
Hosted by Cecilia Ziniti · EN
CZ & Friends is a podcast about what it takes to lead and evolve legal in an era of exponential change. Hosted by Cecilia Ziniti, former General Counsel turned founder and CEO of GC AI, each episode features candid conversations with legal and business leaders who are building for scale, taking bold bets on technology, and leading with humanity. Whether you're a GC, operator, or in-house counsel, this podcast is your front-row seat to the future of legal.

What does it look like to build a legal team from first principles in 2025, with AI at the center from day one?Cecilia sits down with Mary Ambacher, Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary at EverQuote, and Lauren Anderson, Senior Counsel at Wayfair, to talk through exactly that. Mary just started a new GC role after eight years at Wayfair and walked in to find the calculus for headcount had already changed. Lauren stayed behind to run a leaner team covering hundreds of contracts a cycle. They cover how to triage contracts by risk, why termination for convenience is worth fighting for in every deal, what "B+ work" means in a world where AI is closing the gap on junior associates, and the genuine open question nobody has a clean answer to. If AI does the reps, how do the next generation of Mary and Laurens develop the business judgment?Plus: the Kanye clause (yes, it's a real thing), Taylor Swift's IP filings as a masterclass in legal strategy, and what a viewership-tied marketing deal teaches you about creative lawyering.Follow Mary and Lauren:@Mary Ambacher on Linkedin. Mary Ambacher is Deputy General Counsel at EverQuote, a publicly traded insurance marketplace. Before EverQuote, she spent eight years at Wayfair, most recently as Deputy General Counsel overseeing the commercial legal function.@Lauren Anderson on LinkedInLauren Anderson is Senior Counsel at Wayfair, where she leads contract review for one of the largest e-commerce companies in the US. She covers commercial agreements, influencer and affiliate deals, privacy, and emerging technology issues.Topics covered in this episode:- Building a legal team from scratch with AI as a first-principles assumption- How Wayfair's legal team handled 300 contracts in a 10-week window with a team of three- The two-bucket contract triage system Mary and Lauren built together- Why the B+ answer is often the right answer, and when it isn't- The junior lawyer pipeline problem nobody has solved yet- Non-renewal clauses, termination for convenience, and breakup fees- Taylor Swift's AI likeness filings and their implications for commercial IP- What the Kanye clause is, where it came from, and why Lauren is negotiating one right now- What the legal department looks like in five years- When to call outside counsel and when to keep it in-house00:00 Intro01:00 Mary's first day at EverQuote after 8 years at Wayfair02:46 What does success look like when you're building from scratch with AI?04:01 Clean-sheeting a legal department: starting fresh vs. inheriting a big team06:36 Lauren on taking on a larger scope at Wayfair with a leaner team09:14 The volume reality: 300 contracts in 10 weeks, 50 agreements per attorney per cycle11:26 How to measure legal team performance with AI: OKRs, metrics, and contract triage15:17 Will AI replace lawyers? The B+ answer and the junior attorney pipeline problem19:07 Big wins: SLAs, liquidated damages, and creative lawyering21:05 Why every contract needs a non-renewal clause (especially in an AI tool world)22:58 Termination for convenience and the breakup fee27:54 How junior lawyers build business judgment and confidence30:45 Risk tolerance: the optimal number of plates to break34:12 Taylor Swift's IP filings and what they mean for every artist36:04 Taylor Swift's 2015 letter to Apple37:28 What is the Kanye clause?42:24 Lightning round: what does the legal department look like in 5 years?45:02 What do you still use outside counsel for?46:09 Books, leaders, and advice to your younger selfFollow us on all social platforms to get each new episode when it drops.@Cecilia Ziniti on LinkedIn@CeciliaZin on Twitter/X@GC AI on LinkedIn@gcai on Xgc.ai website

