The Complexity Nexus: Legal Acumen and Business Outcomes

Aine Lyons, Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Worldwide Legal Operations, Vmware, Inc.

As legal acumen becomes more important to business outcomes, legal operations becomes more important to the proper management of law departments. GDPR is not an isolated ‘legal’ issue. GDPR is a business challenge with legal underpinnings. Brexit is not a legal event. Brexit is a regulatory realignment with business implications requiring legal savvy to navigate. GDPR and Brexit are outliers with respect to their reach. But they are indicative of direction. The world is becoming more complex. Lawyers are complexity engineers. Some lawyers create complexity. Most lawyers solve for complexity. Complexity has an important characteristic: it compounds. Regulations, as an example, are a means to confront complexity. As governments try to tackle complexity, new regulations do not simply accrete. Regulations interact, intersect, and conflict—especially as business crosses borders in an increasingly globalized economy.

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Ireland IT IT July 2018 Vol.11, No. 44, Summer 2018

Aine Lyons

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Aine Lyons is Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Worlwide Legal Operations at VMware. Aine founded the VMware legal operations team in 2013. In 2015, VMware was recognized as ACC Value Champions. In 2016, VMware was named FT’s Most Innovative Legal Team. Aine is also a founder of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) and regional lead for CLOC Europe.

Vmware, Inc.

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VMware, a global leader in cloud infrastructure and digital workspace technology, accelerates digital transformation by enabling unprecedented freedom and flexibility in how our customers build and evolve IT environments. VMware has annual revenues of more than $7B. VMware is served by a 164-member legal team spread across 25 cities in 16 countries.

Ireland IT IT July 2018 Vol.11, No. 44, Summer 2018