The Abstract

Can you leverage a joke-filled social media brand to build your own business? How will the practice of law evolve in the age of AI? Is the billable hour going away? Matt Margolis, Partner at Margolis PLLC, went from a single funny and relatable LinkedIn post about frustrations at work to growing a massive brand as @ItsMattsLaw across platforms like TikTok, X, and Instagram. Beyond expanding his ne...

What is the role of tech in making legal and business teams work better together? How can process orchestration improve your intake process and seamlessly connect silos in your organization? And what is it like to build a tech company that serves legal professionals?   Sagi Eliyahu, CEO and co-founder of Tonkean, didn’t set out to make a platform that automates and streamlines processes for l...

How do you step into and thrive in the role of product counselor? How does the work of a product counselor change from organization to organization? And how can you recalibrate your legal career to focus on environmental issues and climate change?   Vineet Shahani, General Counsel, Policy and Corporate Development at Mill, gained his product knowledge working on the iPhone at Apple and guidin...

How can legal leaders thrive while navigating major M&A and capital market transactions? How do you expand the GC or CLO title and take on broader executive roles? And how do you leverage your experience into a board seat? Nithya Das, Chief Legal and Chief Administrative Officer at Diligent, has taken on each of these challenges and used the lessons she gained from them to advance her career e...

How do you transition into a legal ops role? What are the new and exciting opportunities for legal professionals without a law degree? How will the legal operations community trailblaze a path for in-house counsels and law firms into the future of business? Tommie Tavares-Ferreira, Head of Legal Ops at Cedar and Tom Stephenson, Vice President of Community and Legal Ops at Legal.io, have an expert...

How do you build a personal brand on LinkedIn that strengthens your ties to the legal community, grows your network, and even helps other lawyers? And how do you convert that brand into a successful and rewarding consulting business with an impressive client base? Brittany Leonard, General Counsel at Civix, started her journey to LinkedIn legal community influencer at the beginning of the pandemic...

How do you approach, accept, and move on from career transitions, both planned and unexpected? What does it take to transition from decades in public service to roles leading legal at tech startups and law firms? And how can you leverage your network to bounce back after an unexpected layoff? S. Michael Lee, General Counsel and COO at Engaging.ai, has conquered many of these tense moments. Startin...

How do you leverage your legal career to launch your own consultancy? What are the winning tactics to be an effective in-house lawyer? Is it possible to merge your love of science with your passion for law? Lisa Taylor Ash, General Counsel at Shape Therapeutics, has the answer to all of your questions. After leading two different legal teams through major acquisitions, starting her own consulting...

How do you realign your legal career in order to break into the tech industry and product counseling? What are the major differences between headline-grabbing big tech companies and ambitious start-ups? And should the goal of every in-house counsel be a GC title? Nguyen Vu, deputy general counsel at OKX, leveraged his persistence, skills, and showmanship to redefine himself as a tech attorney. Sta...

 What challenges face the legal team at India’s largest learning platform as they expand beyond online classrooms? How do you execute one thousand new contracts a month, and still find time to problem solve and aid core function? Siddharth Manchanda, Partner at IndusLaw and External GC at Unacademy, has embraced tech and AI in order to free his team from the repetitive manual tasks borne from...

How is tech changing India’s financial services industry? How do you deal with complex regulations that change as rapidly as tech products do? And how can a multinational company expand into India’s culturally, geographically, and linguistically diverse market? Hardeep Singh, General Counsel at CRED, has faced these challenges head-on. Starting his career in litigation, he moved on to in-house cou...

What can a strong community offer a legal ops professional working alone within their organization? How do you deal with the stress of a chaotic project management role while fostering change? Will legal ops eventually shift away from legal and into the business and tech sphere? Jenn McCann, Director of Legal Ops at Netflix and President of the Board of Directors at CLOC can offer an expert perspe...

How do executive recruiters take legal careers to the next level? What do you need to handle the transition from big-name law firm partner to a role helping people build careers of their own? How can you distinguish a good interview from a bad interview? Richard Hsu, Managing Director at Major, Lindsey & Africa and host of the Hsu Untied podcast, has expert advice to share about how to ace the...