David Schellhase has been general counsel at three public companies - Salesforce, Groupon, and Slack - and he's learned that great in-house lawyering is less about knowing every law and more about knowing your company's risk appetite cold. In this episode of CZ and Friends, David joins Cecilia to share what three decades in Silicon Valley taught him about risk, prioritization, and when to push back on your CEO.David and Cecilia cover:Why the best in-house lawyers "always be calibrating," reading their company's risk profile the way a trader reads the market, and adjusting advice accordingly.How technology has made lawyers more available than ever, and why that's a problem worth solving.What it was like to be GC at Slack through explosive global growth, and how Stewart Butterfield's obsession with craft shaped David's own approach to legal work.Why David told his CEO, who called from Dublin at midnight, having read the actual GDPR text, that he hadn't read it yet and wouldn't for six months, and why that was the right call.How Groupon ended up with 5,000 lawsuits in Brazil over bad haircuts, and what that taught him about scaling globally without a legal map.Why happy hours are technically criminal in New York (it involves liquor pricing law and a rat-encrusted menu).His thesis that innovation is crime, and why the best in-house lawyers have to believe in their product enough to push the law forward.What "strong opinions, loosely held" and "disagree and commit" look like in practice as a GC.Why he thinks in-house lawyers should seek out productive narcissists, and what makes that combination so powerful in a founder.David now sits on the board at Okta, co-teaches Ethical Issues in Global Technology Product Design at Stanford, and is Entrepreneur in Residence at Ballistic Ventures.Follow David: @David Schellhase on LinkedInChapters: 00:00 Preview 00:12 Welcome and intro: David Schellhase, Okta board member and EIR at Ballistic Ventures 00:25 What David is working on today 02:53 How technology has increased stress in the legal profession 06:52 Always be calibrating: understanding your company's risk appetite 11:12 The difference between in-house and BigLaw prioritization 14:30 Slack, Stewart Butterfield, and the midnight GDPR call 20:45 Innovation is crime: Uber, Airbnb, and the Overton window 25:57 Groupon: happy hours are criminal in New York 30:05 Groupon: 5,000 bad haircut lawsuits in Brazil 34:19 Strong opinions, loosely held, and disagree and commit 43:24 AI: underhyped, and why labeling AI content matters 50:11 Why in-house lawyers should work for productive narcissists 52:43 Lightning round: myths, books, and advice for your younger selfFollow us on all social platforms to get each new episode when it drops.@Cecilia Ziniti on LinkedIn@CeciliaZin on Twitter/X@GC AI on LinkedIn@gcai on Xgc.ai website

Bjarne Tellmann spent 30 years as a general counsel at Haleon, Pearson, Coca-Cola, and Aramco. Now, as CEO of FjordStream Advisors and author of "Law in the Era of AI" (Wiley), he argues that the disruption of the law firm model will not come from startups - it will come from clients.In this episode of CZ and Friends, Cecilia Ziniti joins Bjarne to unpack what he saw from the inside of some of the world's largest legal departments, why most firms are paralyzed right now, and what in-house leaders should do about it.What you will learn:Why the billable hour model is facing a Nokia moment, and what the "job to be done" shift means for law firms.How Bjarne cut legal costs by more than 40% at Pearson without simply laying people off.The two things in-house teams do that no outside firm can replicate: being proactive and being pragmatic.Why AI governance is now a third engine of in-house value, alongside productivity and pragmatism.What the "AI factory" model means for how companies will consume legal services by 2030.How to build a legal department culture where people understand the "why" behind the work.Practical tips for GCs facing board pressure on AI adoption.About Bjarne Tellmann: Bjarne is the CEO of FjordStream Advisors and the author of "Law in the Era of AI," published by Wiley. He served as General Counsel at Haleon, Pearson, Coca-Cola, and Aramco. Before law, he was a professional actor in Norway, doing film and TV work before coming to the US for theater school. Follow Bjarne:@Bjarne Philip Tellmann on LinkedInFollow us on all social platforms to get each new episode when it drops.@Cecilia Ziniti on LinkedIn@CeciliaZin on Twitter/X@GC AI on LinkedIn@gcai on Xgc.ai website

