Advertise on podcast: The Legal Department

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★★★★★

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49 reviews

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Practical, efficient and fun, The Legal Department podcast delivers the bottom line of what busy in-house attorneys need to know to level up their career. Whether you’re the general counsel or just starting a career in a corporate law department, The Legal Department podcast is the place to get real world advice from leading legal executives, executive coaches, and other thought leaders on how to grow your career and deliver more value to your clients. Through conversations with prominent general counsel, chief legal officers and select law firm thought leaders, you’ll get to the bottom line of what you need to know about front page legal issues like digital privacy, cybersecurity and AI. Guests will share their strategies for managing the legal team, budgets, and navigating tricky company politics. Episodes will also tackle in-house fundamentals like the attorney client privilege, litigation, M&A, governance and working with boards of directors and the c-suite. The Podcast will also feature guests from the c-suite, executive coaches, and other thought leaders who will offer practice insights for attorneys seeking to fuel their own professional development and build those elusive “soft skills.” Each episode of The Legal Department will provide practical tips and takeaways that you can use to take your in-house career to the next level. The Legal Department podcast provides practical, concise, and actionable insights for busy in-house attorneys. Whether you're a seasoned general counsel or a new corporate law professional, each episode of The Legal Department offers the essential tools, information, and resources to enhance your professional skills. Elevate your career and deliver value to those you serve. Each episode features in-depth conversations with prominent general counsel and chief legal officers, and select law firm thought leaders who share war stories from their own careers. Learn how to tackle any situation with finesse and confidence, no matter how delicate or politically challenging. Accelerate your journey towards a fulfilling legal career through these podcast conversations. Guests will share key insights and strategies for effectively managing legal teams, budget oversight, navigating company politics, and mastering in-house fundamentals like privilege, litigation, M&A, governance, and board interactions.Becoming an in-house leader requires more than legal knowledge and experience. It requires business acumen, executive intelligence, and being a team player within your company and with your partners. The Legal Department podcast will help you level up your career. Host Stacy Bratcher, a general counsel and chief legal officer with nearly twenty years of in-house experience, has fun and engaging conversations about legal careers within in-house legal departments. The Legal Department podcast delivers informative, relatable, and practical advice from thought leaders. As she explores topics with exceptional attorneys, c-suite executives, and other key business partners, you will gain a deeper understanding of front-page legal issues, become more familiar with the impact of today's technology on your practice, and learn to cultivate stronger relationships to position yourself as an approachable and effective legal partner. No matter where you are in your career, The Legal Department is here to help you tackle whatever comes your way. Join Stacy in these episodes filled with inspiring stories, valuable advice, and tips to elevate your legal practice. Become an invaluable asset to your organization or law firm and establish yourself as the dependable professional they can't afford to lose. Level up your legal career with The Legal Department podcast.

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Check latest episodes from The Legal Department podcast

Goal Getter: The Happiness Factor Marla Persky Executive Coach, 2x GC And Independent Board Member [E86]

2026/01/27

Do you feel like you're on a hamster wheel? Or climbing a career ladder that you're not sure you want to be on? In this Goal Getter episode, Executive coach and former public company GC Marla Persky joins Stacy Bratcher to share how setting career goals that align with your "happiness factor" can help us build the career we actually want. She urges lawyers to "own their careers" and set goals that align with what makes us happy. Get off the wheel of endless achievement and build the career you want.

Contracting In The #Creator Economy: Brittany Ratelle, Ratelle Law [E85]

2026/01/14

Is your company branching out into influencer marketing? Is your Chief Marketing Officer dying to engage with the latest TikTok sensation? Put down that red pen and prepare to approach marketing deals with a different eye. Brittany Ratelle of Ratelle Law has been representing creators for more than a decade. She's in The Legal Department to share tips on how to approach creator deals in a way that benefits your company and the creator. In this episode, you'll learn the difference between User Generated Content and traditional Influencer brand deals; the allocation of intellectual property rights (Spoiler Alert: your company isn't going to own the IP); how negotiating a "Creative Brief" at the outset can ensure alignment and brand consistency in the future; and resources to find market rates/terms for #Influencer deals.

