With his passion for legal productivity and patent reforms, combined with persuasive speaking talent, probably no GC in the country is more high profile right now than Mark Chandler, general counsel of San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco Systems Inc., the $30 billion company that owns Scientific Atlanta.

Chandler has led the charge by the high-tech world for reform of patent rules to protect their innovations, speaking on the subject from coast to coast and shaping legislation currently under consideration in Congress. And he has taken a lead on negotiating fixed-rate arrangements for legal services.