GC Spotlight: Tilly McAdden, Senior Legal Counsel, HackerOne

Tilly McAdden is the Senior Legal Counsel of HackerOne, a vulnerability coordination and bug bounty platform. She gives us the inside story in this interesting GC Spotlight. Let's go right in!

1. Hi Tilly! Tell us a little about yourself. What does it mean to you to be a ‘modern’ GC/Legal Counsel?

I am senior legal counsel at a US tech- start up and I have been inhouse for the last six years. Modern inhouse counsel have to be commercially savvy and take a real interest in the day-to-day business. Learning the commercial side as well as the legal side of their role is imperative.

2. What have been your biggest challenges during the pandemic?

We are really lucky as a company; we have a great CEO with great foresight and so most of our business was remote ready when the pandemic hit. This meant that we were not hit with the same challenges experienced by many.

We are now moving towards digital first as organisation

3. What are your or your team’s key priorities for the year?

Updating our commercial contracts to keep up with new product launches

4. What do you think about the use of LegalTech, data analytics and process optimisation to improve the legal department's value (e.g. data relating to contracts, risk, tracking workflows, performance metrics, costs)?

I think that LegalTech is essential for understanding workflow and prioritizing workloads to ensure that you can support your key stakeholders at all times.

5. What developments or trends do you expect to see in the legal services industry in the next 5 years?

I think that reliance on online legal resources will become more prevalent for inhouse legal teams. The days of using OC for everything you need is no longer necessary or financially justifiable when there are such good digital tools and products.

6. Where do you see NewLaw/ALSP fitting in with your legal department or team? How do you think it can help to add value to the business?

Having legal services providers with real practical knowledge and legal expertise in bespoke areas is key for our business. When we do use external resources this makes ALSP appealing. I like to use boutique or smaller service providers that have that real insight into the practical realities of what we do and are prepared to come on the journey with you as a company grows.