Elaine Karp

Title: Director, Legal Operations

Company: Baxter International Inc.

How did you get into legal operations?

I actually started in finance. I worked for a small boutique consulting firm that did post-mortem analysis of legal expenses. When the firm closed as the owner retired, I was contacted by a recruiter for a position in legal operations. It was an interesting transition for me because I was able to see and analyze the expenses from the corporate side versus the third party as I did before. Professionals in legal operations require analytical skills and understanding of process and how those can improve. I have always been a “fixer” and tend to see the mechanics of the process and either correct it if a piece is out of place or updated it entirely. It was a perfect fit for me and I absolutely love what I do.

When and why did you join CLOC?

I joined CLOC in 2016 shortly after I started leading my own legal operations function. At that point I was a team of one and had extremely limited resources available to me. CLOC was a great resource for me to learn from.

What has been your biggest legal ops challenge and how did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge regardless of the size of your group or project is always change management in my opinion. The change might be quite substantial, but the key to face that is communication and collaboration with the organization and stakeholders. There is great value in sitting down with the various groups effected by that change and providing them a roadmap of how the new process will help them improve. It is important to keep in mind that any change is hard, and we need to approach it with sensitivity. One way to deal with it is to engage stakeholders early on and making them part of the process. That way change can come from within slowly and it will then significantly increase the adaption rate of that change as well.

How has CLOC helped you be successful in your legal Operations role?

It was just a huge knowledge base. I went to my first CLOC Conference and it was knowledge overload, it was absolutely amazing. Meeting other colleagues who are going through the same challenges and learned what they are doing and how they’re approaching their problems. Finding out new technologies and what was available in the market and how that potentially could help me face the challenges I was having at the time was incredibly valuable.

What is one thing you would say to inspire your fellow CLOC Members to become more involved in the development of the legal operations profession?

Keep collaborating and sharing. This is how we learn and how I started my journey. If we keep learning and sharing, we then grow individually and bring much more value to our organization as well.

What do you find most important about being in a CLOC regional Group and would you recommend others to be more involved?

Yes, if you’re able to get involved, please do. Many of our people in the Chicago regional group are a team of one. When you have limited resources, getting together with your peers and learning and bouncing ideas, all of a sudden you no longer feel like you’re a team of one. Especially now as we are all working remotely, we can also provide the support that we need to keep handling the additional challenges of not being able to meet in the office. We need to stay connected and support one another.