Suzanne, global director of client value, is a highly experienced, driven, innovative leader in the legal industry; a pioneer in the legal operations space. Suzanne spent 10 years as the COO of the 1400 attorney global law department at GE, reporting directly to Ben W. Heineman, Jr., the GE general counsel. She served as a consultant for more than 25 law departments of global multinationals. Her role at Reed Smith is to lead in our mission to deepen our relationships with our clients, and to ensure we constantly endeavour to service our clients efficiently and effectively. A former practicing attorney, she brings her legal expertise to substantively support the delivery of legal services and processes. An accredited Six Sigma Green Belt, she led the Six Sigma program for GE Legal.
Suzanne leads the firm’s Global Client Value Team, a vastly talented specialist organization of individuals with diverse backgrounds: MBAs, JDs, trained Six Sigma professionals and certified project managers. The team’s mission is to provide the highest level of service to the firm’s clients through process improvement and project management, alternative fee arrangements, metrics and dashboards; and partnering with the firm’s knowledge management and marketing teams to bring valuable initiatives to clients. In addition, as part of our value added service, Suzanne provides our clients with legal operations consulting, based on her expertise and experience in the legal industry. She is an expert in law firm/law department relations, legal technology, law department organization and integration, strategy and metrics. Given law departments’ challenges of running law departments like a business, and “doing more with less,” Reed Smith, with Suzanne’s leadership, recognizes that now is the time for the firm to support its clients in reaching these goals.
Prior to joining Reed Smith, Suzanne held the position of managing director, legal operations at the global consulting firm Resources Global Professionals, dedicated to improving legal operations, technology, revenue, processes through use of Six Sigma, and overall performance of law departments and law firms. From 2010-2015, Suzanne served as GE Capital’s legal operations leader, where she used her expertise to drive outside counsel management, technology, diversity and cost saving initiatives. As managing director, legal and business consulting, Huron Consulting Group, and vice president, Hildebrandt International, Suzanne advised more than 25 global law departments and law firms manage their operations. Suzanne held the position of chief of practice excellence at Heller Ehrman, serving as the firm’s client ambassador and ran a 100-person department dedicated to client service.
