Education Advisory Council (EAC)

AN TROTTER has pioneered an operations role in legal departments at three Fortune 500-sized companies. Currently, she is Senior Director of Operations in the Office of General Counsel at HEARST and a HearstLab Scout Advisory Board member. She was inspired to enter the field by her father, managing partner at several firms, who argued convincingly that the legal industry would be transformed in the 21st century by corporate legal departments’ appointment of operations professionals.

Before Viacom, An was COO for Executive Education at Columbia Business School. For ten years prior Ms. Trotter worked at The Rockefeller Foundation, initially in human capital on the Africa program, and then supporting strategic planning and program implementation in the Office of the Executive Vice President. She began her career at the Institute of International Education as a program manager on the Fulbright, EMDAP and SACI accounts.

An is a Certified Legal Manager (CLM). She has an MBA in Finance and Management and a MA in Performance Studies from New York University and a BA (honors) from Brown University.

Alice Armitage is a Professor at UC Law SF. She is also the Director of Applied Innovation, which includes overseeing LexLab, an innovative hub focused on the many impacts that technology has and will continue to have on the law. Alice began her career as an international tax attorney at Arnold & Porter in Washington DC, moving from there to a position as a federal regulator in the Office of the International Chief Counsel at the US Internal Revenue Service to develop tax policy for complex cross-border financial transactions. 

More recently, Alice took a break from practicing law to found two startups. Her experience as a two-time entrepreneur ultimately led her to UC Law SF. Alice now teaches four courses for law students that are part of the concentration in “Technology and Innovation in the Practice of Law”. These courses include Legal Informatics; Legal Operations; Design Thinking and Access to Justice, and The Fundamentals of Building Legal Tech Startups.  

Professor Armitage is a graduate of the Yale Law School where she was the first woman Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal since World War II. She also has an A.B. and an M.A. in British and American Literature from Brown University.

Jill Fukunaga is a Director in the Legal Operations Transformation Services (LOTS) practice at KPMG.  In her role, she helps corporate law departments develop, simplify and improve operational processes so that lawyers and legal professionals can better focus on achieving business goals and delivering timely services to their clients.  Prior to joining KPMG in 2022, she spent nearly a decade in-house, leading legal operations functions at several companies in the Bay Area, including Veritas Technologies, Blue Shield of California and DocuSign.  

Earlier in her career, Jill was an employment lawyer and litigator and practiced in both Hawaii and California.  In addition to her JD, she also holds a master’s degree in Library and Information Science and has worked as a reference librarian and lecturer at UCLA and the University of San Francisco law schools.  She has been an active member of CLOC for many years and continues to grow her network, as she believes wholeheartedly in the power of learning from industry peers.  She is based in San Francisco.

Kate Orr is Global Head of Practice Innovation for Orrick, a global law firm. Orrick is consistently ranked by the Financial Times as one of the most innovative law firms in North America. In her role, Kate leads initiatives in Orrick and with clients, including legal operations teams, to improve the delivery of legal services through the trifecta of people, process and technology. A former experienced litigator, Kate combines curiosity and empathy with the relentless pursuit of excellence in her work.

Kate was named an ABA Woman of Legal Tech in 2020 and one of the Most Innovative Intrapreneurs by the Financial Times in 2022. She is a frequent speaker on legal operations, innovation and technology, and is committed to the legal community and future of law. She holds a JD from the University of Maryland School of Law and a BA from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Kshitij is the Head of Legal Operations at HashiCorp, a global leader in cloud infrastructure automation. In his role, Kshitij started the Legal operations function and partnered with the legal leadership to build and refine the strategy, processes, systems, and data enablement for a high growth legal team. Kshitij has been recently selected for an MVP award for a leading CLM’s community for his contributions to the Community and product development/partnerships in CLM industry. Kshitij also serves on the Advisory Council of LINK, an innovation forum for legal technology and legal operations executives. Over the course of 15 years, Kshitij has practiced corporate and financial law and developed legal operations for large financial institutions, reputed law firms, global nonprofits, and market leading technology companies in 5 financial centers.

Prior to joining HashiCorp, Kshitij led Legal Operations and Contracts Management at Outcome Health, a digital advertising start up based out of New York and Chicago. Prior to Outcome Health, Kshitij was the Co-Head of a reputed Indian law firm’s Singapore office where he represented banks, funds, technology companies and startups on complex cross border commercial transactions.

