Throughout 2025 we will be interviewing people in the legal tech/ops space from around the world. In this third interview of the year, Marc May spoke with Laura Richardson, General Counsel at legal tech company Agiloft about legal operations, training lawyers for non-legal tasks like CLM implementations, what to do to make sure you’re buying the right tool, and which project she enjoyed the most.
Hi Laura, could you let me know what you currently do for work?
Hi, I’m Laura Richardson, General Counsel at Agiloft, a legal tech company that provides data-first contract lifecycle management (CLM). My path to becoming a technology company GC wasn’t exactly traditional, but I’ve always embraced change, and that has definitely shaped my career.
In my role at Agiloft, I’m a bit of a “jack of all trades,” constantly learning and adapting to stay effective. I see myself as both GC and an Agiloft tester, providing a valuable legal department perspective as a user of our own solution.
“I’m a bit of a “jack of all trades,” constantly learning and adapting to stay effective”
What has been your experience of working with legal operations professionals during your career? Do you have one on your team?
My early experience at Intel, my first in-house role, was incredibly positive. Working with a legal ops team for the first time, I saw firsthand how they helped to scale the work of the legal function. They introduced new technology to automate routine tasks and, something I’m passionate about, dramatically improved access to information. From rolling out training to providing data-driven support, they empowered the legal team to be far more efficient. I even became a “tech guinea pig,” volunteering to test new initiatives and provide feedback. This built trust and gave me early access to cutting-edge technology, making my work significantly more impactful.
When I left Intel to take my first GC role, my first hire wasn’t another lawyer—it was a legal operations manager. I understood how crucial legal operations are to improving a legal department’s efficiency, effectiveness, and alignment with the broader business. That’s exactly what I wanted to build. At Agiloft, we now have a VP of Contract Management and Legal Operations and a Director of Legal Operations, but everyone on the Legal team contributes to legal operations (which I think is a lot of fun!).
“my first hire wasn’t another lawyer—it was a legal operations manager”
CLM implementation projects tend to be a fairly big undertaking usually managed by the legal team – do you think lawyers should be trained in non-legal skills (e.g. IT project management, change management, etc) as part of their skills development to better prepare them for projects like CLM?
Absolutely. I would argue that project management and change management are core skills for any lawyer who is looking to be a part of the legal leadership in the future. Moreover, with CLM as an enterprise solution that is often owned by the legal function, being successful in implementing and maintaining CLM is critical and requires those traditionally “non-legal” skills.
Think about it: assessing an organization’s readiness for a CLM project, creating a project plan, managing timelines, gathering information, and ensuring effective cross-functional communication—these aren’t CLM-specific skills; they’re core project management competencies.
For those looking at CLM as an option in their organisation – what steps should people take to be assured that the project will be successful?
Choosing a CLM system, which is a critical investment that many legal departments are making, it is important to remember that finding the right solution is a matter of present fit and future fit. When you consider the resources required for CLM implementation (not just in terms of money but in terms of time spent and change management) you recognize quickly that it a process that you don’t want to have to repeat if you outgrow your solution.
Choosing the right CLM is crucial, but successful implementation is equally vital, especially given the complexities of such a significant technological shift. However, you can dramatically increase your chances of success by clearly defining your objectives and breaking them down into manageable steps or phases. A complete, simultaneous overhaul is risky unless you have the extensive resources of a huge company. Phased implementations, common in most transformation projects, make change management smoother and help you identify the prerequisites for each stage.
“you can dramatically increase your chances of success by clearly defining your objectives and breaking them down into manageable steps or phases”
Think of it like writing a college paper. Cramming the night before is risky. The best papers result from knowing your thesis, thoughtful planning, and fleshing out the details before writing the final draft. CLM implementation is similar. It requires forethought to align your goals with the necessary steps, including change management and training. Matching your objectives with the required actions, combined with proper change management and training, is essential. A well-planned, phased approach sets you up for far greater success (IMHO).
In relation to legal technology more broadly – how do you as a GC make sure you’re buying the right tool for the problem you’re facing?
Choosing the right legal tech as a GC involves thorough research and identifying your specific needs (including the pain points you are trying to address). It’s about comparing solutions and seeing how well they align with those needs, but it’s more than just checking boxes—no solution is perfect. I use a combination of online research, networking, demos, and comparing capabilities against my needs list.
However, the intangible aspect is equally important: the partnership. Adopting new technology means entering a potentially long-term relationship with a vendor. So, I ask myself: Is this a company I want to partner with? This means checking their reputation and evaluating their engagement during the sales process. Are they collaborative? Can we build a connection that assures me they’ll be there when I need them?
“I ask myself: Is this a company I want to partner with?”
At Agiloft, we prioritize building strong, lasting relationships. While we’re not perfect, we’re proud of the positive feedback we receive and equally value honest feedback about areas for improvement. This open communication is how we grow. We value customers who hold us accountable and engage with us directly—that’s a sign we’re doing our job.
Which legal tech or operations project have you learned the most from? And why?
Like many people, I learn the most from failure so the project that I learned the most from was a less-than successful implementation project at a previous company where I was stung by the implementation taking much longer than I thought it would. It was frustrating but it taught me two valuable lessons: first – not everything that is sold as easy will actually be as easy as sold; second – the pre-work is as important (if not more important) than the implementation.
“not everything that is sold as easy will actually be as easy as sold”
But now that I’m at Agiloft I get the fun constant learning that comes from being both a provider and consumer of our CLM product.
Rolling out new functionality internally is exciting because we get to test and really “geek out” on the technology. We were psyched when we got to try out AI Trainer for the first time not just because we were able to do the training ourselves which was super neat but because it helped us cut a lot of time off of a project that was in process which felt like a huge win.
Thanks for your time Laura!
