How do you administer the legal department of one of the world’s largest franchisors—one with nearly 7,400 restaurants in the United States and hundreds more overseas—while, this year, also confronting the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic?

To gain insight, we turned to Julie Davis, the Global Chief Legal Officer of Taco Bell Corp. (Full disclosure: your author’s law firm serves as franchise counsel to Taco Bell Corp.) After stints with major law firms in Los Angeles and New York, and a clerkship with the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, Davis joined Taco Bell in 2013 as Director of Franchising and Employment, was thereafter promoted to Senior Director and Vice President and was appointed General Counsel in February 2018. Why did Davis go to work for Taco Bell? “I knew the legal department was world class because I had worked with it as a client of mine in private practice. Most importantly, I knew Taco Bell and YUM [YUM! Brands, Inc., which owns Taco Bell] valued legal as a true partner, which isn’t always the case.”