______________________________________________________________________________________ Kristin Rinaldi | Arxada
The Legal team has evolved along with Arxada’ s journey as an independent company
Arxada’ s global operations.“ I think one overall key is transparent and regular communication,” she remarks.
The team maintains consistent touchpoints with business leaders to stay connected and informed. Some meetings focus on contracts or intellectual property, while others track projects with set budgets and deadlines.“ Our teams have regular touchpoints with the businesses and functions to align on overall strategy. It ensures alignment with resourcing, project timing and budgeting,” Kristin adds.
Those conversations do more than coordinate logistics; they build trust.“ It helps to build relationships, which in turn helps the overall process,” she points out. For Kristin, the strength of team relationships determines how well legal advice is received across the company.
Communication carries risk in a global organization. Messages that cross borders or languages can lose context or create exposure. To address that, Kristin’ s team includes“ smart communications” training in the department’ s learning framework.“ Smart Communications is what we refer to internally. It is a hallmark of the Legal Department’ s training,” she clarifies.
The program covers both written and verbal communications, attorney-client privilege, and tone. These issues shape how a team interacts and documents decisions.“ We do a good deal of training for the broader organization,” Kristin explains.“ Clear communication is the first line of defense in the organization,” she adds.“ The goal is to create consistent, compliant behavior through strong communication.”
For Kristin, communication and compliance go hand in hand. One supports the other, ensuring clarity, precision, and trust throughout the business.
Connection and accountability
Kristin leads 16 direct reports spanning regions and work styles. While most of the team works out of one of Arxada’ s offices, others work remotely because they live far from the offices. She sees connection as essential to performance.“ Connection and support go hand in hand to me,” Kristin observes.
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