ACC Value Challenge

Lisa Damon is a key member of Seyfarth Shaw's senior leadership team. She serves on the firm's Executive, Administrative and Compensation Committees, and also has executive oversight of the firm's SeyfarthLean initiative. Her vision and guidance have been highly instrumental in adapting SeyfarthLean's core principles of delivering client value, collaboration and efficiency to all firm departments and practice groups. Lisa, who is a certified GreenBelt, leads teams of lawyers and staff to bring SeyfarthLean to clients across a broad platform of legal services. Under Lisa's leadership, SeyfarthLean has gained significant attention and she is regularly asked by high profile organizations, such as the Association of Corporate Counsel, to share best practices and other knowledge.

Lisa is the National Chair of Seyfarth Shaw's 350 attorney Labor & Employment Department, and she represents management in the area of labor and employment law with an emphasis on litigation of claims of sex, race and age discrimination and harassment. She consults with clients on avoiding such litigation, through improved management policies and practices, positive employee relations, training and diversity assessment. Lisa also works with management to devise and refine diversity programs, helping companies limit class action liability and achieve diversity objectives.

Russ Dempsey is a leader in creating greater value in legal services. He has more than 10 years of General Counsel experience, driving results for clients by increasing efficiency within the legal and compliance departments; by designing and implementing process improvement/project management initiatives; and, by structuring value-based relationships with outside counsel.  Russ is currently Assistant General Counsel for AIG with its Group Retirement business.  He has served in pivotal roles for Nationwide and United Retirement.

Russ is a frequent speaker on legal project management and value-based billing practices. He has been named a Value Champion by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) for creativity in driving value, efficiency and greater predictability in his role as in-house general counsel.  Russ has served on the faculty for ACC’s Legal Services Management Workshop since 2014, and is currently a member of ACC’s Board of Directors and its Value Challenge Steering Committee.

Russ holds both a JD and an LL.M. in taxation.  He received his BA in Philosophy from Marshall University. Contact info: (713) 342-7421 – Russ.dempsey@aig.com

Bill is the Chief Practice Innovation Officer at Thompson Hine.  He is responsible for the implementation of the firm’s SmartPaTH® legal services delivery model as a core competency of the firm and for identifying and developing areas where new technology, firm structure and day-to-day practices can be refined to improve the firm’s clients’ experience. Bill also coaches firm lawyers on SmartPaTH® techniques; and works with clients to foster more efficient internal legal service delivery. He identifies emerging market opportunities; and sponsors the development of innovative technologies and new product and service initiatives.  He is a founding faculty member of the ACC’s Legal Service Management Workshop series.  Bill was the Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives of an international law firm, where he advised firm clients on the development of alternative fee/value-based billing arrangements and the formation and operation of preferred legal vendor programs.  He previously served for more than a decade as inside counsel at Gannett Co., Inc., where he advised on antitrust, advertising, distribution and other matters and managed the commercial litigation docket. He later served as Vice President/Compliance Oversight at MCI during its emergence from bankruptcy. Before joining Gannett, Bill practiced at two international law firms.  He holds a J.D. from University of Chicago Law School and an A.B.mcl from Harvard University.  He has held several leadership posts in the ABA Section of Litigation, is an Associate Editor of Litigation Journal, and is a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management.  Contact Info:  (202) 263-4163; William.Garcia@ThompsonHine.com

For over 25 years, has provided strategic and operational consulting services to the legal industry. Nancy works closely with the General Counsel to develop the vision and structure of the law department to reflect and enable accomplishment of the company’s goals. Her focus also includes operationalizing the vision through a resource plan that balances the use of internal and external resources and the effective deployment of simplified processes and enabling technology. Nancy is known for her depth of knowledge and passion for driving sustainable improvement with her clients.

During the course of her career, Nancy has supported and partnered with the key industry organizations, including ACC (Association of Corporate Counsel) and IACCM (International Association for Contract & Commercial Management) to define and promote industry best practices that raises the understanding and effectiveness of organizations beyond her direct client base.

As a recognized industry expert, Nancy draws upon her prior roles as the practice leader for Huron Consulting’s Law Department Management group and her time with Altman Weil. Her consulting experience is supplemented with knowledge gained from hands-on experience as the Manager of Information Systems at a mid-west law firm and working for a software company that designed and implemented financial systems for law firms.

Nancy is a frequent speaker at industry-wide and sponsored events on topics that inspire and educate the audience on how to set priorities, achieve cost savings, successfully implement new systems, drive user adoption of change and articulate the value contribution of the law department. Nancy received her degree in Management Information Systems from Iowa State University.

Since January 2015, Kathryn D. Kirmayer has been General Counsel at the Association of American Railroads in Washington, D.C..  For twenty-five years prior to that, she practiced with an AmLaw 100 law firm as a trial attorney specializing in complex business litigation and arbitration.  While at the law firm, Kathy served as Vice-Chair of the firm's Finance Committee, with responsibility for approving the firm's value-based pricing proposals as well as monitoring their performance. She trained firm attorneys and staff in VBB principles and practices, and wrote and presented outside the firm (including as part of the ACC LSM Faculty) on the subject of value-based fee arrangements. 

