Learn how this GC grows and expands his legal department’s knowledge

Practical Law as a part of the team culture

Practical Law has become an essential part of the day-to-day operations in the GOLFTEC legal department. When new subject matter or practice areas arise, Sakal says his team turns to Practical Law. “Practical Law is always the first stop. And throughout my career, the first stop for me to help get familiar and knowledgeable about all the matters that I now have become experienced and more of an expert in." He continues, “It’s very much a part of our culture, our team culture and how we work. And that’s always been the case and it’s been invaluable to me, and I believe it has really accelerated and helped younger attorneys I work with feel more equipped to do their job and to tackle new subject areas.” 

Reduce dependency on outside counsel

Spending less on outside legal spend is a priority for many legal departments today. Sakal has found that Practical Law has allowed them to cut back on their use of outside counsel. How has Practical Law helped him do it? “Practical Law helps, in some cases eliminate, and in other cases supplement my use of outside counsel. For almost every matter … I will start with Practical Law, see what resources are available ... then I am in a better position to either just deliver on whatever the matter requires or go to outside counsel to supplement.”

Building legal departments from scratch

Practical Law has given Sakal the necessary resources, even when tasked with building corporate legal departments: “Because I have leveraged Practical Law since the beginning of my career, I’m able to hit the ground running at every [career] stop.  I built departments on the back of Practical Law resources. The templates that I built 90% of them started as a Practical Law resource that I’ve customized to fit the needs of the organizations. I leverage practice notes and guidance notes for compliance and HR toolkits to really accelerate and upskill and improve the performance of not only legal, but the HR functions and the compliance functions in my company.”