High-quality Legal Operations Community! CLOC events!

What is Legal Operations about? That is a question many have asked in recent years; in a short time, it has become a discipline amongst professionals in in-house departments and law firms.

Answering this question is a complex thing to do, and there is still some room for discussion and agreement. We are working on it, but we need the collaboration of those involved in the industry and the places for sharing and resources to achieve such an ambitious goal.

In this sense, one of the most crucial reference organizations in this field is the CLOC (Corporate Legal Operations Consortium) , an entity with a global vocation founded in the Bay Area – San Francisco; it began approximately ten years ago and has fulfilled the role of defining and creating knowledge in the field of legal operations (achieving the professionalization of the function).

The role of legal operations professionals is discussed annually in Las Vegas and London under the frame of the CLOC events.

In a nutshell, we are talking about a niche within the legal sector that is growing and evolving quickly. For example, this year, the CLOC Global Institute in Las Vegas gathered more than 2,500 legal sector professionals.

How was the 2022 CLOC EMEA Summit?

I was very fortunate to have participated in the CLOC EMEA Summit held last year in London and to have had the opportunity to encounter all the amazingly talented people from several countries just gathered in one place.

I usually do not talk about personal matters, but I will make an exception this time. One of my dreams last year was to attend the 2022 CLOC EMEA Summit; I worked hard last year to get my ticket. I was thrilled with it and proud of achieving it with my resources; however, I was invited to leave the company where I worked just the day before the Summit. That was shocking; I feared sharing it at the event and felt very sad. However, I finally had enough courage to attend the Summit, one of the best professional decisions ever.

Why is it one of the most significant events of the Legal Ops Community? Well, it is due to its people and how they interact with their peers. To set an example, at the 2022 CLOC EMEA Summit, I met many talented people who asked me how I was feeling at that challenging moment and how they could help me get a job; some even asked me for my CV or availability for an interview. Almost 100% of the people at the Summit were kind to me and paid attention carefully to what I was saying; they even told me they had already followed me on LinkedIn and offered me all their support. I will never forget those acts of kindness; they were surprisingly astonishing and unique. It only sometimes happens in other places.

When I returned to Madrid, I was energized thanks to the event. Fortunately, just a few weeks after, I got a job in one of the best places I have ever worked, BDO Abogados ( BDO , BDO Spain ), and with the opportunity of working with one of the best groups of leaders I had ever met, Ignacio Legido Castiella , Javier Gómez-Ferrer Senent and Caroline Macdonald .

Thank you, CLOC Summit, for the energy boost during one of my life's most challenging professional times.

Additionally, meeting face-to-face with some of the foremost leaders of CLOC and having super exciting conversations about the development of the discipline with experts in this niche added significant value to my attendance at the event. Acknowledging the existence of a vast community around you that supports you, understands you and recognizes you is something that, without a doubt, is priceless. On the other hand, it was a spectacular opportunity to meet face to face with many of the legal tech providers I had contact with during the pandemic and, for the first time ever, I met them in person.

Moreover, I remember that I visited the vast majority of legal tech vendor stands ( 汤森路透 , BRYTER , Intapp , DISCO , Wolters Kluwer , Mitratech , Onit ,...), and everyone was incredibly kind, told me about their value proposition, and they demonstrated some solutions.

What can you expect from the 2023 CLOC EMEA Summit?

It seems like this year we will enjoy talks from some of the best experts in legal operations that I really admire, such as Mary O'Carroll ( Ironclad ), Jenn McCarron ( Netflix ), Mike Haven ( 英特尔 ), Tripp Hemphill ( DISCO ), David Halliwell ( Pinsent Masons Vario ), Aine Lyons ( VMware ), Michael Francony ( 诺华 ), Jessica Hamilton ( THERME GROUP ), Scott Quinn ( Sirion Labs) and others that we will find out soon.

About the talk topics, please be prepared for an event with many talks about IA (and its impact on the legal sector), change management, diversity, resourcing and legal tech.

I will make sure to keep you posted.

I look forward to attending the talks and meeting great legal operations professionals! Please feel free to reach out to me in advance if you are attending the 2023 CLOC EMEA Summit; I will be delighted to talk to you.

Thank you, 2023 CLOC EMEA Summit, for this wonderful event!?

See you soon in London!

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