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Two Minds. One Future.: Inside the UnitedLex Summit 2026

Business Leaders with Law Degrees: UnitedLex CEO Dan Reed for Fast Company

Business Leaders with Law Degrees: UnitedLex CEO Dan Reed for Fast Company

While other corporate functions embraced digital-first initiatives, legal teams have lagged behind. According to the Association of Corporate Counsel, more than 70% of U.S. legal departments made no digital transformation investments in the last two years.

In a new article for Fast Company, UnitedLex CEO Dan Reed argues that resisting modernization prohibits legal teams from evolving into true business partners to help their organizations reduce costs, generate revenue, and mitigate risk. In short:

“The best legal outcomes are often not the best business outcomes. Legal teams can offer more than pure risk mitigation once transformed to create value and effectively think like lawyers yet advise as savvy business executives. The fastest path is through actionable data, positioning legal to provide the best outcomes and answers for the overall health of the business.”

And:

“Armed with data, legal teams and their general counsel leaders can better defend the enterprise by reducing and addressing risk and cost and driving value by reducing friction from commerce and operations.”

Read Dan’s full article, “No longer just general counsel: Business leaders with law degrees,” for details on how legal teams moving past old ways of thinking can transform the legal department from an outdated cost center to value creators for the organization.

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