms.

Why This Topic?

Direct Impact: External legal spend is a significant budget item for most organizations, making effective cost management and quality assurance essential for sustainable success.

Broadly Relevant: Whether you’re in-house counsel, a legal operations leader, a compliance executive, or a business decision-maker, you’ll gain actionable insights applicable across industries and organization sizes.

Timely Solutions: As collaboration with law firms grows more dynamic—due to evolving business needs and technological advancements—panelists will share up-to-date tactics for building strategic, productive partnerships.

What You’ll Learn:

Cost Control Tactics: Proven approaches for negotiating fee structures, managing legal budgets, and ensuring value.
Ensuring Consistent Quality: How to set clear expectations, establish effective performance metrics, and monitor service delivery.
Streamlined Collaboration: Best practices and digital tools for efficient, secure information sharing between clients and counsel.
Strategic Relationship Building: Insights for fostering trust, alignment, and long-term value-adding partnerships with law firms.

Join us to hear from experienced professionals and industry experts, and gain practical guidance you can immediately put to use in your own legal operations. Prepare to elevate your external counsel relationships for lasting success!

Speakers

Ray Berg

Partner, US, Osborne Clarke

Ray Berg's love of connecting with people has remained a constant throughout his long and vibrant career at Osborne Clarke. After eight years as the firm's Managing Partner in the UK, he is now based in the US where he is supporting our US clients with their international strategy. Ray is passionate about helping organizations to shape their future. When working with clients, Ray's approach is authentic and straightforward. He brings energy, creativity and an open mind. For him, listening is the foundation of the work we do and he is an advocate of looking at life from the client's perspective as a starting point for legal advice. Ray's career started in corporate law. During his 30-plus years as a lawyer, he acted on mergers and acquisitions, demergers, equity issues, joint ventures and corporate reorganizations. Much of his work was for clients in the technology, media and communications sector, with a significant number of cross-border deals throughout Europe, North America and Asia.

Christopher Bowen

Corporate Counsel at
Google LLC

Christopher Bowen is an attorney with 19 years of experience, including with the U.S. Department of Justice, two AmLaw 50 law firms, IBM, and a space start-up. He primarily supports his clients' contracts with public sector entities, including Federal, State, and Local. Both as in-house and outside counsel, he has negotiated intellectual property and data privacy clauses with public sector customers as well as suppliers and integrators. He lives in Stony Brook, New York with his wife and two daughters.

Monique Ferraro

Cyber Counsel at Hartford Steam Boiler

Monique Ferraro, CISSP, CIPP/US, CIPM, FIP, CPCU, is Cyber Counsel at Hartford Steam Boiler Insurance and Inspection Company, where she provides legal and technical expertise in support of Global Cyber Products. Ms. Ferraro's cybersecurity and privacy experience spans more than twenty-five years in digital forensics, e-discovery, information security and privacy. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Cyber Security and Data Privacy Law Program at Albany Law School and Western Connecticut State University in Cyber Security and the Homeland.

Monique obtained her law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law, her Master’s degree from Northeastern University in Criminal Justice and Bachelor’s from Western Connecticut State University.

She is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), a Fellow of Information Privacy, Certified Information Privacy Professional/US (CIPP/US), Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) and Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU).

Monique worked for the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection for nineteen years, serving in several different roles. She was a founding member of the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Computer Crimes and Electronic Evidence Lab. She also wrote grants for and coordinated the design of a statewide and later regional criminal intelligence sharing network. She founded the state’s Family Violence Reporting Program and coordinated the sex offender registry. After retiring from state service and before joining HSB, she taught, had a private practice of law and a digital forensics and electronic evidence consulting firm.

She has taught at the undergraduate, graduate and law school level, teaching courses in privacy, cyber law, digital forensics, Criminal Justice, Women’s Studies and law.

She is a frequent speaker and writer on cyber and privacy issues.

Michael R. Graif

Partner at Brown Rudnick LLP

Michael Graif is an Intellectual Property Partner at Brown Rudnick in New York. His practice focuses on trademark and copyright protection and enforcement, design patents, online infringement, domain names, artificial intelligence, and fair use. Michael has been recognized by the World Trademark Review’s WTR 1000 for twelve consecutive years as a top trademark enforcement and prosecution attorney in New York. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School and at Fordham Law.

Ishak Akyuz

Chief Counsel, Robotic Surgical Technologies at Medtronic

Ishak Akyuz is an accomplished legal professional with over 20 years of expertise in intellectual property, technology transfer, contracts, litigation, risk management, and regulatory compliance. Currently serving as Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Director for Robotic Technologies at Medtronic, he advises senior business leaders on critical legal matters while driving efficiency and growth. Throughout his career, Ishak has negotiated complex commercial agreements, led high-stakes M&A and licensing transactions, and optimized intellectual property portfolios to support innovation and business expansion. Ishak led the diligence and legal integration in Medtronic's acquisition of Digital Surgery, a company focused on analyzing surgical technique and performance using artificial intelligence. He also consolidated and streamlined contracting, data use, and privacy terms across product lines, enabling efficient international product launches and expansion in Europe, Asia, and Australia. With a strong foundation in corporate counseling and litigation—from his tenure as an Assistant District Attorney to leading legal and IP strategies in the medical device industry—Ishak is known for his ability to simplify complex concepts for business leaders and implement effective legal risk reduction strategies.

Who Should Attend

In-House Legal Operations Professionals

General Counsel and CLOs

Legal Tech Company Executives

and Product Leads

Law Firm Partners and Associates focused on Innovation

Anyone interested in the practical application and strategic
future of AI in the
legal industry.

Don't Miss Your Chance

Hear from industry pioneers and network with the legal leaders of tomorrow. Limited spots available for this exclusive virtual event.

July 18th, 2025 | Virtual Event

About LexTalk World

LexTalk World is the premier global platform connecting legal professionals through innovative events, thought leadership, and unparalleled networking runties. Our mission is to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange in the legal community worldwide.