Kshitij started his career as an in-house attorney at one of India’s leading banks. As the Southeast Asia Legal Head of the Bank, Kshitij led their legal risk strategy management and legal operations with a team of talented attorneys.

Kshitij earned his LLM with Honors from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Chicago, USA and his undergraduate law degree from National Law Institute University, Bhopal, India.

Memme is part of the founding team of Evisort, a legal AI company and currently serves as Executive Vice President of Legal and Business Intelligence. Founded out of Harvard Law and MIT and backed by leading venture funds including Microsoft’s M12, General Atlantic and TCV, Evisort uses homegrown artificial intelligence and advanced contract lifecycle management functions to help companies negotiate, organize, and extract structured data from their contracts. 

Memme is a Lecturer at Harvard Law School teaching the course “Start-up Entrepreneurship and Innovations in Legal Technology”, co-founded the Harvard Law Technology Symposium, and is currently an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Harvard Innovation Labs.

Rachel is the Head of Functional Excellence & Legal Operations at Nestlé, the world’s largest food & beverage company, where she focuses on enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Legal & Compliance function. Rachel brings a wealth of expertise in strategic planning, business partnering, financial and firm management, communication, and legal technology.

Throughout her career, Rachel has held key leadership positions. She served as the Division General Counsel at Nestlé USA, where she managed legal affairs for its Beverage, Baking & Global Foods Divisions. Prior to her role at Nestlé, Rachel was the Managing Counsel & Senior Director at Under Armour, overseeing the global commercial legal team and providing strategic legal advice to senior management on commercial matters.

Rachel earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from Butler University and a Juris Doctor degree from Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

Stacy Smith Walsh is AVP of Corporate Legal Operations at Travelers. She currently leads a team responsible for strategic planning and execution, outside counsel and vendor management, communications, technology enablement and adoption, and data and analytics for corporate legal groups. She works closely with the General Counsel and the Legal Services senior leadership team to execute on strategic priorities and initiatives. Stacy leads change management efforts, consults with and advises those navigating operational or logistical challenges, and delights in working on projects that demand innovation and creativity. Prior to her role in Legal Operations, Stacy was Senior Counsel in employment law and corporate compliance at Travelers, where, among other things, she handled internal investigations, employment litigation, inbound US immigration, and provided counseling and advice to business units on employment law issues.

Prior to joining Travelers, Stacy was the Director of Human Resources at a mid-size regional law firm where she served on the administrative leadership team of the firm. Prior to that, Stacy was an employment lawyer in private practice representing corporations, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations in all aspects of employment law compliance and litigation.

Stacy volunteers her time as a Troop Leader and Troop Cookie Manager for her daughter’s Girl Scout troop. She is also the current President of the Cornell Law Women’s Alliance (The Mary Kennedy Brown Society) and a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women. She is also a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation.

Stacy has a B.A. from the University of Alabama and an M.A. from the University of Maryland, both in Speech Communication, and a J.D. from Cornell Law School.

Part of the award winning legal and privacy team at TravelPerk, the world’s leading B2B travel management platform, Tom (in his role as Legal Director) focuses on “productising” legal service delivery through applied legal design, technology and innovation, knowledge management and fostering the development of a hybrid blend of happy lawyers, legal engineers, designers and marketers.

Yesenia Santiago, a C-suite Legal Operations Strategic Advisor at Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, combines her passion for law with operational efficiency and strategic planning. With over 15 years of experience, she leads organizations through complex legal challenges while optimizing processes. In February 2022, she joined TelevisaUnivision as VP, Global Legal Operations during a strategic merger, overseeing a global team and managing various legal and operational challenges in the media and entertainment industry. Interestingly, she discovered that Televisa produced a TV series named “Yesenia,” which bears her name.

Before her foray into media and entertainment, Yesenia spent over 12 years in the Financial Services sector, serving as the Legal Operations Director at MetLife. During her tenure, she led transformation efforts using Lean Six Sigma and Agile principles.

Yesenia holds a Juris Doctor and a Master’s in Library Science (cum laude) from the University at Buffalo School of Law, along with a Bachelor of Arts (cum laude) in Political Science and English Literature from St. John’s University.

