“THE LAW IS GROUNDED IN PRECEDENT AND HISTORY BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN IT DOESN’T CHANGE AND EVOLVE.”
Nikki Rahimzadeh joined Kalexius as Head of Consulting this week and shared her perspective on new law and what the future holds.
Nikki, tell us more about yourself.
I began my career as a creditors’ rights and bankruptcy lawyer and federal law clerk. I became interested in the business side of law and decided to pursue my interest in legal operations. I have had different in-house legal operations roles along with my consulting experience, which led me to my new role at Kalexius.
Why did you join Kalexius?
I’m driven by the ways in which I can help people and support them and their organizational goals. Working as a consultant lets me broaden the reach to share knowledge and collaborate in creative ways to solve problems. There are always challenges and improvements to be made. The analysis and solutioning process that helps others is most rewarding for me. I am so excited about the opportunity to build on the strengths that Kalexius has in its foundation today.
What do you look forward to most in your new role?
I look forward to building and implementing solutions in the wake of the pandemic and in the beginning of the economic challenges coming. Legal departments have faced downturns before, and certainly as a former bankruptcy attorney, I have worked to navigate through those types of external impacts. This is a time for legal departments to reflect on their service delivery models and potentially a pivot point in how they operate.
From a personal perspective, I’m glad to be joining a team which thrives on diversity and multiculturalism. Kalexius is a true DEI champion with opportunities for all.
How do you foresee the future of legal ops?
Legal Ops is driven primarily by spend and technology. Legal technology continues to improve and the available tools out there continue to grow in their appeal to lawyers. As we see more tech-oriented legal teams grow, there will continue to be a growth in how technology enables the legal work. People will continue to be at the center of Legal, which is why at Kalexius we believe in putting people and process before technology. You’ll have success with technology if you understand the people and design the process first!
Navigating relationships with external counsel will continue to be a critical component to the operational story. The financial management and reporting will continue to drive department initiatives and will continue as core to legal operations. The legal department doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Aligning legal ops to other enterprise ops, ie sales ops, and initiatives will continue to drive expansion in the space.
How can in-house teams benefit from working with ALSPs?
Kalexius’ model enables us to support legal teams in a seamless way, preserving service to the Business and maintaining the core legal function. There is so much opportunity to make incremental changes that will have real impact to the business without upsetting the entire legal ecosystem for the company. In short – you don’t have to change every piece of the model to make an impact: you can do a lot without doing it all! That’s the sweet spot for Kalexius and why I am so excited to be here.
What advice would you give young lawyers interested in New Law?
Do your research. Ask questions. Don’t be afraid of technology. Don’t be afraid of new ways of working. The law is grounded in precedent and history but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t change and evolve.
