For today’s feature post (151), Legal Evolution is pleased to welcome guest contributor Carlos Gámez, who currently serves as Client & Partner Lead of Legal Technology Innovation at Thomson Reuters.

I met Carlos last fall at Evolve the Law’s Law Jobs for Humans event in New York City.   The event was billed as a “Career Fair For Futurists” but, in fact, the format was basically the current generation of people working in legaltech explaining their career histories to the up-and-coming generation, as we don’t yet have career paths in legaltech but instead just some matted grass headed off in various directions.

These conversations, however, have quite a bit of value.  Indeed, some of the common themes that fell out of the panel conversations were diversity of experience and a willingness to work hard and take initiative in new and unproven areas.

Carlos fit this mold to a tee. Although born in the U.S., Carlos moved to Mexico in his youth.  After obtaining his LLB from Facultad Libre de Derecho de Monterrey in 2003, Carlos worked as an IP associate for Basham, Ringe y Correa, S.C., one of Mexico’s leading corporate law firms. In 2006, Carlos headed off to Stanford Law, where he obtained an LLM with a specialization in Law, Science & Technology.  After stints running M&A for a movie company start-up and working for a nonprofit focused on next-gen power generation in southern California, Carlos obtained his MBA from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

Since 2011, when he entered Thomson Reuter’s Leadership Development Program, Carlos has managed to settle down for a long 10-year run where he has held a variety of interesting and important positions, including Director of Office of the General Counsel, Director of Corporate Development, Senior Director of Innovation, and currently Client & Partner Lead for Legal Technology Innovation.

Drawing upon his experience, Carlos offers a perspective we don’t often get at Legal Evolution — how to innovate in the context of a large incumbent operating company that just happens to be a major part of the legal ecosystem.  Arguably, these challenges are similar to those experienced by major law firms, albeit Carlos’s thinking is much more advanced, primarily because it’s his full-time job to solve these complex, long-term business challenges.  As you’ll see in today’s feature post, Do you have a strategy of innovation or an innovation strategy?  (151), Carlos has a deep understanding of the world of business and strategy.