How does a legal operations team at a global semiconductor company cut contract request time by 73%, earn a seat at the CLO's staff table, and build board-level analytics, all while keeping pace with AI?In this episode of CZ and Friends, Cecilia Ziniti sits down with Sruthi Kosuri and Cindy Prabhakar from the legal operations team at Marvell Technology, an $8 billion company powering the infrastructure behind AI, cloud, and the devices we use every day.Sruthi and Cindy share how they transformed Marvell's legal function from a manual, reactive team into a modern, data-driven operation that the rest of the business actively wants to partner with. From auto-triaging 40% of contract requests to building self-serve SOW workflows that close in under 15 minutes, this episode is a practical masterclass in legal ops at global scale.In this episode:How Marvell's legal ops team cut contract request time by 73% across a 7,000-person user base.Meeting stakeholders where they are and how that changed how legal is perceived across their company.How auto-triage and self-serve workflows replaced a single-point-of-failure manual routing system.The strategy behind pushing Marvell paper on the front end to unlock downstream contract speed.How the "Legally Brilliant Challenge" gamified AI adoption across the legal team.What board-level legal analytics look like and how to get there.Why legal ops is no longer just legal ops, and what "global operations" means for the future.Follow our guests: @Sruthi Kosuri on LinkedIn@Cindy Prabhakar on LinkedInFollow us on all social platforms to get each new episode when it drops.@Cecilia Ziniti on LinkedIn@CeciliaZin on Twitter/X@GC AI on LinkedIn@gcai on Xgc.ai website

What if the best thing a lawyer could do is figure out how to make themselves obsolete?Jimmy Toy, Chief Legal Officer at Articore Group (the company behind Redbubble and TeePublic), has been using AI and machine learning in legal work for over 10 years. In this episode of CZ and Friends, Jimmy joins host Cecilia Ziniti to share why the future of legal is not about working faster with AI, but about working differently.Jimmy and Cecilia cover:Why the best lawyers five years from now will use AI to stop doing legal work entirely, shifting from authoring outputs to reviewing them and architecting systemsHow the billable hour trained lawyers to fear efficiency, and what in-house counsel can do to shed that mindsetWhat it looks like to manage 40+ IP cases across global jurisdictions, including a landmark Australian trademark case against the Hells Angels that created new platform liability lawHow Articore built an AI-powered knowledge base from decades of court filings, deposition transcripts, and briefs so any team member can surface consistent legal positions in secondsWhy Jimmy tells his team to embrace being replaced, and how he built an AI champion role inside his legal functionThe three values that guide his legal team: light touch, no surprises, and make every dollar countWhat it means to be a turnaround GC, and how legal can have a direct impact on OpEx even when it cannot drive revenueJimmy also shares his take on copyright, platform liability, user-generated content at scale, and why the 20% that AI cannot replicate is where lawyers need to live.Follow Jimmy:@Jimmy Toy on LinkedInChapters: 00:00 Preview 00:12 Welcome and intro: Jimmy Toy, CLO at Articore Group 00:25 Redbubble, TeePublic, and 70 million user-generated images 00:48 Jimmy's 10+ years using AI before modern LLMs 01:16 The future of legal: from authoring to architecting 02:10 Why lawyers resist AI more than other professions 04:21 The billable hour and the psychology of legal work 06:10 In-house vs. firm: shedding the hours-based mindset 07:38 What legal looks like in five years 09:27 Articore's platforms and how the marketplace works 12:42 IP risk, DMCA, and managing copyright at scale 14:51 40+ IP cases across global jurisdictions 16:37 The Hells Angels case and creating Australian platform law 18:54 Deciding to appeal: balancing cost, risk, and principle 21:57 AI and litigation knowledge bases 25:05 The "VP of Existing Obligations" problem and how AI solves it 27:44 Decentralizing institutional knowledge with AI 28:44 What surprised Jimmy most about his tenure 30:44 Has the board noticed legal as a product? 31:07 Being a turnaround GC: cost, OpEx, and impact 33:31 The three team values: light touch, no surprises, make every dollar count 34:17 Lightning round: advice, books, and favorite thing about being a lawyerFollow us on all social platforms to get each new episode when it drops.@Cecilia Ziniti on LinkedIn@CeciliaZin on Twitter/X@GC AI on LinkedIn@gcai on Xgc.ai website

