Tell us about a typical day in your current role?
My day-to-day experience varies wildly. One of my US colleagues said an effective tech GC needs to be ‘up in everyone’s grill’. In practice, this means I spend a lot of my time building relationships across teams including the C-suite. It’s critical I have a broad overview of the business whilst maintaining independence and acting in the best interests of the company (and not individual leaders).
Rebrandly is a martech SAAS platform offering branded link management services and domains. I work from my home office which offers great flexibility with my young family. The internet and domain industry is global and so there is a lot of international travel - 13 trips in my first year. I report to the CEO in San Francisco and we have remote teams in 7 countries.
‘Doing more with less’ is a current theme at in-house legal conferences. It is a constant challenge. My role involves identifying and setting the legal priorities for the business, building a high functioning team (including via automation, legal tech and enablement), managing external counsel and identifying, mitigating and advising on legal matters across all departments. There is a lot of prioritisation and re-prioritisation - the world constantly changes and I have to be comfortable with not knowing all of the answers.
In my first week in the current role, I spoke to a Meta Assistant General Counsel about online safety, engaged with WIPO about a domain dispute, attended an ICANN summit on internet regulation and presented to the board of directors. There is never a dull day!
What has been the proudest moment in your career so far?
I’ve been lucky to have some memorable moments - both in private practice and in-house. The one that sticks out still is having a case written up in the All England Law Reports. It’s the closest most lawyers come to making the law.
Burges Salmon represented Leeds United FC against West Yorkshire Police. It was a case full of colourful characters (e.g. Ken Bates, Sean Harvey (of welcome to Wrexham fame), Massimo Cellino, Mark Gay) and gained a lot of press coverage. The case revolved around the interpretation of section 25 of the Police Act 1996 and what a private company (here the football club) could lawfully be charged in terms of public order policing.
We won in the High Court and Court of Appeal and as it was a ‘test case’ we ended up acting for all of the Premier League football clubs. It was a lot of fun.
If you could offer one piece of advice to your 21-year old self, what would it be?
Don’t have a fixed view of what being a ‘lawyer’ means. This will change over time. It does not solely include being a partner in a law firm. Be open-minded and take the opportunities that present themselves. Do you want to be an expert in one field and advise other lawyers? Or do you want to be more of a generalist within a business and make judgments about legal risk?
Speak to as many lawyers as possible early on and stay in touch with people you meet along the way. It will help you immensely in future. Law is still fundamentally a people business (even with the rise of legal tech). In private practice, there is a reticence to network with other lawyers due to the competitive nature of winning work. In-house there are many people and communities that support each other - Crafty Counsel, Juro, Legal 500 and TechGC are just a few. I wish I had engaged with these groups earlier in my career.
In what ways did your time at Burges Salmon influence your career?
The quality of training at Burges Salmon is extremely high. The skills learned during my time with the firm have helped me immensely during my time in-house. I’m thankful for the opportunities that Burges Salmon afforded me and the friends and alumni I’ve kept in touch with.
Who has particularly inspired you or helped you get to where you are today?
In a professional context, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some excellent lawyers and people in private practice and in-house. It’s difficult to pick one. My uncle was a barrister and gave me some early insights into a career in the law. I learned a lot from the disputes team at Burges Salmon and my first GC when I moved in-house.
If you had not followed a career in law, what would you like to have done instead?
Initially, I thought I would be a vet (like my dad) or a professional rugby player (like my dad wanted me to be). Sadly, he had to settle for a lawyer.
Is there a particular alumnus you would like to hear from? Let our team know at Alumni@burges-salmon.com.