Kerwin Associates

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Judith O’Brien recently served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Obopay, Inc., a global provider of mobile payment solutions. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Ciena and formerly served as a Member of the Board of Directors at Adaptec and several privately held companies. She also previously served as a Managing Director at Incubic Venture Fund and was a partner with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for more than two decades. She received her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, graduating Order of the Coif.

A lead Legal Recruiter at KA, Kathleen has extensive experience in placing Attorneys, Paralegals and Contracts Managers in both in-house and firm positions. In addition to her continued work on high-level in-house attorney searches, in 2009 Kathleen established a new arm of the firm focusing on Contracts Manager placement. Kathleen identified the need in the rapidly developing Bay Area for this complex recruiting niche, recognizing that there wasn't a recruiter in the Bay Area who really grasped this unique job market. After placing dozens of Contracts Managers in-house, Kathleen has a comprehensive understanding of the nature of the Contracts Manager role in corporations and organizations.

“The role of the General Counsel and legal departments is being challenged – and is changing – with increased demand to provide metrics, demonstrate cost savings, influence streamlining and ease of doing business. Furthermore, management of risks must be clearly articulated and, to the greatest extent possible, automated or using self-help tools with prescribed process and parameters. Contracts Management is top of mind for all of these goals and the skill sets required include forward-thinking individuals and teams who appreciate that the current value-add is a balance between aiming for self help and simplification so that hands-on, customized work is appropriately staffed for priority tasks. Communication skills, including taking every opportunity to train and influence productive behaviours, are paramount. Creative thinking is critical including creative solutions to drive efficiency, manage flow and compliance with a mindset towards constant improvement. We utilize more tools and require more technical agility to enable the flow of data, verify the accuracy of information, track status and report meaningful metrics.

“In my experience, the Contracts Manager position has evolved from one that was commonly a transitional and mainly administrative role for a couple of years while a recent college graduate figures out what to do next into a role that provides important support for a legal team as well as opportunities for continued growth and experience within a legal team and beyond. Improved technology has increased productivity, allowing the Contacts Manager to handle administrative tasks more efficiently and in turn be available to provide additional, broader support to the legal team and their business partners. This has allowed companies to invest time into their development with the aim of having them contribute more broadly than in the past. Contracts Manager positions have evolved into an essential function for the legal team both in terms of efficiently providing day-to-day legal services and as an important liaison between the legal team and the rest of the company.

Anne Kerwin Payne has been a legal recruiter in the Northern California Legal Marketplace for over 25 years. She runs and manages Kerwin Associates, located in West Menlo Park. Anne was born and raised in the bay area. She enjoyed her college experience at UC Berkley and was a Political Science Major. She had the full college experience: Intercollegiate athletics, the Greek life, attended football games, where she watched the intense rivalry between the Golden Bears and the Stanford Cardinal.

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