From President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign to helping shape the future of legal technology, Ironclad General Counsel Chris Young’s experience covers a broad spectrum. Across his years of experience in law, Chris has identified a key theme: the value of diversity in Legal — both in terms of the multitude of professionals practicing law, as well as the varied ways lawyers apply their skills to the disciplines within which they practice.
In recent conversations with GC Magazine and The Recorder, Chris reflected on the importance of hiring for diversity in Legal and the ways risk-taking can present opportunities for current and future generations of legal professionals. Chris touches on the core competencies required for successful legal hires, intangible qualities — integrity, grit and drive — that lend themselves to professional endurance and leadership development, and how multi-faceted and well-rounded lawyers are beating burnout and giving rise to a new era legal tech and professional development.
As Chris writes, “Looking to the future, I think it would behoove leaders in the legal profession to not only hire, nurture and grow diverse attorneys and ensure that outside counsel are diverse but to invest in aspiring law students and young attorneys of color; help an aspiring law student prepare for the LSAT and apply for law school; take a chance on a young, law firm attorney and let them manage one of your legal matters; hire someone who might not check all the boxes, but who you know has the raw talent to have an outsized impact. I’m a firm believer in investing in individuals and that if all of us invest in an individual or two early on in their career, that’s the type of work that results in long-term change.”
Take a few moments to get an insider’s view of Chris’s vision for the future of Legal.
About Ironclad
Ironclad is the #1 contract lifecycle management platform for innovative companies. L’Oréal, Staples, Mastercard, and other leading innovators use Ironclad to collaborate and negotiate on contracts, accelerate contracting while maintaining compliance, and turn contracts into critical carriers of operational business intelligence. It’s the only platform flexible enough to handle every type of contract workflow, whether a sales agreement, an HR agreement or a complex NDA. The company was named one of the 20 Rising Stars on the Forbes 2019 Cloud 100 list, and is backed by leading investors like Accel, Y Combinator, Sequoia, and BOND. For more information, visit www.ironcladapp.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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