In 1979, deregulation was turning the US airline industry upside down.
New competitors.
Price wars.
Bankruptcies.
Howard Putnam, CEO of Southwest Airlines, asked the obvious question:
Do we need to reinvent the company?
His answer was:
No. No. No. And no.
Not great news for anyone preparing a 97 slide transformation roadmap.
Instead, Putnam wrote a ten point recipe.
Short routes.
Only one type of aircraft: the Boeing 737.
Ten minute gate turns.
Low fares.
Frequent flights.
No meals.
No interlining with other airlines.
Keep it simple.
He called it the cookie cutter approach:
Do what already works.
Then do it again.
Here is the remarkable part.
Twenty five years later, despite recessions, fuel shocks, the internet and huge changes in aviation, around 80 percent of that recipe remained.
That was not resistance to change.
It was knowing what was core.
Legal departments face a new revolution every Tuesday.
AI. Cost pressure. New markets. New regulations.
Soon there are fourteen priorities, six tools and a steering committee with a very optimistic name.
The danger is not changing too little.
It is letting every new priority steal the people who should be shaping the big decisions.
At Ambar, we place senior fractional project counsel around complex strategic matters: a new data centre business, an international energy project, a carve out or a cross border dispute.
They run the moving parts.
Contracts. Local advisers. Workstreams. Facts. Deadlines.
While your best in house lawyers stay close to the business and the decisions that build influence and careers.
Not extra hands. More altitude.
Southwest kept the 737. Your A team should stay in the cockpit.
Before you go: how Ambar can help
We help GCs access senior independent legal talent when their teams need more range, more speed or more specialist judgment.
1) Fractional counsel for capacity gaps
When a key lawyer moves role, goes on leave, or gets pulled into a strategic project, we help cover the gap without adding permanent structure.
2) Specialist expertise for new areas
Privacy, AI, technology contracts, payments, cybersecurity, energy, regulatory or new jurisdictions — senior lawyers who bring knowledge into the team, not just hours.
3) The layer between in-house and traditional firms
For work that is too senior for junior execution, too close to the business for a law firm machine, and too temporary for a permanent hire.
4) Legal AI that learns your standard
We help legal teams turn senior judgment into playbooks, model answers, red flags, evals and error-analysis frameworks for the AI tools their teams already use.
Not generic AI. Your legal standard.
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Stay cool,
Dr. No