Stuck At Work? Tips To Reboot Your Career With Ellen Yang

2025/12/30

You're at a great company, with a fancy title and what seems from the outside to be exciting work. But all that glitters is not gold. No matter where you are in your career--whether you're just starting out or at the top of the career ladder, you can feel stuck. Ellen Yang shares advice for attorneys and managers alike on how to recognize that you (or your team) might be feeling stuck and how to break through that to find something more fulfilling. She has specific advice for senior level lawyers, deputy GCs and associate GCs, about how to fill out that resume to get GC ready. Ellen also did the unheard of: she returned to a law firm after more than a decade in-house. Tune in to learn about that experience and whether a return to the "dark side" is right for you. Lots of great stories and advice here to help you level-up, whatever that means to you.

ACC Replay: The Influential Counsel: Mastering Personal Branding In The Corporate World [E83]

2025/12/16

In-house legal professionals are more than advisors – they’re strategic leaders. This episode of The Legal Department is a replay of a dynamic discussion about how personal branding and influence can elevate your impact, visibility, and career. Listen to the real-world strategies, lessons learned, and tools for building your brand authentically – both inside your organization and across your network. Whether you're climbing the ladder or looking to lead from where you are, this session will help you position yourself for influence and opportunity. Topics: Why Influence MattersWhy personal brand and internal influence are strategic assets Personal Brand in Practice: How We Built OursTactics used to define and project their brand (internally and externally) Mistakes made and lessons learned along the way Making Yourself Visible Without Being Self-PromotionalStrategies for subtle self-advocacy and internal visibility Communicating your value to non-legal stakeholders Leveraging internal wins to grow reputation LinkedIn, Leadership, and Leverage: Career Opportunities Through BrandingUsing LinkedIn and networking to create inbound opportunities How branding helped panelists navigate job transitions or promotions Advice for in-house lawyers at different stages of their careers

Escape From Meeting Hell: Run Better Meetings With Anita Kishore, Executive Coach [E82]

2025/11/23

Former Bain consultant and executive coach Anita Kishore knows how to run a good meeting. When a CEO cancelled a standing meeting with her, Anita learned the hard way that planning ahead and communicating meeting objectives are essential for any meeting. As an executive coach, she helps executives maximize their effectiveness through good meeting hygiene. In this episode, find out the two secrets to make any meeting a hit. From project meetings, all-hands, staff meetings or 1:1s, Anita shares strategies for how to maximize effectiveness of any meeting. In this episode, you'll learn: Why setting an agenda and knowing the meeting objective is table stakes;How to know which meetings you need to attend;How to manage the clock by "calling a banana";How to draw out the introverts by using technology to encourage participationTune in to learn the skills you need to be a meeting pro.

Do This Before You Spend $$$ on Legal Tech With Lyndsey Cain Of LegalEng [E79]

2025/11/04

Attention all legal operations professionals! This episode is for you. Legal Ops consultant Lyndsey Cain of LegalEng is in The Legal Department to talk about how to make your legal tech implementation a success. From identifying a non-IT leader, knowing your goals, having a comms plan, and an ongoing governance structure, Lyndsey shares that success is more than "just the tech." She also shares tips on vendor engagement, negotiating those implementation services, and how to navigate tech updates.

Office Hours: How To Get Your First GC Job With Leah Huddleston And Candace Jackson [E81]

2025/10/21

In this Office Hours discussion, Stacy Bratcher is joined by Leah Huddleston, Chief Legal Officer/Corporate Secretary at CBIZ, and Candace Jackson, Senior Vice President/General Counsel/Corporate Secretary of Silvaco. They share their journeys from associate general counsel and deputy GC to their current chairs, highlighting the most valuable lessons they learned along the way. Leah and Candace explain why a GC must truly know the business inside out and why they sometimes need to act as ethical supervisors. They also discuss how GCs can develop an executive presence and how they must handle the leadership development of their teams.

