In this series, we get to meet the team that makes the Evisort magic happen. This week, we talked with Associate General Counsel Colby Mangonon. Read on to find out the factors that inspired Colby to join Evisort, what it feels like to be part of the building of a product that is changing the practice of law, and how she, herself, uses Evisort’s intelligence platform to improve efficiencies and reduce risk.

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Can you share a bit about your role?

I am Evisort’s Associate General Counsel. In that role, I help build out our legal functions and support each of our teams as we grow.  We are a small legal department – it’s just me and our general counsel Margaret Minister. Our internal philosophy is to be as hands-on and involved as possible with each of our amazing teams. On any given day, we might be reviewing commercial contracts, helping with disclaimers for the marketing team, or making sure employment contracts are up to date.

Additionally, because Evisort provides our product primarily to legal teams, I also have the unique opportunity to participate in decisions on things like how to best reach our customers, how to support our customers, and what sort of messaging would be the most effective. Our product team, for example, jumps on with us multiple times a week, to ask us questions about everything from the way the product functions to how it looks to the naming function of different tools.

As you can see, we have this incredible opportunity to be part of every area of growth at Evisort --and I love it.

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What made you decide to join Evisort?

I really liked how visionary the company is and how rooted they are in the legal culture. The intersection of law and technology is something I'm incredibly passionate about.

Career-wise, I’ve been in the SaaS space for a long time. In my other positions, it’s been great to be able to work on so many different technologies from fintech to adtech. But with Evisort, we are actually changing the practice of law. We’re seeing in real-time the pay-off of the products that we’re putting out there.

I knew I wanted to be part of that growth and help push the boundaries of this industry.

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How would you describe the Evisort team and culture?

It’s so vibrant and full of people who genuinely love what they're doing. I didn’t think that it was possible to find a company where everyone was so passionate and dedicated.

Of course, in any company, there are always going to be roadblocks and challenges. But I think the way in which we address those challenges at Evisort is such a synergetic model. People are genuinely motivated to work through issues and they do so with grace, kindness, and a sense of collaboration. It's just a wonderful place to work.

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What are the biggest challenges of your role? 

Because our legal team is very small, we interact with every business function and have to wear a lot of hats.

Luckily, this is exactly what our product was created to do. Evisort is great at making our team efficient. It’s kind of our superpower that we get to use internally. And believe me, we are power users of it. Evisort allows us to not only focus on the commercial contract and negotiation aspects of contracts, but also on the other diverse needs of our teams.

As we grow, the other issue I see is the change management aspect of a rapidly evolving organization. Like any company in the growth stage, we have to evolve all of our systems and processes as we continue to expand.

I have a background in change management and legal operations. Again, it’s been amazing to have expert solutions, engineering, product and enablement teams on board to help really manage the changes we have to execute. We’re able to work together through all the bugs that come up with expansion. We have a team that is willing to jump in, figure out what the fixes are, and get them implemented quickly. One of the great things about Evisort is how invested everyone is.

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What makes Evisort stand out from other places to work?

At Evisort, we truly see how valuable collaboration and innovation are. As I mentioned, it's rare for a person in my position to have any impact on the product that we're selling.

But at Evisort, I do have an impact on the product. And really, every Evisort employee is a contributor to the innovation of our products. When our sales team or our customer success team sees a feature that could be modified in some way or a new functionality that they think would be really great in the market, they bring that to the team.

Evisort leaders listen, and they run with the feedback they get. It’s so incredible to see that—and actually be able to influence the product and say, “This is what works for me, and this is what I think would make the product better.”

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Where do you see contracting technology five years from now?

I think that contract technology is going to be an integral role in any legal team, and I think AI is going to be at the forefront of that.

Think of startups: they’re being required to do so much more with less. They’re expected to have these lean teams, everyone is looking at how the business is spending, stakeholders are saying outside counsel spending has to go, and they’re  focusing on reducing tech stacks. They’re looking to see how to get the most value out of a single tool.

I think that’s why analytics and AI-powered models, like Evisort, are so important because they can take the place of several siloed tools or augment your existing technology ecosystem.

What we’re moving towards in the future is the implementation of technology that helps people do their jobs better. That helps people be more efficient. AI-powered technology is an integral part of that trend.

Here’s just one example of how Evisort helps with efficiency: the system takes away a lot of the manual lifts in contract review, like unnecessarily copying and pasting key clauses into a Word document. If you don't have to spend your time doing those tasks, you can spend your time reviewing documents or being more effective in your role.

On another note, it’s been interesting watching the expansion of legal operations – the idea of running in-house legal services like a business - roll across the industry. Legal operations are powerhouse users of legal tech. I think we cannot ignore the value of legal operations as we move forward.

And looking to the future: as the next generation of law students come through, and you have younger people in leadership in law firms and in-house, you’re already seeing them bring this tech stack into fresh views. In five years, I see this sort of technology being much more widely adopted.

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What do you like to do when you're not at work?

I spend a lot of time surfing and hiking with my husband and my almost three-year-old son. My dad taught me to surf, so I love being able to pass on that relationship with the ocean to my son. We live in an incredibly beautiful place, and I love getting outside as much as possible on the weekends.

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Join the Evisort team

Our team is our most important asset. From engineering and data science, to sales, customer success, and beyond, we hire the very best. If you’re interested in joining us, check out our careers page to find the role that’s right for you.

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