In-house legal departments often feel pressure to achieve efficiencies, particularly in difficult economic times.

Nirosha Ruwan, VP of Legal at the collaboration platform Mattermost, said such streamlining efforts are even more essential for one-lawyer legal teams like the one she leads.

As a result, she has prioritized creating scalable systems and standardized processes since joining the company last June.

Her hope is that these initiatives, including implementing a new contract lifecycle management (CLM) system, help the growing company that serves technical teams accelerate its revenue. 

“Wherever you can create efficiencies is helpful, and I would say it's essential when you're scaling,” Ruwan told Legal Dive.

Intake

Ruwan previously served as external general counsel and outside counsel for a broad array of venture-backed technology companies while an attorney at Latham & Watkins, Cleary Gottlieb and Lumos Law. 

She said it is fairly common for start-up companies to be without a set process for how requests for assistance should be routed to legal counsel, resulting in emails, direct messages on various platforms and phone calls coming legal’s way.

However, Ruwan said that type of approach is not sustainable over time, so she has begun implementing a process in which Mattermost employees seeking legal help fill out an intake form. 

The form has questions employees answer to ensure that when the requests come in, Ruwan has a strong sense of the legal help her colleagues are seeking and the documents they are referencing. 

“I'm trying to create processes so that when we do grow and expand, we can scale in a way that's efficient,” Ruwan said.

Contracts

Contracting is another area in which Ruwan has begun work to implement standardization, including with the templates and language used in vendor agreements.

She said creating templates with contract terms that would be acceptable to most vendors is one way to reduce redlining and streamline contract negotiations.

“If you create reasonable terms, it will minimize the likelihood they will be negotiated,” Ruwan said.

Implementing a new CLM system is also expected to help in the contracting realm.

While sales and procurement teams are often handling contracts, Ruwan said a CLM system can aid with contract standardization across the company.

Meeting other team members

Meanwhile, Ruwan said another key part of her early tenure at Mattermost has been discussions with members of many different teams

She recommends legal chiefs cast a wide net when making connections at a company, both in the near term and the longer term. For example, she said connecting with members of the product team can be very helpful for in-house counsel.

“I would encourage any legal leader to take that time to talk to people who might not necessarily be on their agenda otherwise,” Ruwan said.

Ruwan, who has taught mindfulness at UCLA, said she has tried to be a careful listener and give her undivided attention during these check-ins with colleagues.

She also worked to get a better sense of any problems her colleagues were facing and projects they were undertaking, in part so she could be prepared if the topics raised might result in requests for legal department assistance down the line.  

Privacy

Ruwan said the connections she has built with colleagues in other departments have proved helpful during the company’s work on privacy matters, as data that is subject to government regulations is generated by many different teams.

For example, HR-related data is increasingly subject to evolving compliance laws in various jurisdictions.

Ruwan said it was important for her to ask during conversations with members of other internal departments how data is being used by their teams and where the data is being stored.

She has also collaborated with other internal teams and outside privacy counsel to develop Mattermost’s updated privacy policy that is effective as of Dec. 23, 2022.

“The privacy policy is important because it communicates externally how you use data,” Ruwan said. 

Additionally, Mattermost is using OneTrust to implement workflows to automate and scale data privacy processes, she said.