What is a general counsel’s role in international expansion? How do you balance growth with safety and compliance across diverse countries and markets? And how do you scale your legal team to take on challenges that require in-depth knowledge of local cultures, regulations, and business practices? As general counsel at Lime, Sarah Binder confronts these questions each day, as she and her legal tea...

How do you turn one of the most difficult moments in your life into the motivation that guides you to make the world a better place? When Raj Mahapatra received his axial spondyloarthritis diagnosis, he was told he would spend his life in a wheelchair. Decades later, he is an accomplished long-distance runner, seasoned general counsel, tech start-up business operator, mission-driven climate advoca...

In an always-changing ad tech industry, how have privacy and data protection emerged as two of the largest challenges that organizations need to face? Whether it’s streaming platforms, engineering AI models, or aligning key industry stakeholders, these topics are evolving faster than the world can keep up with. OpenAP GC & Chief Privacy Officer Andy Dale has been leading conversations about pr...

How do you build and scale a high-performing legal team? Beyond legal prowess, GCs must master leadership, finding and retaining the right talent, allocating resources and advocating for budget, and more. Join us as we dive into intriguing stories and advice shared by top leaders in the in-house legal industry. Read detailed summary: https://www.spotdraft.com/podcast/episode-24 Topics Introduction...

Interested in expanding beyond the traditional role of General Counsel? Join us in this episode to find out how legal leaders redefine their roles. Discover insights that transform legal professionals into strategic business leaders – from smoothly transitioning to CEO to mastering adaptive communication in enterprise strategy. Read detailed summary: https://www.spotdraft.com/podcast/episode-23 To...

Joining a board as a GC presents a unique set of challenges: how do you demonstrate value when many boards are looking for members with financial and strategy experience? How do you avoid becoming the de facto legal counsel? And how can you maximize your board experience to expand and strengthen your network and legal skill set? Lisa Harrington, board director, consultant, and CLO, can coach you t...

After an unexpected detour from her initial plans to join the FBI, Alice Bisgrove built a career in tech law working for tech giants like Cisco and Procore. In this episode, she discusses how she remained a legal generalist for over a decade at Cisco, taking on new roles and building relationships across the massive organization. Alice describes her transition to Procore as it grew from an establi...

When you disagree with your boss, should you let it go or take a stand? How do you lean into your integrity and vocalize your beliefs, especially when you aren’t aware of the strength of your own voice? And how do you advise your company to do the right thing, as well? Junna Ro, the head of strategic legal initiatives for UC Legal at the UC Office of the President, has spent decades inhabiting lea...

What does it mean for a lawyer to take on an interim role? Yes, there will be more work and your time will be divided across functions. But you will also get the opportunity to reevaluate why things are the way they are, and make positive improvements for your legal team. Join Cedar General Counsel Vanessa Gage as she shares advice on how to make the most of an interim executive roles. Vanessa ste...

How does legal determine what is acceptable user behavior? How do lawyers weigh the needs of users and concerns from law enforcement to arrive at the best guidelines for responsibly protecting our data? Join Protégé Search Partner and Head of Consumer Mark Kahn as he shares his experiences on the front lines of privacy protection in his roles as VP of Ethical Use at Twilio and Deputy General Couns...

What does it take for a lawyer to expand their remit and become an operator, a business strategist, or even a founder? Beyond speaking up, what do you need to take on in order to advance from the traditional legal role of in-house counsel? René Paula, Vaxxinity’s GC and Senior Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs, knows a lawyer needs to be able to speak multiple languages. Not just spoken...

New technologies are advancing faster than ever. How can we rely on our experience to solve unforeseen privacy issues as our personal data makes its way to places we never imagined it could end up? Julia Shullman, Telly’s GC and Chief Privacy Officer, has spent nearly two decades advocating for privacy in the complex ecosystem of advertising technology. She has learned that one of the most importa...