Usually, outside counsel want feedback from their clients. But when Lendlease’s group general counsel Karen Pedersen engages outside law firms, she wants to hear the firms’ opinions on what her people are like to work with and if the Australia-based international real estate and investment company can do anything better.

“I think it’s really important, because one of the values that we get from external firms is that they see lots of different organizations, lots of different people and see things being done differently,” said Pedersen, who oversees the legal department at the Sydney-based headquarters.