She believes in leading with integrity and leveraging diversity of thought to advance business and society. Yesenia is an active Advisory Board member for Legal Operations thought leadership councils and engages in public discourse on related topics. She is also a board member of Young Life, an organization dedicated to introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ.

Based in New York, Yesenia resides on Long Island with her twin toddlers and husband, Christopher. She enjoys history and is a fan of Masterpiece Theater and BBC Murder mysteries. Her guiding principle is to “not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.”

Marla brings over 30 years’ expertise to her role as general counsel. She is a respected attorney, strategic advisor, and thought leader who speaks regularly on legal technology, electronic discovery, and information governance issues. Marla spent 22 years practicing law at the prestigious international firm, Jones Day, specializing in the discovery phase of litigation. She also served as associate general counsel for Goldman Sachs for 11 years where she led the firm’s global eDiscovery practice and focused on complex commercial and securities litigation and regulatory investigations. Marla’s expertise also includes advising on issues relating to information governance as well as the deployment of new technologies. Marla earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Duke University and graduated manga cum laude from Boston University, where she earned her Juris Doctor. 

Dave directs the marketing and business development functions for Farella Braun + Martel and oversees a team of four. He directly works with firm management (chair, industry group leaders and initiative leaders) to create go-to-market strategies leveraging business development, marketing and communications activity.  Dave brought his business expertise to the firm by generating annual practice group plans that have transitioned into more than 18 specific initiative plans based on the firm’s industry focus that drive revenue and increase client value.  He also developed and implements Farella’s client focus with programs that leverage the voice of the client and have included an innovative client advisory board, a practice-based client interview program and pursuit teams focused on building institutional client relationships.  In his role as Director of Client Services he interfaces with clients regularly and acts as an ombudsman for clients with issues that they don’t want to bring up directly with their relationship partner.  Dave is a Fellow in the College of Law Practice Management and an inductee into the Legal Marketing Association Hall of Fame.  

Adam Becker is Director of Legal Operations at Cockroach Labs, a startup technology company in New York.  Prior, he was VP & Director of Legal Operations at Endeavor (WME-IMG). Adam’s first in-house legal operations role was at MetLife as AVP, Legal Operations for the US legal department where he also was responsible for the management of legal support services. Adam is an active CLOC member and currently serves on its inaugural Education Advisory Council and he was a co-lead for the New York CLOC Regional Group from 2019-2022. Adam spent a decade working in law firms focusing on operations, attorney professional development and recruiting and began his legal career as an associate at Skadden, Arps. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and New York University.

Kurt Grasinger is the Director of Legal Operations at Cox Enterprises, a privately held global company based in Atlanta.  Kurt and team serve to support and optimize the business of the company’s Law & Policy function, which supports the company’s three primary operating divisions.  His responsibilities include strategic planning, managing outside counsel relationships, promoting cross-team collaboration, and executing on Law & Policy leadership priorities.

Kurt’s career in legal operations began in 2005 at Goldman Sachs, where he held progressive roles focused on outside counsel analytics and expense management strategy.  He subsequently managed legal operations at Marsh & McLennan, and before joining Cox at the onset of the pandemic, he directed legal operations at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Raised in Williamsburg, Virginia, Kurt earned a bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University.

A graduate of Georgetown University with a degree in Psychology, Rich Robinson began his legal-technology career in 1999 in the IT department for Mintz Levin, a large law firm in Boston, Massachusetts. His career has spanned numerous roles in IT and Litigation Support in large and medium-sized law firms in Boston, MA, Providence, RI, Austin, TX, and Dallas, TX.  He worked as a national eDiscovery Consultant for Xact Data Discovery and spent seven years as the eDiscovery and Information Manager for JCPenney, where he gained valuable experience in the field of Legal Operations.  In 2019, Rich joined Toyota as their Director of Legal Operations and Litigation Support.  Rich is a founding board member of the bDiscovery and ACEDS chapters in Dallas and speaks regularly at eDiscovery and Legal Operations conferences around the country.  

Priya is a Director in the Legal Function Consulting team at EY based in Sydney. She has over 20 of experience split across practising the law and leading legal operations projects in private practice and legal departments (including of FTSE100 and Fortune50 companies) to increase efficiency and enhance user experience through new ways of working, smart sourcing, and the effective use of technology and automated solutions. Prior roles include Head of Legal Transformation, Australia and Legal Operations Lead, UK, US & EMEA. 