Closed Mouths Don't Get Fed: Use Metrics To Tell The Story Of The Legal Department With Kathy Zhu, CEO And Co-Founder Of Streamline AI [E80]

2025/10/07

Feeling like you're never going to get resources to support your legal function? Kathy Zhu has been there. Facing an endless demand for her time and limited resources to meet the business need at DoorDash, Kathy as head of Commercial Contracting, built relationships with her key customers and a process to help her team manage and communicate priorities within the company. She was so successful in showing her team's value (and their resource needs), her clients actually donated their own headcount to the legal department so she could serve them better. Seeing the value of process, tools and relationships, Kathy and her co-founder built a tool (Streamline AI) to help in-house legal departments manage their workload and generate metrics to make the case for more resources. In this episode, Kathy shares how she managed "the bottomless pit of need" using Google forms as a bush fix before Streamline AI was born. She shares: Why transparency and vulnerability are a superpower for building relationships with your key clientsHow using metrics can help you "speak CFO" and tell the story of your legal departmentWhy understanding the stage of the company and what's needed can help lawyers deliver better services

Leveling Up: My Conversation With Alex Su And Candice Reed On Leveraging Latitude Podcast [E78]

2025/09/23

Host Stacy Bratcher steps onto the Leveraging Latitude podcast with Alex Su and Candice Reed to share her practical, hard-won tips for leveling up as in-house counsel. From building genuine relationships with business leaders to positioning yourself as a strategic partner, managing and inspiring your team, and being intentional about your own professional growth, Stacy offers an energizing roadmap for success. She also reveals two fun facts about herself and the pump-up songs that keep her going. This episode first appeared on Leveraging Latitude: Cultivating a Full Life in the Law, a podcast by Latitude. Learn more at LATITUDELEGAL.COM.

Make Your Legal Department A Revenue Generator With Greg McPolin And Andrew Johnstone [E77]

2025/09/09

Tired of feeling like your legal department is a cost center? Fielding too many questions about the outside counsel spend, headcount and all the costs you generate? In this episode, you'll learn how to start an affirmative recovery program that can generate millions of dollars for your company. Veteran GC Andrew Johnstone, formerly in-house at Sears and US Foods, joins Greg McPolin of Burford Capital to share the "how" and "why" of building an affirmative recovery program in your in-house legal department. If you're not pursuing affirmative claims for your company, you're leaving money on the table. Tune in to learn how to generate positive cash flow and an ROI from your in-house legal work.

No Really, This Is How To Use AI In The Legal Department With Sterling Miller, CEO & Author Of Ten Things You Need to Know As In-House Counsel (E76)

2025/08/26

You may be thinking, "not another episode on AI! Haven't we covered that already?" Well, you're right. The Legal Department has covered AI, but we haven't talked practically or tactically about how you would actually use AI in an in-house legal department. In this episode, Sterling Miller, the OG of In-House, shares practical tips on how in-house departments can safely use AI. Other discussions include: How to deal with confidentiality and attorney client privilege with AI toolsPractical, step-by-step suggestions for drafting prompts for different tasksAI use-cases for in-house lawyersHow to navigate e-discovery Sterling also shares his favorite AI tools for legal departments–put together after 2 years of research, so you don't have to! This is an episode you won't want to miss. Bookmark it and listen on a flight so you can take notes!

Direito Sem Fronteiras: Building A Global Legal Career With Juliana Calil (E75)

2025/08/11

New to a global company? Working with lawyers in different parts of the world and struggling to connect? It's not just about understanding the language: to work cross-culturally, you need to understand the other party's culture. In this episode, Juliana Calil, former in-house attorney at Google, Intel, Disney and other big name companies shares her experience as a Brazilian lawyer learning how to practice in the US and eventually taking that experience back to Brazil. As Juliana shares, working internationally takes more than being bilingual. She shares how many of the in-house fundamentals are still key in international roles and how being curious about the other party's culture ensures success. We also tackle key differences in how US and Brazilian companies handle IP issues. Estou empolgado com isso!

