EP 36: From Paralegals to Legal Ops Leaders: Tommie Tavares-Ferreira, Cedar, and Tom Stephenson, Legal.io

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 understanding of both the legal ops industry and the diverse channels that professionals can take to arrive in the field. Not only are they the hosts of the Dear Legal Ops podcast, but they have arrived via their own journeys from big law firm paralegals and HBO contract manager to running legal ops at major businesses like Credit Karma, Rakuten, and Peloton.

Hear Tommie and Tom as they discuss the benefits for ambitious professionals to transition into a legal ops role, how to balance your business skill set with a strategic legal mindset, career paths beyond legal ops, and much more.

Read detailed summary: https://www.spotdraft.com/podcast/episode-36

Topics:
Introduction: 0:00
Transitioning from paralegal to legal ops: 2:30
Coming into legal ops from a contract management background: 5:22
Shifting your mindset from legal specialization to business strategy: 8:38
Debating whether legal ops is the right career path for everyone: 12:38
Establishing trust with stakeholders across the broader business: 15:50
Managing a legal ops department: 19:10
Maintaining a strong relationship with your general counsel: 23:59
Balancing your business expertise with your GC’s legal strategy: 31:01
The importance of placing the head of legal ops on the GC’s leadership team: 36:04
Considering career moves beyond legal ops: 38:48
Transitioning from legal ops to executive roles: 43:15
Presenting at CLOC 2024: 49:11

Connect with us:
Tommie Tavares-Ferreira - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommie/
Tom Stephenson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tstephenson1/
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.