The Abstract

Join us for an inspiring conversation with David Lancelot, a seasoned legal leader who has fearlessly embraced the ever-evolving world of technology. While being a tech lawyer is undoubtedly exciting right now, David's journey dates back to a time when it was considered too daring to venture into this domain.

With firsthand experiences of seeing the dot-com boom, surviving the crash, and now witnessing the resurgent growth of the tech industry, David's wisdom is invaluable. We had the pleasure of sitting down with him to uncover his extraordinary path, starting from his role as GC at a high-risk tech start-up to leading a global team spanning the globe at eBay Classifieds.

During our conversation, we dive into David's strategies for scaling legal teams, establishing trust internally and especially with CFOs, driving impactful change within his team and the entire business, and championing the importance of legal ops. But above all, we uncover key insights that legal professionals and leaders need to position themselves and their teams as true co-leaders within the business.

If you're a tech lawyer looking to navigate the thrilling world of technology with confidence, this episode is a must-listen.

Topics:

Introduction – 00:00

Working in tech start-ups from the early days – 1:35

Being the first legal hire at QVC – 4:43

Surviving the tech market crash & navigating lay-offs – 10:16

Playing in global legal markets & building an international team – 14:35

Scaling the legal function like a business team – 21:24

Building trust with CFOs & earning resources for legal – 25:51

Optimizing processes & bringing in legal ops – 28:16

Driving change within your team & the business – 32:19

Using data to communicate & build trust internally – 39:14

The future of legal & legal ops – 43:53

Connect with us:

David Lancelot - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidlancelot/

Tyler Finn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerhfinn

SpotDraft - https://www.linkedin.com/company/spotdraft

SpotDraft is a leading CLM platform that solves your end-to-end contract management issues. Visit https://www.spotdraft.com/ to learn more.

What do companies and clients really want from lawyers? How can you align your career with your values while pursuing your ambitions? What makes a world-class legal operations team?

In the fourth episode of The Abstract, we sit down with the brilliant Akshay Verma, Head of Legal Operations at Coinbase, as he tackles these burning questions and more. Drawing from his extensive two-decade journey, Akshay Verma shares a wealth of wisdom — from his early days practicing environmental law at law firms to leading in-house legal ops teams for companies at various stages and scales.

You’ll get the chance to peek into Akshay’s Critical Lawyering Skills course at Santa Clara University School of Law, and listen as he dives deep into topics like charting your path after law school, navigating career transitions, and finding meaningful employment. He also offers advice to companies hiring early-career legal professionals on how to stay competitive and attract top talent.

Topics:

Introduction – 00:00

Navigating career transitions in law, pt.1 – 1:11

Going in-house and becoming a business counsel – 4:22

The evolution of the legal ops role – 9:02

Navigating career transitions in law, pt.2 – 10:26

Heading legal operations at Meta & Coinbase – 11:35

Leveraging job interviews to lay down the roadmap – 13:40

Akshay’s background in teaching at law school – 15:57

Critical lawyering skills that law school doesn’t teach – 18:05

Integrating your values into career decisions – 20:33

What companies and clients want from lawyers – 25:42

Attracting top legal talent amid changing priorities – 29:14

How legal and legal ops is changing – 31:31

Connect with us:

Akshay Verma - https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshay-verma-esq/

Tyler Finn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerhfinn

SpotDraft - https://www.linkedin.com/company/spotdraft

SpotDraft is a leading CLM platform that solves your end-to-end contract management issues. Visit https://www.spotdraft.com/ to learn more.

Join Adam Glick, a former litigator and Head of Legal at Intercom, as we discuss nonlinear career paths, hiring, building an authentic network, and evangelizing the value of a legal department to high-growth public and private tech companies. 

Adam has decades of in-house experience, is a profound legal executive, and provides practical advice on becoming customer-centric, so legal serves as an “enabler” for the business.

If you’re an in-house attorney, how do you set yourself up for learning and growth throughout a long career? How should you define success? Is it being named the General Counsel of a high-growth company? Or are there other paths for an interesting and inspiring career?

Join former DocuSign Deputy General Counsel Doug Luftman for an in-depth conversation around mentorship, management, and fulfillment at work. We talk through how Doug positioned himself to take on executive-level leadership roles, including as General Counsel of two different tech companies. We’ll also explore how he learned to thrive in high-pressure, cross-functional environments where constant learning and growth were required. And, in what can be a challenging job hunting environment, he’ll share tips for managing unexpected career transitions and emerging stronger on the other side.

A typical legal department has some clearly defined responsibilities: commercial contracts, regulatory compliance, employment law, and perhaps government affairs. Yet, legal touches nearly all the other functions in a business and has a unique vantage point. What happens when legal is asked — or chooses — to take on more?

Join Apollo.io Chief Legal Officer Megan Niedermeyer and Senior Legal Operations Manager Brenda Yun Perez for a practical conversation about the limits, and potential limitlessness, of what the legal can take on. We’ll talk through real-world examples like establishing a Deal Desk, owning HR, and other operational processes they’ve chosen to take on as they’ve pursued personal and team growth. 

And we’ll discuss how to decide if legal should give something its led back to another team in the business.

Next month, we’ll be launching our new podcast: “The Abstract.”

Join Tyler Finn, Head of Community and Growth at SpotDraft, as he interviews leading general counsels, chief legal officers, and legal executives. Our conversations will cover how they’ve nurtured their careers, grown in their roles, become true operators within their businesses, and even taken on other C-suite positions.

Tyler spent half a decade building the legal community as an Advisor to TechGC, which grew in membership by nearly 10x during his tenure. He also has deep expertise leading privacy and public policy as a member of in-house legal teams at a variety of high-growth start-ups like Foursquare.

We’re so excited to introduce you to some of the leading in-house legal minds of today and tomorrow. Join us as we work to go beyond the practical and make sense of the “The Abstract.”