“My unofficial title is VP of fix it and vice president of make it happen,” said Rodney C. Pratt, LVMH North America’s chief legal officer as he and his colleague Samantha Shipp Warrick began a discussion on the value of a business-first mindset in the legal department. Warrick is chief strategy and operations counsel. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

What does the ‘ministry of common sense’ mean from a legal mindset approach?

Pratt: Often as lawyers, we look at things with respect to the law. Is it legal or not? If you do that, that’s probably the lowest bar you should apply. The first bar is on our values. Does it make sense for our business? Common sense often isn’t common. For us as lawyers, we should always act as members of the business, with people first.

When I hire new people in my department, I look for people who can apply solutions not just through a legal lens but through a business lens. As in-house lawyers, we consider ourselves senior members of the business who happen to know a lot about the law.

What is your focus on running the legal department at LVMH?

Warrick: My job for strategy and operations is to try to run the legal department like an independent business and to try to make the level of excellence we expect from legal to mirror the level of excellence from the creative side. That is, are we performing on the business side the way we are performing on the creative side? This is important because we are a leader in luxury and need to maintain or exceed our position. We think of our legal journey as a roadmap. The first focus is people, then process, then partners and performance.

In your session, you mentioned a toolkit for your team that helps them be focused on the right mindset. Can you share some of the elements?

Pratt: Yes, there are four components to that mindset. The first is to operate – keeping the lights on by optimising legal efficiency and resources. Next is being guardians of the legal function, which means managing risk not mitigating it. You also must serve as a strategist, aligning the legal and business strategies seamlessly. The fourth mindset is to serve as a catalyst, adding and creating value. The more senior you are as an in-house lawyer, the more time you are likely spending as a strategist and catalyst.

Samantha, in your role you said you had four mandates. Can you share them?

Warrick: Yes, as most people know, LVMH is a very complex organisation and there is a lot to manage. My top priority is to build community, by talking to people in the organisation and understanding their needs. The other mandates are to lower costs, increase efficiencies and to scale best practices.

We are very intentionally decentralised and part of our success is in allowing and empowering our maisons to operate on their own. They each have different savoir-faire and this is important to LVMH.

In all of this, the key question is why. Why are we doing what we are doing and why is something working or not working?

Pratt: To add to that, we should be able to tell our story like a fashion show. In a fashion show, our creatives can tell you the why behind every aspect of the show. As lawyers, we should be able to tell that sort of story as well.

Given your focus on a ‘yes’ mindset, what do you look for when hiring outside law firms?

Pratt: I don’t want yes men or yes women, I want truth men and women by my side. For law firms, I look at who is going to be honest with me and help me find a path to our objectives, and not just say no without adding any value.

Warrick: We are looking to develop deeper relationships with our law firm partners and to work with them in more ways than just transactional. That is, beyond just ‘Can you draft this agreement for us.’ We look for law firms to invest in a deeper partnership so we can work together more holistically. We think beyond the business and about our communities and how we can make a difference.

Pratt and Warrick spoke at the 19 November Luxury Law Summit in New York on the programme, “From the Department of No to the Ministry of Common Sense: How a Business First Legal Operations Mindset Can Power the Evolution of Corporate Legal Departments.”