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Law360 (June 4, 2020, 7:54 PM EDT) -- Expecting and embracing both personal and work disruptions are crucial in developing a legal department that's resilient, which speakers during a webinar Thursday acknowledged is especially relevant given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Myisha Frazier, the legal director of devices and services at Google LLC who participated in Above the Law's hourlong webinar, encouraged in-house law leaders and their staff to adopt the mindset that changes and disruptions are inevitable.
"For some, you end up going into this flight-or-freeze-or-flee behavior when change happens," she said. "I know that we like to hold on to status quo in life, but it's going to happen."
Frazier said the racial injustices spotlighted with the recent deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor in Louisville and Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, compounded with the ongoing pandemic have "rocked me to my core."
"All of this does impact our business and our ability to perform," she said. "It's impact that you can't really turn off on Monday morning ... and perform with this business-as-usual mindset."
Those who do, she added, "are usually doing it behind a mask."
The mindset is a "muscle that you have to build" and starts with the leaders of teams, she said.
"Your energy, how you show up, matters," Frazier said. "It's not about putting things aside and being tone deaf and pretending that it's not happening."
Managers don't necessarily need to accept the outcome of every change, Frazier said, but rather could try to learn to navigate it and use it as a stimulus to prepare for an evolving landscape.
Given the recent events, Frazier said she knew she had to be realistic and authentic in meetings this week, while simultaneously encouraging her staff to continue with their responsibilities.
She advised other leaders to take the time to think about how to frame information and how they show up to lead their departments.
During the webinar, Frazier also suggested that investing in building a strong team and developing empowered lawyers who take advantage of opportunities can build resilience. She encouraged in-house leaders to offer support, invest in subject-matter training and provide cross-training and shadowing among staff.
Another strategy that in-house leaders might use to develop resilient teams is forming and enforcing a mission statement, and then rewarding staff who display the ideals and values, Frazier said. In the absence of a mission statement, a manager should strive to ensure the team has a clear sense of parameters that outline performance expectations.
"If you're rewarding those behaviors, then that becomes your culture," she said.
Frazier spoke for the majority of the webinar. Catherine Kemnitz, senior vice president and head of legal at Axiom, participated largely as a moderator.
--Editing by Amy Rowe.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
