ELD International, Inc. provides strategic and tactical consulting on international growth and performance for professional services firms, and on management approaches and best practices for global corporate law departments.
E. Leigh Dance, President of ELD International, Inc., founded the company in 1993. She leads projects with support from the ELD team and a range of other "best friend" pros that are called on as needed.
ELD's clients are primarily international law firms, multinational corporate law departments and the organizations that serve in-house counsel. Because ELD operates from offices in the US and Europe, clients tend to be located around the world. ELD had a Rome office for 15 years and is now based in New York, Brussels, and London.
ELD International Recent Projects
World Law Group - Leigh Dance organized and led the first Member Firm Leaders' Summit, a 2-day session on strategic and operational issues, market growth and networking efforts for managing partners of 26 leading law firms on all continents, all members of the World Law Group.
International Bar Association - Leigh Dance spoke with Julie Sweet, General Counsel of Accenture, Chris Saul, senior partner of Slaughter & May, and Richard Fleck of Herbert Smith at a session of the Group Member Firm Leadership Summit. The session focussed on "challenges facing law firms in the new global economy, including in their relationships with global clients, other law firms and regulators." Download the presentation at: http://www.eldinternational.com/contents/articlesevents/eldpresentations.php
Global Counsel Leaders Circle Conference - ELD International organized and Leigh Dance facilitated this one-day meeting and dinner in London of Leaders Circle members from British Telecom, Coca-Cola, Computer Sciences Corp., Dubai World Investments, DuPont, Gucci, Heinz, Hilton and other companies. The topics included: managing a remote team of in-house counsel, leadership demands, law department as profit center, international benchmarking and best practices.
AmLaw 100 firm - A prominent US-headquartered law firm retained ELD International to increase its visibility and profile across Europe, through a number of targeted actions in Germany, the UK and other markets.
Global Counsel Congress - Leigh Dance led a panel of Nino Cusimano, General Counsel, Telecom Italia; Wally Deitz, Partner, Bass Berry Sims; and Vivian Robinson, Serious Fraud Office (UK) on "Conducting Cross-border Internal Investigations". Leading in-house counsel came from around the world to share expertise and experience and attend the Global Counsel awards event in New York, all organized by the International Law Office.
AmLaw 100 firm - This firm with limited foreign presence yet significant international clients instructed ELD International to work with firm leadership and practice group heads to develop the firm's international strategy. ELD conducted extensive research and internal reviews, delivered strategy recommendations to firm leadership and is advising on implementation.
Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) - The ACC's Advocacy Initiative retained ELD International to organize and moderate three invitation-only roundtables and dinners with legal heads of large multinationals. The events were held in Brussels, London and Paris with up to 25 senior corporate counsel participated in each event, co-hosted by leading law firms Eversheds, Covington & Burling and Paul Hastings. Discussions were co-led by top European CLOs, and Leigh Dance facilitated.
Allen & Overy - For A&O's Business of Law seminar, "Leadership in the new regulatory environment. Is the CEO becoming the Chief Risk Officer?" Dance helped plan, organize and facilitate a panel of six senior financial services executives for a 3.5 hour discussion attended by more than 200 legal services industry leaders. To download A&O's summary report: http://www.allenovery.com/AOWeb/binaries/61201.PDF
Steptoe & Johnson - Leigh Dance led a half-day program for lawyers at Steptoe & Johnson's Europe partners' meeting in Brussels, focusing on changes in the global legal services industry relevant to the firm's key practices and target markets.
Accenture, worldwide - Working with the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer and her management team, ELD International completed a number of global strategic and operational projects with Accenture senior legal executives focusing on Accenture Legal's goals, organization and approaches and the company's business objectives. Dance worked on an alternative sourcing project, a landmark qualitative benchmarking study involving other multinational participants, and executive management communications.
