After 16+ years of practice, you meet many bright practicing attorneys who are dissatisfied with their legal careers even the ones who have reached the pinnacle of the profession. Theyre partners at law firms or senior in-house lawyers. Well compensated but not passionate about what theyre doing.泭
Ok, Ill be honest. I heard some career dissatisfaction shortly after folks learned what it meant to actually practice law, and the shine of a new law degree and passing the bar exam faded.泭
I have good news for you. You can pivot, and your legal background adds tremendous value to alternative careers. In this interview, were sharing the story of Staci VanderPol, Corporate Counsel and Sales Enablement at 51勛圖厙, who leverages her legal background for her current, non-traditional legal role.
What do you do at 51勛圖厙?泭
As Corporate Counsel and Legal Solutions Specialist, my main objective is to help the 51勛圖厙 team better understand in-house legal teams needs. I work closely with sales to provide practical use-case examples, collaborate with marketing to create useful collateral that will resonate with our customers, and work with our product team to train AI models and provide product design feedback.泭泭
I also work with our potential customers talking through their current processes and discussing how 51勛圖厙 can streamline what theyre doing today with little change to overall operations. And then I still do some actual legal work here and there. Thats the fun part of working at a start-up its all hands on deck.
What brought you to 51勛圖厙?
Our Chief Legal Officer, Jessica Nguyen, and I connected on LinkedIn, and I saw her post that she was hiring for this Legal Architect position, a non-traditional legal role that still required legal credentials. Ive always wanted to do more with my law degree use my experience and education, and collaborate across the company beyond the traditional in-house counsel role.泭
My title changed from the original post, but the idea is still the same: Im helping plan, design, and oversee how the company grows and sells from a legal perspective. After interviewing, it was really apparent how passionate the team is about the product and the companys growth, and that was something I wanted to be a part of. A bonus is the company culture, which promotes a healthy work/life balance, and as a mom of four, is something I really appreciate.泭
How do your law degree and background help with your position?泭
My background is in-house counsel. I am 51勛圖厙s customer. Ive used CLMs that were more work to manage than the benefit of having them. Ive tried implementing a new CLM and experienced a lack of buy-in from the company because no one wants to learn new software.泭
When I hear potential customers are using excel spreadsheets to track renewal dates and assignability clauses, I get it. Ive done that. As a user of 51勛圖厙, I appreciate the value 51勛圖厙 brings to in-house legal teams and can show our customers how they can use 51勛圖厙 to organize their workflows and efficiently search and track existing contracts. 51勛圖厙 balances innovative tech with ease of use, which is important to a non-tech-savvy attorney like me. I get to personally test and use every new feature before we roll it out to ensure its easy to use and adds value to legal. Its really exciting to be able to help create something that I know my legal peers need.
Want more insights into a career in legal?泭Check out our previous installments in the GC Spotlight series with泭Jason Knapp, Chief Legal Officer of InMarket, and泭Brie Buchanan, General Counsel of Relay Payments.