Nicole Komin and Danielle Shainbrown co-founded two companies together out of Buffalo, New York: Bellwether Advisors, a real estate consulting and advisory practice, and Shainbrown Komin PLLC, a law firm. They launched both in 2022 and have been running them side by side ever since.Their paths to getting there could not be more different. Nicole came up through public interest work, elder law, and pro bono coordination before moving into real estate. Danielle spent nearly a decade at a commercial real estate development company, working her way to president, then stepped away to build something of her own.In this special episode of CZ and Friends, hosted by GC AI’s General Counsel, Laurel Palluzi, Laurel sits down with Nicole and Danielle to cover:Why they launched a law firm and a consulting practice at the same time, and how they keep them distinctWhat working inside a real estate development company teaches you that you cannot learn from the outsideThe real estate law details that never show up in law school, from wetland delineations to title curative work in New York stateWhat it actually takes to leave a president title behind and start overHow they use GC AI to replace the work of multiple FTEs and redline contracts directly in WordWhat Buffalo's real estate market looks like right now, and why it is drawing attention as a climate refuge and residential hotspotThe one thing nobody tells you before you go from employee to founderThis is the first time CZ and Friends has gone deep into real estate law. Nicole and Danielle bring a perspective most real estate attorneys do not have: they have stood on every side of a deal.Follow Danielle, Nicole, and Laurel:@Danielle Shainbrown on Linkedin@Nicole Komin on LinkedIn@Laurel Paluzzi on LinkedInChapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:22 Nicole's path from elder law to real estate 6:45 How the McGuire opportunity came together 7:07 Danielle's path: from law firm to general counsel to president 13:05 What it was like to lead through COVID as president 15:41 Why Danielle walked away from the president role 18:43 Nicole's decision to build something of her own 21:19 Planning the escape hatch during one-on-ones 23:02 What nobody tells you about going from employee to founder 27:13 Real estate law: what you only learn from the inside 33:19 Running a law firm and a consulting practice in parallel 36:17 Buffalo's real estate market and what it means to be embedded in a community 43:06 How Nicole and Danielle found GC AI and what changed 47:01 Lightning round: myths, books, and advice for your younger self 50:21 Final takeawaysAbout the Guests: Nicole Komin and Danielle Shainbrown are co-founders of Bellwether Advisors and Shainbrown Komin PLLC, based in Buffalo, New York. Their practices cover commercial real estate, business law, owner's representation, and real estate development consulting.Follow us on all social platforms to get each new episode when it drops.@Cecilia Ziniti on LinkedIn@CeciliaZin on Twitter/X@GC AI on LinkedIn@gcai on Xgc.ai website

Rachel Harris, General Counsel and AI Governance & Privacy Officer at Suzy, joins Cecilia to talk about what it takes to be a solo GC at a high-growth AI startup.Rachel's career started in an unlikely place: plaintiff-side pharmaceutical MDL litigation in St. Louis, where she learned to work fast, take big bets, and operate alongside founders who mortgaged their homes to finance cases. That scrappy, high-risk-tolerance mindset turned out to be the perfect training ground for startup life.Now at Suzy, Rachel has built the company's privacy program from the ground up, shipped a hacky-but-brilliant CLM alternative inside Salesforce, and is pushing the boundaries of what product counsel looks like in the AI era. Her philosophy: if legal is a bottleneck, something upstream is broken. The fix is not more process; it is deeper integration into the workflows where decisions actually happen.Rachel also shares a real-time example of using AI to create a markdown file spec for a product feature involving consent capture, handing it directly to engineering, and watching them build a prototype overnight. Her CEO's reaction: "Can you infuse the brain of Rachel into the thing?" That, she argues, is the future of