In what she said was a “no-brainer” decision, Mary O’Carroll chucked not one but two legal dream jobs – head of legal ops at Google and president of CLOC – for her real dream job: chief community officer at digital contract unicorn, Ironclad. "I have often said that Ironclad is the only company that I would ever consider leaving my job at Google for," said O'Carroll, citing contracts as the “universal challenge” for legal professionals. “This is going to be the big answer to the question that we get from GCs all the time of how can GCs be viewed as a better strategic partner to the business." The new president of CLOC, which grew at a rapid pace during O’Carroll’s tenure (see chart below), is Mike Haven, head of legal ops and associate GC for Intel. A former litigation partner with K&L Gates, Haven spent three years in Matt Fawcett’s legendary law department at NetApp, home of Connie Brenton, former CEO and board chair of CLOC. Ironclad is a well-funded operation with venture backers that include Sequoia Capital, Salesforce Ventures and Y Combinator. It was named last year to the Forbes list of fastest growing startups likely to reach a $1 billion valuation – which it may already have done. Just before announcing O’Carroll’s move, Ironclad announced the acquisition of leading clickwrap transaction platform, PactSafe, in a move to expand digital contracting to include acceptance of online transactions. That should help fuel O’Carroll’s drive for change. “I’ve always had this passion for the transformation of the business of law,” she said, “and I’m definitely not done with that.”
Published June 12, 2021.
