What Does It Take to Be the First Top Lawyer for a New Company?
"You need to be unflappable. It is a chaotic environment and something will not go right. That is inevitable," said Jessica Nguyen, an in-house leader who has helped three tech startups build legal departments. She recently joined AI-based contract management company Lexion as chief legal officer.
March 04, 2020 at 01:24 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Corporate Counsel
Jessica Nguyen, chief legal officer for Lexion. Photo: Anthony Bolante/PSBJ
In-house leader and former Microsoft Corp. lawyer Jessica Nguyen is making a career out of helping tech startups build legal departments.
After having served as the first-ever top lawyer for software company Avalara Inc. and compensation data firm PayScale Inc., Nguyen has joined Seattle-based Lexion as chief legal officer of the artificial intelligence-powered contract management startup.
"This is not my first rodeo as the first attorney hired for a tech company," Nguyen said in an interview.
But her latest role is unique in that she's not focused primarily on traditional general counsel or in-house attorney functions.
Instead, she's using her legal department experience to help guide and shape Lexion's product development in an increasingly competitive field. AI-based contract management has piqued the interest of a growing number in-house lawyers, though many legal departments have been slow to embrace the technology.
Lexion was founded in 2018 at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a creation of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Last year, the company secured a $4.2 million investment from venture capital firm Madrona Venture Group and Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
As the CLO and sole in-house lawyer at Lexion, Nguyen said her mission is to work closely with the company's executives and engineers to build and shape an AI-based contract management "product that legal teams actually need and love to use to solve real business pain points."
She added, "At the core of what I've learned over time is that I'm a builder. Coming into these companies as the first top lawyer gives me a chance to build something. That is the most fun part of my job."
Even during her time at Microsoft, Nguyen was a product-focused lawyer who worked alongside an engineering team to help build and maintain Microsoft Outlook.
Aside from a desire to create, chief lawyers for startups tend to have three core characteristics, according to Nguyen:
- "You've got to be resourceful. You're inevitably going to have to wear many hats. You're going to be asked to do many tasks and oftentimes you've never done them before."
- "You need to be adaptable to change. Oftentimes with these startups, they're moving really fast and experimenting. Sometimes those experiments don't work out. They pivot. They change their business priorities and product plans. And you need to be able to be OK with that and pivot with the business and adapt to that change."
- "You need to be unflappable. It is a chaotic environment and something will not go right. That is inevitable. You need to be calm under crisis and very solution-focused. Find a solution and move forward."
Read More:
In-House Contract Lawyers Explore What Tech Can Do for Them
Corporate Legal Departments Slow to Adopt Artificial Intelligence Contract Analysis Tools
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
'The Unheard of Superpower': How Women's Soft Skills Can Drive Success in Negotiations
Tales From the Trenches: What Outside Counsel Do That GCs Find Inexcusable
Venus Williams Tells WIPL Crowd: 'Living Your Dreams Should Be Easy'
Law Firms Mentioned
Trending Stories
- 1We the People?
- 2New York-Based Skadden Team Joins White & Case Group in Mexico City for Citigroup Demerger
- 3No Two Wildfires Alike: Lawyers Take Different Legal Strategies in California
- 4Poop-Themed Dog Toy OK as Parody, but Still Tarnished Jack Daniel’s Brand, Court Says
- 5Meet the New President of NY's Association of Trial Court Jurists
Who Got The Work
J. Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products, was filed Dec. 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc. and Graco Minnesota. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, is 3:24-cv-11294, Graco Inc. et al v. Devco Corporation.
Who Got The Work
Rebecca Maller-Stein and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives, Lior Prosor and David Frankel, in a pending securities lawsuit. The action, filed on Dec. 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell, Aron & Co. on behalf of Goldeneye Advisors, accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, is 1:24-cv-09918, Goldeneye Advisors, LLC v. Hanaco Venture Capital, Ltd. et al.
Who Got The Work
Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The suit, filed Dec. 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, is 1:24-cv-09445, Gonzalez v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank et al.
Who Got The Work
Crown Castle International, a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure, has turned to Luke D. Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC, accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan K. Declercq, is 2:24-cv-13131, The Town Residences LLC v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Wilfred P. Coronato and Daniel M. Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc. in a pending product liability lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern, alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, is 2:24-cv-08204, Stern v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