in-house legal.The conversation covers compliance theater (and how to avoid it), the ROI calculus of certifications like ISO 42001 and SOC 2, optimizing security questionnaires, and why the modern GC is already a product manager whether they know it or not.Follow Rachel:@Rachel Harris on LinkedInShow notes:Why plaintiff-side litigation is better startup prep than big lawThe "go upstream" framework for eliminating legal bottlenecksHow to build a CLM workaround when there is no CLM budgetUsing markdown files to go from legal spec to product prototypeAvoiding compliance theater in security, privacy, and AI governanceWhy in-house lawyers are better positioned for AI than law firmsLightning Round: Rachel recommends The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins and shares her two-line advice to her younger self: be kind and make friends.00:00 – Preview00:11 – Meet Rachel Harris: From Pharma MDLs to Startup GC02:22 – What Plaintiff-Side Litigation Teaches You About Startups05:23 – Craziest Litigation Stories06:59 – The Journey to Suzy11:42 – First Days In-House: Imposter Syndrome and Making Friends16:09 – If Legal Is a Bottleneck, Something Upstream Is Broken18:40 – Building a DIY CLM Inside Salesforce22:48 – The Future of Product Counsel: Markdown Files and AI Prototyping28:22 – Why AI Is Better Placed In-House Than at Law Firms32:01 – AI Governance, ISO 42001, and Avoiding Compliance Theater37:01 – Taming the 500-Question Security Questionnaire42:29 – The Modern GC Is Already a Product Manager44:24 – Lightning Round45:31 – OutroFollow us on all social platforms to get each new episode when it drops.@Cecilia Ziniti on LinkedIn@CeciliaZin on Twitter/X@GC AI on LinkedIn@gcai on Xgc.ai website

Molly Abraham, VP of Legal at Coinbase, joins Cecilia to talk about what it takes to build and lead a 90-person legal team through one of the most scrutinized regulatory periods in tech history.Molly started as a chemical engineer at Procter and Gamble, taught the LSAT at night to pay for law school, and went on to Wachtell Lipton before moving in-house at Kitty Hawk (the Larry Page-backed flying car company) and then Coinbase. Her path is unconventional, and her framework for legal leadership is sharper for it.Follow Molly:@Molly Abraham on LinkedInShow notes:Why the best GCs and CLOs are business leaders first, lawyers secondThe "dot connecting" role that makes product counsel indispensable across an organizationHow Coinbase challenged the SEC's authority and what it looked like from inside the legal team when the case was dismissed with prejudiceWhy Molly hires for people who question everything, including the policy rationale behind the rules themselvesHer three-hat framework for how legal leaders should think about AI: enabler, protector, and super userWhy in-house lawyers who do not embrace AI will become less relevant, and what to do about itHer contrarian career advice: be dispensableMolly also shares the story of a Kitty Hawk aircraft that did not fit neatly into FAA jurisdiction, how she thinks about privilege in the age of AI tools, and why she bought Crypto for Dummies the day before she started at Coinbase.Chapters: 00:00 Preview 00:14 Intro: Molly's background and path to Coinbase 01:43 Engineering at Procter and Gamble, Pampers, and patent strategy 06:11 Dot connecting as a core legal skill 07:41 Legal as a training ground for founders 08:53 Kitty Hawk: flying cars, the FAA, and the Coast Guard 12:05 How to give creative regulatory advice 14:38 Why Molly chose Coinbase 17:36 The crypto mission and why it stuck 22:11 What Molly is most proud of at Coinbase 27:12 The SEC lawsuit and what transparency looked like from inside 31:47 Enlisting users in regulatory advocacy 35:55 How to work with regulators effectively 38:52 How to give legal advice engineers and product teams believe 41:16 AI and the future of in-house legal 42:56 Privilege, AI tools, and the three hats framework 48:51 Becoming an AI super user 51:03 Lightning round: best career advice, favorite bookFollow us on all social platforms to get each new episode when it drops.@Cecilia Ziniti on LinkedIn@CeciliaZin on Twitter/X@GC AI on LinkedIn@gcai on Xgc.ai website