Office Hours: 2 GCs And A Law Firm Partner Answer Listener Questions Kate Dugan, GC Of Energizer Holdings and Joe Glynias, Chair Of Husch Blackwell (E74)

2025/08/05

2 GCs and a Law Firm Partner answer YOUR questions. Kate Dugan and Joe Glynias return to join Stacy Bratcher in The Legal Department and share their views on maintaining and getting the best value out of in-house relationships. They talk about managing remote teams, crisis communications, and how to get up to speed managing a new function. Joe also reflects on the first year of Husch Blackwell's "HB In-House" program, including some hot takes about what it is like to be in-house counsel. Got a burning question for Office Hours? Reach out at [email protected]

What Would The CEO Do? The Start-Up GC’s Mindset With Jonathan Levy, Y Combinator (E73)

2025/07/22

Y Combinator is the tech incubator that has launched many of today's largest companies–Airbnb, DropBox, Door Dash, Open AI and many, many others. Jonathan Levy, Managing Director and former GC of YC had a role in many of them. On this episode of The Legal Department, Jonathan shares how legal can support start-up companies and help shape the future. He talks about adopting a CEO's mindset, keeping your opinions (and attitude) in check and not letter fears of what might go wrong prevent you from seeing what might go right. YC is also seeding several legal tech companies–Jonathan shares his thoughts about some of these and why they might disrupt the current market leaders. Join us for another episode on how lawyers support innovation.

From The Legal Department Into The Board Room With Jeanine Wright Former GC, Tech Founder & 5x Board Member [E72]

2025/07/08

Ever wonder what the board of directors wants from their legal team? Or how you can move from the legal department into a board position? In this episode, triple-threat Jeanine Wright--former GC turned tech-company founder, former COO of podcast giant Wondery, and current board member at several companies--is in The Legal Department to help lawyers how to be great in the board room. Find out the 4 things board members want in their lawyers. Jeanine also shares her journey from legal into business roles and the practical advice that helped her reach the board room and offers advice on how you can get there too.

Podcast reviews

Read The Legal Department podcast reviews

5 out of 5

49 reviews

★★★★★

fsuzta 2025/08/15

Helping Me Think Like a GC for When I Become One

I found this show through the Go In-House newsletter and I LOVE it. As someone whose next career step is to become a GC, I find the content extremely ...

★★★★★

Therealmegant 2024/02/06

Motivated and Energized! Thanks JZ!

Listening to JZ as a guest speaker on the Legal Department podcast has truly left a lasting impact on me! I was absolutely blown away by the insightfu...

★★★★★

Crane fox 2024/01/13

LOVE IT!!!!

★★★★★

Renault78law 2024/01/11

Excellent resource

Stacy really asks great questions and I find tremendous value in listening. It’s a must for all attorneys who work with corporate clients, inhouse or ...

★★★★★

Brooke-509 2023/12/11

Great podcast!!!

Fantastic podcast for in-house lawyers! Loved the episode with Carol Fabrizio - it gave me a lot to think about. Stacy is a terrific host with great ...

★★★★★

KT-SB 2023/11/28

So good!

Love listening to smart people. You don’t need to be a lawyer to enjoy this podcast.

★★★★★

Ariella Coleman 2023/11/22

Incredible!

Stacy, you nailed it! Congratulations - this is incredible, valuable, and much-needed!

★★★★★

JZ Fitness 2023/11/18

Very captivating

I listen to many podcasts, but this one contains multiple legal experts, who are guided by the amazing Stacy Bratcher. Stacy is a phenomenal interview...

★★★★★

Emily - Proactive Sports 2023/11/16

Love!!!

Inside look to some of the smartest minds!!! We’ve been lucky enough to use Stacey’s services and excited to follow along to continue to pick up tips...

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