SpotDraft at CLOC 2023

Megan Niedermeyer is an experienced scaler and general counsel to some of the fastest growth software companies. She advises boards, founders, and executives with an eye towards operational efficiency and managing the risks and opportunities ‒ broadly defined ‒ that high‒growth companies encounter.

She is currently the Chief Legal Officer at Apollo.io, a fast‒growing sales intelligence platform, where she is building out the function as the first legal hire. Previously, she was the General Counsel at Fivetran, a B2B data software company, growing the function as the first legal hire to a team of over 30 as the company experienced hypergrowth; before that she was the Head of Legal & Compliance at Gusto, a fintech and payroll software company, growing the function as the third lawyer to a team of over 40, also during a hypergrowth period. Before going in house Megan was a corporate attorney at Cooley LLP, and prior to being a lawyer had a career in international development based in Washington DC, the Balkans, and Afghanistan.

Akshay Verma is the Director and Head of Legal Operations at Coinbase. He is a DEI Champion and frequently speaks about legal operations. He has over 20 years of experience in the legal industry, with a focus on legal department strategy, spend management, technology selection/implementation, and solution design.

Before joining Coinbase, Mr. Verma was Meta's Director and Head of Legal Operations.. Before his time at Meta, Mr. Verma spent six years as a Director at Axiom. He partnered with senior executives and legal department leaders to develop and shape the vision for their legal departments, and then execute on that vision.

Mr. Verma's legal career began as a paralegal at Latham & Watkins, where he worked for almost three years. He later became an Associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and an Environmental Law and Sustainability Attorney at Farella Braun & Martel LLP, both in San Francisco. Mr. Verma is an Adjunct Professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, where he has taught since 2017. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Legal Operators, a legal operations organization focused on building community in the legal operations profession. Mr. Verma holds a Doctor of Law (J.D.) degree from Santa Clara University School of Law, where he was the President of the South Asian Law Student Association and a Comments Editor for Law Review. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Gary Spiegel is an accomplished legal executive and trusted advisor to public and private companies with extensive experience leading legal teams in dynamic, hyper-growth environments and supporting clients through pivotal corporate events.

Most recently, Gary served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Anaplan, Inc., a prominent enterprise cloud software company, where he grew and oversaw a global team of 20 legal professionals. Starting as the company's first in‒house counsel and throughout his 9‒year tenure, he played a key role in advising the company through several venture funding rounds, a highly successful IPO, and a take‒private transaction.

Prior to Anaplan, Gary held various legal roles at Adobe, MySQL, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and LiveOps, following the start of his career at the Federal Reserve Bank. Throughout his career, Gary has dedicated himself to enhancing the value of legal services through process improvements and technology with a focus on driving growth and efficiency while reducing costs and improving outcomes.