Building Bridges Between the Procurement and Legal Teams

Join Daniel and Rachelle as they explore the challenges and disconnect between legal and procurement teams within organisations.

Rachelle Hare, Managing Director at Blaze Business and Legal, explains how her practical workshops and training approach can bridge the gap and foster collaboration. She also highlights the potential of turning legal and procurement verticals into profit centres, and the role of technology, including AI, in enhancing collaboration and efficiency. 

Rachelle has over 23 years of experience as a strategic management consultant, business adviser, and senior lawyer. She has held a wide range of roles, including General Counsel, Procurement Adviser, Commercial Officer, Contract Administrator, Senior Legal Counsel, and Strategic Adviser in different organisations. Rachelle is a strategic problem-solver who considers issues holistically from a combined legal, commercial, and operational angle. As the Founder and Managing Director of Blaze Business and Legal, Rachelle specialises in advising on legal, compliance, procurement, and risk management issues. 

Key highlights:

• 03:40 - 04:56 - Building Bridges Between Procurement and Legal Teams
  Rachelle explains that the differences in personality types and skill sets between the two teams often lead to conflicts and miscommunication. Conducting practical workshops to bring legal and procurement professionals to the same level and create a common understanding helps drive better understanding and collaboration. Training procurement professionals in areas like contract management and providing lawyers with a practical understanding of procurement and the commercial aspects of contracts helps in bridging the gap between the teams. 

• 23:30 - 24:29 - The Role of AI in Procurement
  Rachelle explains that she sees AI playing an increasingly important role in procurement and legal processes. Whilst everyone is focused on Chat GPT and its impact, the real automation progress is happening with software designed to draft, scrutinise, and summarise contracts. She feels that over the next three to four years, the workflows for these tasks will be largely automated, with a human review at the end. 

Quotes:

• “People in procurement and legal teams have different personalities and mindsets. The legal teams look at everything from a risk lens, while people in procurement come from different backgrounds, including engineering, sourcing, and accounting, and their skill set may not include risk management”.
  
  
• “I'm pretty pedantic on AI, and I would say they're not quite there yet, but we're getting there. So in three or four years, I think the whole system will change”.