Leftfoot - Legal Business Development

  Creating an In-house Legal Department of Value Cameron Findlay is the SVP General Counsel and Secretary at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), the largest food processor in the world.  The legal department Cam leads has been recognized as one of ‘Corporate Counsel’s 2018 Best’ for executing change; notably firm convergence, upgraded matter management and insourcing. Wanting the legal department to be a value center for ADM, Cam and his team set out to preserve and affect value where they could.   At the outset current spend and therefore savings goals weren’t clear, but ADM knew they needed to spend less and put better controls in place. Their efforts were less about innovation and more about executing change, applying ideas that had been used elsewhere. When they looked at spend, a key factor was a total spend of which 85% was being spent on outside firms, and 15% was being spent on in-house work.  The iceberg effect was in full force, ADM’s time and effort were being spent managing the 15% above the sur