Understanding The Legal Chief of Staff Role - a Q&A with Alex Jonas of Autodesk

Alex Jonas leads the Legal Operations team at Autodesk and acts as Chief of Staff to the General Counsel and the Legal Department leadership team. These are excerpts of my recent conversation with him. Alex also participated in this enlightening conversation at our recent SOLID West Summit in San Francisco:

David: What’s the difference between a Chief of Staff to a General Counsel versus a CEO?

Alex: There is no standard definition of this role. It comes down to the needs of the principal for whom you work. Rob Dickens, our CEO’s Chief of Staff, recently wrote an excellent article on the Chief of Staff’s role, in which he said that there are three orientations for such a role:

1. Work you do to make the principal more effective
2. Work you do to make the leadership team more effective
3. Work you do to make the organization more effective

So, the role is similar regardless of where you work; just the audiences are different.

David: Does a legal Chief of Staff need to be an attorney?

Alex: No, but there are times it would make your life easier. I’m not an attorney, so I can’t help with anything substantively legal in nature.

But there are many things the General Counsel can still use me to do such as acting as a proxy, especially for operational issues. I do a lot of work around interactions our General Counsel has with the leadership team weekly, monthly and quarterly. I suggest topics and help define them, and figure out methods for facilitating the conversations... anything that gets us to quicker and better decisions.

David: How is this role emerging and expanding? I recently shared a LawGeex report that suggests 41% of General Counsel are unqualified to lead digital transformation. I’m wondering whether the Chief of Staff role can help fill that gap.

Alex: When you say digital transformation, you can be talking about one of two things:

The first is the business transforming to be more digital in services it provides to clients. Legal’s role here is advise as business goes through change. In this respect, I see the Chief of Staff as having almost no role.

The second is transforming the legal department to use more IT systems in place of manual systems, and in that case then I agree with what you said, but I see that as core to the role of Head of Legal Operations. Making the legal department more efficient, scalable and effective has been a long standing Legal Ops role.

David: It seems to me that except for about two dozen exceptional Legal Operations leaders, most don’t have the RRAR (role, responsibility, authority and resources) to drive true digital transformation. But a Chief of Staff could potentially have a real seat at the table and could be heard and recognized. Thoughts?

Alex: It depends. I still don’t know if I see such a role as being separate from Legal Operations…

David: You may being underestimating how rare your capabilities are. You’re one of the top 25 in the business.

Alex: Thanks, but if you solve digital transformation challenges by putting in a Chief of Staff, you would be de-escalating the role of Head of Legal Ops.

David: I’m thinking from the opposite direction. By adding a Chief of Staff, you would be adding an ally. The General Counsel is often too busy; there often is no one else to talk to. This would provide a liaison and a champion.

Alex: I can see that dynamic, but it seems sensitive. In my role as Head of Legal Ops, I would want to feel this was my responsibility.

David: But what if board members think that legal is stuck on legal innovation? Most General Counsel grew up in a different world.

Alex: There’s truth in the scenario you describe. Some organizations will add a Chief of Staff to get there. But another way to achieve this would be to raise the expectations of the role of the Legal Operations lead and function.