Kathy earned her law degree magna cum laude from Washington & Lee University School of Law, where she was a member of the Law Review and the Order of the Coif. She has a B.A. in psychology from Williams College, where she was captain of the swim team and a four-year All American.  Kathy is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia. She lives in Maryland with her two children, and is an avid open water swimmer.

Joe Otterstetter is a 1985 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School. He began his legal career as an associate in Faegre & Benson’s business litigation practice group. In 1989, he joined 3M Legal Affairs and has served as a legal advisor to more than 30 different 3M divisions. From 1997-2000, he lived and worked for 3M in the United Kingdom and Europe where he supported 3M’s chemical, industrial, and electronics businesses. In addition, during this time abroad, he helped to establish and supported 3M’s operations in the Middle East and North Africa. He’s served as the primarily business group counsel for 3M’s Industrial, Transportation, and Safety & Security Systems business groups. In February of 2013, he was appointed to the newly created role as managing counsel for 3M Legal Affairs. In this role, Joe has led a number of important projects to enhance 3M’s efficiency and effectiveness, including the creation of 3M’s Preferred Counsel Network.

Joe is a passionate supporter of community engagement and pro bono initiatives. For more than 20 years, Joe has served as a volunteer lawyer for Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, a Twin Cities-based legal civil legal services provider, and the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans.

Fred Paulmann (JD/MBA) is the founder of The Counsel Management Group, LLC, an advisory and data analysis firm dedicated to helping corporate legal departments and law firms achieve greater value with respect to legal services. He specializes in crafting matter-specific cost models as alternatives to hourly rate structures, along with financial metrics to improve performance. Fred and his team have successfully served clients across the Fortune 500 list, as well as medium and smaller sized companies beyond.

Prior to launching CMG, Fred served as the full-time Director of Law Firm and Legal Vendor Management at Pfizer Inc, where he helped devise and launch the company's first-ever partnering program for outside counsel. In this role, Fred helped successfully implement: scorecards to guide the counsel selection process, alternative fees, and key operational processes such as budgeting, forecasting and year-end evaluations of law firm productivity. At Pfizer, Fred also served as an in-house litigator and product lawyer. Prior to that, he was in the Litigation Group at Kaye Scholer, LLP (New York).

Fred has served as Co-Chair of the Budgeting and Billing Subcommittee of the American Bar Association (Section of Litigation, Corporate Counsel Committee), and has served as Co-Chair, Special Projects, ACC Law Department Management Committee, focusing on alternative fees. He has spoken extensively on these topics, and his publications include: “Managing Value Based Relationships with Outside Counsel,” (August, 2011); The ACC Value-Based Fee Primer (July 2010); and “What Do Hours Have to Do With Value?” (ACC Docket, October 2009).

Fred’s received his BA from Boston College, JD from New York University (including Staff Editor, Journal of International Law and Politics), and MBA from New York University. Fred can be reached at: Contact Info: (212) 984-0714 – fpaulmann@counselmgmtgroup.com

Joseph Spratt is an accomplished communications strategist and business management executive, with more than 20 years’ experience in both in-house and consulting capacities, notably in the rapidly evolving legal services industry.

Joe has combined deep expertise in brand, strategy, talent and communications to create an innovative approach that effectively advances and accelerates an organization's success. For Seyfarth Shaw, an AmLaw 100 firm, held a number of strategic initiatives that successfully and dramatically repositioned Seyfarth as a progressive leader in value and innovation.

Joe’s work has focused on internal organizational change, client-partner engagement, brand management, and external thought leadership and reputation management. He has created industry partnerships and alliances that help an organization advance its leadership position, using education as a powerful business development tool.

Joe is a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and serves on the faculty for the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Legal Services Management program. He has worked in partnership with the ACC to develop executive-level education and training curriculum on business of law issues. He is a published author on topics that include legal project management and process improvement, strategic communications for legal teams, the art of listening and advancing legal diversity.

Stephanie L. Sciullo is associate general counsel & director of litigation for MSA Safety, a publicly traded global manufacturing company.   She is responsible for all aspects of MSA's litigation portfolio.  Her expertise includes nationwide coordination of product liability claims and associated insurance recovery efforts.   Ms. Sciullo has implemented several initiatives resulting in million-dollar cost savings and improved quality of defense through process improvement and efficiency tools, earning honors as a 2014 ACC Value Champion. 

She is adjunct faculty at both the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and Duquesne University School of Law, teaching a course she developed about the unique legal obligations of in-house counsel. Prior to MSA, she practiced with Reed Smith LLP.

She is a member of ACC’s Value Challenge Steering Committee.  She also serves on the board of directors for ACC Western Pennsylvania, where she founded a quarterly roundtable for local law department leaders to share best practices in legal services management.

Ms. Sciullo earned her BA and JD at the University of Pittsburgh.