Chris Apple
Manager, Member Services & Development
Arkansas
The CLOC Member Spotlight series profiles the incredible individuals within our community who are driving transformation in legal ops. Each spotlight provides inspiration, fosters connections, and gives readers a chance to learn more about their peers. By sharing these stories, we celebrate the diverse voices and talents that make CLOC a vibrant and connected community.
Lindsay Staples is the Head of Legal Operations at Beta Technologies, Inc. She is a member of CLOC’s Legal Department Maturity Assessment Planning Committee. Keep reading to learn more about Lindsay.
About me:
I’m Lindsay Staples, Head of Legal Operations at BETA Technologies where I help build and scale the legal operations function in a fast-moving aerospace and advanced technology environment. My background spans legal operations, corporate governance, paralegal services, securities, compliance, data analysis, knowledge management, and vendor spend management.
Before joining BETA, I spent more than 16 years at National Life Group, where my roles included Senior Manager of Legal Operations & Paralegal Services and Assistant Corporate Secretary. Earlier in my career, I worked at WilmerHale. Across those roles, I’ve focused on bringing structure, clarity, and operational discipline to complex legal environments.
What I’d highlight most is my interest in helping legal teams mature in practical, measurable ways. I enjoy working at the intersection of people, process, technology, and data: improving workflows, strengthening governance, supporting better decision-making, and helping legal operate as a more strategic partner to the business.
Why I love being a CLOC member:
I love being a CLOC member because it connects me with a community of peers who are actively solving problems at every turn. CLOC is a place where legal operations professionals can share practical ideas, learn from one another, and have honest conversations about what it takes to build more effective, scalable, and business-aligned legal functions.
One of the things I value most is the opportunity to contribute to work that helps advance the profession, including CLOC’s Law Department Maturity Assessment and Compass initiatives. Being involved in that work has reinforced how important it is for legal teams to understand where they are today, identify opportunities for growth, and turn maturity models into practical, actionable roadmaps.
My advice for other legal ops professionals:
My advice would be to stay nimble and keep challenging yourself to look at problems in new ways. Legal operations is constantly evolving, and the answer that worked yesterday may not be the right answer tomorrow. The most effective legal operations professionals are the ones who can adapt, ask better questions, and step back before jumping to a solution. Sometimes the real opportunity is not to make an existing process faster, but to rethink whether that process should exist in the same way at all.
A fun fact about me:
Something fun I’d love to share is that I’m a student pilot. It is going to take me a long time to get all my hours in, but I absolutely love being up in the air with friends and colleagues.
Learning to fly has been such a fun and humbling learning experience. There is a lot of discipline, preparation, and constant awareness involved, but there is also nothing quite like the perspective you get from being above it all. It is a great reminder to stay curious, keep learning, and enjoy the view along the way.
CLOC Member Spotlights provide an opportunity to showcase members within our community who are making a difference in their organizations, in their CLOC groups, within the CLOC community and/or the industry as a whole. Do you know of a really cool thing a CLOC member is doing? We invite you to nominate a member of the CLOC Community for a future feature in the CLOC Member Spotlights Series.