Hello, my name is Walter Scott Wilkens, and I am one of the Directors at Mindcrest, which is also known at DWF as Legal Operations. I have been a licensed attorney for over 27 years joining Mindcrest in August of 2015, 4 ½ years before it was acquired by DWF. For over ten years prior to joining Mindcrest I served as Chief Outside Legal Counsel for a multistate transportation company. In my role as a Director, I have overseen various projects across our offerings in Legal Analytics, Contracts, Compliance and Litigation, building global teams, developing strong management frameworks, and working to exceed clients’ expectations. My position and ability to be successful in the role has only been enhanced by DWF’s acquisition of Mindcrest as it has provided additional opportunity, support and resources that may have been beyond Mindcrest’s means.
My current major engagement is overseeing a large client's portfolio, which is currently comprised of 45 attorneys in various teams based in the US and India. They provide services to the Client’s tax products covering multiple countries and jurisdictions.
In addition to this portfolio, I have also served as the engagement manager for our Lender Services team, which operate out of India and provide support to our Manchester team in the UK.
The highlight of my roles over the years has been the people, which I have taken great pride, selfishly, in being a part of their growth and development. Any success I have enjoyed is really a testament to the people and their commitment. I have always felt that putting a person in a position to succeed is the first step and that begins all the way back at the interview stage. Let us be honest not every role is for everybody. It is important to really work to identify whether the position is a good fit for the person and the company. One part of identifying that fit is by being completely transparent about the role, the potential growth, and the path forward. Once a person accepts the role then you need to provide the proper training and feedback to help them succeed, and an important part of feedback is being clear as to the expectations. It is also important to give people visibility throughout the organization and potential learning opportunities that may continue their growth. I seek to invest in and support my teams, as their professional growth is very important to me. The complex processes that they work on and the high quality and productivity they deliver, show their strong work ethic and eagerness to succeed and this in turn creates trust between all colleagues, especially me as it drives me to find ways to continue their career development.
In the end, my success is predicated on the team’s performance and if I can help them in any way advance and grow whether in our organization or another, I want to do that because I am thankful for all they have done and feel in some small way that their success is my success. By being invested in their development, advancement, and fulfillment I find that you create bonds of trust that strengthens the overall team, so at the end of the day people are happy and fulfilled by their role.