Online learning, AI adoption, and what it really takes to build a company worth building.Today's guest is Gagan Biyani, CEO and Co-founder of Maven and co-founder of Udemy, one of the largest online learning marketplaces in the world. Gagan has spent over 15 years building at the intersection of education and technology. His perspective on how professionals learn, adopt new tools, and think about ambition is unlike anyone else in the space.You'll hear:– Why Udemy pivoted from live to recorded learning in 2009 and what that decision unlocked for an entire industry– How Gagan built Maven from scratch a decade later, starting over with first principles– His honest take on AI adoption, including why even tech-forward CEOs still call their lawyers– The business case for investing in employee learning and why L&D has a reputation problem worth fixing– How to think about ambition, risk, and picking the right wave to ride in your career– Why startups are less risky than most people thinkWhether you are a GC thinking about staying relevant, a senior leader trying to build a learning culture, or someone curious about the future of work, this one is worth your time.Follow Gagan: @Gagan Biyani on LinkedInSHOW NOTESBooks, Authors & Thinkers Mentioned:– Ben Horowitz (What You Do Is Who You Are, cultural lore, Amazon door desks)– Bob Iger (career ambition and picking industries that can go big)Other References:– Maven (maven.com) and GC AI cohort classes (gc.ai/classes)– Udemy, Coursera, and the recorded video learning era– ChatGPT and Claude as first-research tools for legal and business questions– Jevons Paradox applied to AI and legal work– Exponential adoption curves and why AI is moving faster than the early internet did– WSGR (Wilson Sonsini) referenced as Gagan's corporate counselFollow us on all social platforms to get each new episode when it drops.@Cecilia Ziniti on LinkedIn@CeciliaZin on Twitter/X@GC AI on LinkedIn@gcai on Xgc.ai website

What does it mean to lead legal without white-knuckling every outcome? Matthew Campobasso, Chief Legal Officer of Zone & Co., joins Cecilia Ziniti on CZ and Friends to answer that question head-on.Matthew brings nearly 20 years of legal experience across criminal prosecution, big law litigation, and in-house leadership. In this conversation, he unpacks why the legal profession has a control problem, how anxiety can be a feature or a bug depending on your self-awareness, and what it looks like to build a legal function that the business actually wants to come to.Follow Matthew:@Matthew Campobasso on LinkedinThey also get into:The difference between competence and control, and why lawyers confuse the twoHow to hold authority without pretending to own the outcomeWhat it means to be a legal partner vs. a legal gatekeeperThe real cost of being the lawyer people route aroundHow his background in criminal law shaped his ability to stay unflappable in the boardroomThe pro bono case he is most proud of after two decades of practiceHis book, The Case for Letting Go, and the thinking behind itIf you work in-house, lead a legal team, or are thinking about what legal leadership looks like as AI reshapes the profession, this episode is worth your time.Subscribe for new episodes with legal leaders, operators, and technologists driving business today.Timestamps: 00:00 — Intro: Matthew Campobasso and The Case for Letting Go01:07 — Does the legal profession have a control problem?03:12 — When anxiety helps lawyers—and when it starts hurting05:49 — A real story about legal, trust, and letting the business learn09:00 — From prosecutor to litigator to CLO12:19 — The case Matthew is most proud of13:58 — Law, ethics, and teaching the business to do the right thing19:04 — The thesis behind The Case for Letting Go21:57 — How to keep standards high without holding everything yourself25:24 — Why legal is the most interesting seat at the table in tech28:31 — AI, founder mode, and the new era of legal29:37 — Bold prediction: when not using AI becomes malpractice34:09 — What a great day for an AI-enabled legal team looks like36:03 — What CEOs should expect from legal with AI38:35 — Regulators, filings, and the rising standard AI creates40:50 — The traits law selects against in future leaders44:11 — How lawyers can learn to sit with uncertainty46:24 — Lightning round: the book Upstream48:58 — The mentor who shaped Matthew’s career51:53 — Advice for younger lawyers and future CLOs54:20 — Closing thoughts and where to learn moreFollow us on all social platforms to get each new episode when it drops.@Cecilia Ziniti on LinkedIn@CeciliaZin on Twitter/X@GC AI on LinkedIn@gcai on Xgc.ai website