Extract from Victoria Hudgins’s article “Maturing Legal Tech Market Looks to Legal Ops Pros for Innovation Edge”
Last month, Mary O’Carroll stepped down from her post as Google’s director of operations, technology and strategy for its legal department to join contract lifecycle management (CLM) software provider Ironclad as its chief community officer.
O’Carroll’s move was a significant acquisition for the legal tech market, given her 13-year tenure in Google’s legal department and her previous role as president of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC). But O’Carroll’s jump to Ironclad also encapsulates the broader trend of legal tech and service providers maturing and turning to legal ops veterans to bring more client insights into their business and development processes.
In the last six months alone, big names in legal ops have exited corporate legal departments to bring their in-house experience to legal tech and service providers. Liberty Mutual vice president and senior corporate counsel Bob Taylor, for example, joined Deloitte Legal Business Services in mid-March. That same month, Taylor’s fellow Liberty Mutual in-house leader, legal department director of innovation Jeff Marple, also exited the insurance company to work for law firm spinoff Keesal Propulsion Labs (KP Labs).
Shortly after in early April, e-discovery tech and services provider Compliance snagged JDX Consulting’s document intelligence practice lead and former BNY Mellon managing counsel Charles Post.
