USA/Canada News
New Company Formed By Legal Industry Veterans
Morae Legal LLC, which intends to be a unique solution provider to law departments, today announces its launch and availability to help general counsel deliver enhanced performance with measurable results and reduced costs.
The company is led by its founder, President and CEO Shahzad Bashir, who is a veteran of more than 30 years helping law departments serve their clients.
Today’s corporate law departments must perform under the same types of expectations as other departments. “Until today, general counsel looking to improve had no one provider to turn to for strategic advice and execution, as their counterparts in finance or technology would,” says Bashir. “Morae Legal intends to be that one full-service technology-enabled integrated solution provider for the office of the general counsel.”
Morae Legal is backed by a group of investors, which includes Dick Kiphart and KGC Capital, led by Garland Capital Group’s Gary Holdren, who is a founder of Morae Legal and will serve as its Chairman. “I am delighted to see the launch of Morae Legal, which is going to be a game-changer,” says Holdren. “The company’s transformational model will be delivered by leaders with unsurpassed experience at the intersection of law and business.”
The company is comprised of a team of seasoned professionals, all with many years of experience working with general counsel, to help law departments improve business performance by developing strategy, creating processes, deploying people, leveraging technology and measuring with data. The team includes Chief Strategy Officer Joy Saphla, Chief Talent Officer Ann Marie Kartsounes, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary J. Kent Friedman, Director of Operations Chris Claps and Managing Directors William Alesio, Craig M. Kaiser, Gregory Phillips and Cynthia Pevehouse.
Bashir has over 30 years of experience in legal and financial consulting services, including developing legal and business strategies, law department structuring, benchmarking, performance measurement, lawyer utilization, streamlining processes and technology implementation.
Saphla has over 20 years of experience delivering sustainable results for law departments helping improve their business performance by providing strategy, people, process, technology and data-related solutions.
Kartsounes has spent more than a decade in human resources and talent development for leading legal service providers. She specializes in developing and executing talent strategies, which effectively meet and enhance business performance through talent management and development, leadership coaching, succession planning and change management.
Friedman is a veteran corporate/transactional lawyer, having practiced for more than 40 years, including serving as the general counsel of a Fortune 200 company and the managing partner of a law firm. He is a senior counsel in the Houston office of Haynes and Boone LLP and Chairman of the Board of the Harris County–Houston Sports Authority.
Alesio is focused on providing claims and litigation management assistance to corporate legal departments, insurance companies, government entities and law firms involved in managing high-volume claims and litigation. He has more than 30 years of experience helping clients respond to corporate crises and developing claims management solutions.
Kaiser has spent his 29-year career providing legal service in close alignment with his clients, both in development of strategy and execution of daily legal matters. He has served as Associate General Counsel of Compaq Computer Corporation.
Phillips has an extensive legal career that includes being the Associate General Counsel of Compaq Computer Corporation, Assistant General Counsel of Enron Corp. and Vice President and General Counsel of Petroci-USA, Inc.
Pevehouse has close to three decades of experience practicing with national and Am Law 100 firms and more than a decade of experience serving as general counsel and corporate secretary for several Fortune 500 companies, including publicly traded, multinational companies in a variety of industries encompassing technology, interactive media, financial services and retail. Her experience covers directing legal, compliance, government policy, regulatory, as well as internal investigations functions.
Claps has experience in both marketing for a leading global media organization and facilitating growth-focused equity investments in innovative and disruptive companies.
“The legal service delivery model is evolving and law departments—as well as their law firms and service providers—must evolve with it,” adds Bashir. “We look forward to helping our future clients.”
Morae Legal is headquartered in Houston and has offices in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.
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