Priya is also a Co-founder and Chair of She Breaks the Law, a global network of women leaders dedicated to driving innovation and change in the legal ecosystem and sits on the Advisory Board of the Cambridge Women in Law at the University of Cambridge. Priya won the European Women of Legal Tech Award in 2020.  

A post-graduate of University of Cambridge (Master of Law), Priya is dually qualified in England & Wales and India and has certifications and experience in Lean Six Sigma Organisation Design, Agile Project Management and Design Thinking. 

Olga V. Mack is the CEO of  Parley Pro, a next-generation contract management company that has pioneered digital negotiation technology. Olga embraces legal innovation and had dedicated her career to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology. She shares her views in her columns on the Above the Law, Forbes, Bloomberg Law, Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Docket, MIT Computational Law Report, Newsweek, and Venture Beat. Olga is also an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor, and entrepreneur. Olga co-founded SunLaw, an organization dedicated to preparing women in-house attorneys to become general counsels and legal leaders, and WISE to help female law firm partners become rainmakers. She lectures at Berkeley Law and has received numerous awards for her work, including the Silicon Valley Women of Influence, Make Your Mark, Corporate Counsel of the Year, and Women Leaders in Technology Law. She is a fellow of CodeX, the Stanford Law Center for Legal Informatics and a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management.

Terri works internationally with leaders of legal businesses supporting them in identifying trends, developing strategies, and transforming their capabilities and practices to deliver legal services/products in the new legal ecosystem. She is the instigator, designer, developer and collaborator-in-chief of CLI’s global initiatives, networks and programs including the Legalpreneurs Lab and the Innovation Incubator Program. She is a frequent keynote speaker on legal ecosystem trends and their practical impact on legal practice at global, regional and local industry events.  

Prior to joining CLI, Terri was a practising lawyer and subsequently led the in-house talent management departments for firms and associations including Lex Mundi, the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA) and DLA Piper LLP (US). She has also led or taught on practical legal education initiatives in law schools in Asia, Australia and the US. In 2010, Terri founded Mottershead Consulting in the US, and later expanded it to Australasia, to focus on supporting lawyers, legal business specialists, and law firms in identifying, developing and transforming their capabilities and practices to a new way of delivering legal services/products to the market.  

Basha Rubin is the CEO and Co-Founder of Priori. Priori revolutionizes how legal teams find and engage outside counsel. Ranked a Chambers Tier 1 Global LawTech company and a Financial Times Intelligent Business, Priori’s cutting-edge technology powers two products: Scout, which surfaces insights about trusted outside counsel relationships to drive informed hiring decisions and D&I initiatives; and Marketplace, which connects legal teams with new talent from Priori’s vetted, global network of attorneys at firms of all sizes.  

Basha writes and speaks extensively on how technology is changing and will change the marketplace for legal services. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Techcrunch, Entrepreneur and Corporate Counsel, and she has spoken at ABA Techshow, Women in Legal Technology Conference, Clio Cloud Conference, SXSW, Reinvent Law, SOLID Conference and Legal Geek. Basha has been named an ABA Journal Legal Rebel, Financial Times Top 10 Legal Business Technologist, LTRC Woman of LegalTech, Fastcase 50 award winner and is part of Baylor Law School’s “The Braintrust.” She holds a JD and BA from Yale University.  

Beyond his work with CLOC as a reviewer in CLOC’s law school scholarship program, Daniel serves as the Senior Counsel for Innovation for the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.  In this role, he leads the Division’s effort to develop and test new approaches to persistent challenges in legal practice and civil rights. Daniel is also an adjunct faculty member at Harvard Law School and Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches innovation-focused skills to the next generation of lawyers.  In 2007, he served as a law clerk for the Hon. David F. Hamilton.  Daniel graduated from Yale Law School in 2006 and the College of William & Mary in 2001.  

Mateo Sanchez is Head of Legal Operations at Outside Inc. where he is focused on standing up the Legal Ops function and operationalizing process across both the legal team and the enterprise. Partnering with the CLO he is charged with implementing process, establishing budget & financial planning and management, outside counsel management as well rolling out a number of tech solutions including CLM and document and knowledge management processes.

Prior to his role at Outside Inc, Mateo managed Legal Operations at The Clorox Company and was Head of Global Legal Operations at Uber Technologies.