Jessica Nguyen
Chief Legal Officer
Seattle, WA
My Role
I’m the Chief Legal Officer for a leading legal tech startup, Lexion, and my role involves handling legal matters and more. I joined as employee number 12 and was the first non-technical hire. My primary role during the seed stage—and even now—is to be the voice and champion of the customer.
I celebrated my 3-year anniversary and am just as passionate as I was day one about helping organizations scale and get deals done faster. In my role, I am involved in everything from employment issues, product development, contract negotiations, operations, sales, recruiting and hiring, and more.
What I love most about my role
I've personally lived the challenges and pain of our customers—having reviewed and negotiated thousands of contracts over my career. Now, I get to partner with the best engineers in AI to build a solution that helps legal professionals. This is a rare opportunity for the typical attorney.
How I define success
In the legal tech space, I define success as transforming the way that legal professionals do their work. I truly believe that our product can help them work smarter, better, and faster. AI will be as transformative to the legal profession as email and word processing applications that replaced the need for secretaries and dictaphones to draft letters and documents
The best piece of business advice I ever received was
Always start with why. Whether it’s a deal, a project, or my career path, knowing and starting with “why” is core to my success. See the forest and never ever lose sight of the end goal.
What would I tell my younger self
No one cares about your career development more than you do. Be the one driving your career. Pick opportunities that move you towards your goals and work with managers who coach you. As they say, in every role you should learn or earn—ideally both.
You also have to be your own advocate. In Asian culture, you’re discouraged from being too boisterous or self-promotional, but that’s just not how the tech world works. You have to make yourself visible to others, and make it clear what value you bring.
What 2B Bolder mean to me
I am a believer in representation of bold, confident, and competent women. At least once a month, I get private LinkedIn messages from women thanking me for being able to represent what it means to be both authentic and substantive. I love that 2B Bolder is highlighting women as they are—inspiring all of us to be authentic leaders.
Years of Experience
17-year legal career
I recommend you focus on developing these 3 skills to succeed in a role like mine
Be a great communicator and storyteller
Learn to recruit and grow people who can scale your impact
Adapt to shifting priorities and evolving tech