Stefan Nunn never planned to become a legal operations pioneer. After completing his law degree and professional qualifications in England and Wales, he found himself facing the same steep barriers to entry that many aspiring solicitors encounter. But what started as a “basic” contract administration role at a pharmaceutical company would set him on an unexpected path to revolutionizing how growing companies handle their legal operations.
Stefan Nunn, Legal Counsel, 9fin
Today, as the first full-time in-house legal hire at 9fin, a rapidly growing financial technology company, Nunn has become known for turning legal departments from cost centers into strategic assets. His reputation for successful legal technology implementations – particularly his work with the contract management platform Ironclad at TravelPerk, where he helped achieve a five-fold reduction in deal closing time – preceded him. Just months into his role at 9fin, he had already started implementing the lessons learned from years of experience in legal operations transformation.
The path to legal operations
While completing his Legal Practice Course (the previous formal qualification route for solicitors in England and Wales), Nunn worked full-time in contract administration alongside his studies. “It was a basic contract management role,” Nunn recalls of his early days. “Contract comes in, you assign the contract some form of tracking designation, and then you make sure the signatory process is followed properly.” This foundational experience would later prove invaluable in understanding the importance of process before platform.
Learning through trial and error
His career trajectory took him through various regulated industries, from pharmaceuticals to international financial services, where he managed contracts for organizations scaling from 400 to 20,000 employees. These experiences taught him a crucial lesson about legal operations: “The three Ps – it’s people, process, platform. You need to get the people and process sorted first before you move to the platform.”
This wisdom wasn’t gained without setbacks. “I have failed,” Nunn admits candidly about a previous contract management system implementation. “I’m very happy to throw my hands up and say I failed….That was a learning lesson. Do your homework, get your stakeholders on board before undertaking such a large project.”
A new chapter at 9fin
When Nunn joined 9fin, he encountered a familiar scenario: a scaling company whose contract processes hadn’t kept pace with its expansion. The company had already taken important steps, creating standardized commercial terms and a structured order form system. But without a modern contract management system, they risked hitting the same scaling challenges Nunn had seen at other companies.
Fortunately, 9fin’s leadership had already recognized the need for change. Before Nunn’s arrival, they’d selected Ironclad, the same contract lifecycle management platform he’d successfully implemented at TravelPerk. Within a month of joining as the company’s first in-house legal hire, Nunn found himself leading another Ironclad implementation – this time with the advantage of his past experience.
But he knew that successful implementation wasn’t just about the technology. The real challenge lay in change management and building stakeholder trust, particularly with the fast growing sales team who would be the platform’s primary users. “If you want to change the status quo from being a process agent… you need to think about how you deploy Ironclad,” he explains. “It needs to be in a way that is approachable for your highest volume user case because they’re also your most influential stakeholder.”
A shift in perception
It didn’t take long for the Ironclad implementation to start showing promising results. But perhaps more importantly, it’s changing the perception of legal’s role within the organization.
“It takes you from a position of being a reactive service provider to a strategic partner,” Nunn notes. “This will then build that credit with your CEO or your CRO to get your legal team a seat at the table.”
Strategic next steps
The future looks promising, where Nunn and his team are now focusing on using contract data to inform business strategy. “We’re looking at building out our repository to then enable our sales pipeline cycle,” he explains. “We want to start reporting on metrics and data and then utilizing that to make decisions on how we develop both our platform in relation to our product.”
For 9fin, an AI-enabled business where “tech does not service the business – tech is the business” this data-driven approach is crucial. Nunn’s vision extends beyond basic contract management to embedding legal considerations into product development and decision-making processes.
But perhaps the most significant impact is on career development for legal professionals. “Your CLM is a value add because it reduces headcount requirements… What you can do is take your current headcount and deploy them across multiple verticals. And it is a career enabler for someone like me who is still relatively junior, taking on multiple verticals across the business.”
The transformation from traditional legal department to strategic business partner isn’t just about technology—it’s about changing mindsets and approaches. As businesses continue to digitize and automate, legal professionals like Nunn who can bridge the gap between legal expertise and technological innovation will increasingly find themselves at the forefront of business strategy.
“Investing in this approach becomes an amazing tool for getting the maximum value out of your legal team,” he concludes. “It is your legal team having a funnel in which to exercise their commercial practices.”
Ironclad is not a law firm, and this post does not constitute or contain legal advice. To evaluate the accuracy, sufficiency, or reliability of the ideas and guidance reflected here, or the applicability of these materials to your business, you should consult with a licensed attorney. Use of and access to any of the resources contained within Ironclad’s site do not create an attorney-client relationship between the user and Ironclad.
