Christopher Sweet always makes sure he picks up the phone. As a career legal operations adviser and now director of consulting for legal group advisers Elevate, he wants to help law firms and law departments both understand and trust one another. “You can play that central role by being that trusted adviser, to be that phone-a-friend,” he said.

After a post-9/11 tour with the National Guard, Sweet began working at former employer GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals in a project management role, growing a skillset he later took into his work at both Reed Smith and JPMorgan Chase. In the current state of legal industry, where many attorneys stay in either in-house or law firm worlds exclusively, Sweet hopes he can channel both points of view to help reduce legal spend on both ends of the spectrum.