We at LawGeex were super excited to attend the annual summit of the Israeli chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel held in Tel Aviv Israel last week.
The Israeli ACC chapter is one of the largest outside the US, with over 300 members — more than in France, Germany, or Italy. It’s also the fastest-growing chapter outside the US, and one of the most active, with 33 events per year.
Companies represented included the Israeli offices of Ericsson, IBM, Microsoft, Pfizer, and SanDisk, as well as home-grown companies like Teva.
As with the ACC as a whole, more than half the members of the Israeli chapter are women.
Speakers
Speakers included Dr. Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli Minister of National Infrastructure Energy & Water Resources, and Eyal Waldman, CEO of Mellanox Technologies.
Waldman said that his ideal business contract was one that would fit on a PC motherboard. (He didn’t specify which generation — early motherboards were about the size of an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper, but current ones are smaller.) He also said that it’s important for the legal department to give management the “bullet point” version of contracts and that the legal department should work as quickly as possible to avoid slowing down business deals.
Joey Shabot of the Greenberg Traurig firm spoke on the role of General Counsel in protecting and communicating with a company’s board of directors. He said that lawyers are often seen as “the people who get in the way of things.”
(Greenberg Traurig also had the coolest swag at the conference — a matkot paddle ball set emblazoned with the firm name.)
The highlight of the day was a talk by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on leadership and how corporate counsel can make themselves indispensable in an organization.
“A leader is a person who has a vision and can impart it to other people,” he said. “If you only have a vision, you’re a philosopher.”
Launch for In-House Counsel Contract Review Solution
The summit was also the launch of LawGeex Pro, a contract review solution for corporate legal departments.
The launch was received with great interest. One veteran corporate counsel at the summit immediately recognized the potential LawGeex Pro has to capture the “institutional wisdom” of senior counsel and pass it on to new hires.
A Successful Corporate Counsel Israel Summit, With A View
The event was a great success overall and had all the elements necessary: open conversations with attendees, world-class speakers, fabulous food, swag worth keeping, and a breathtaking view. A big thank you to the organizers at ACC for a well-run event! See you at the next one!
