In 2021, LinkSquares had the definition of a lean legal team. General Counsel (GC) and CLO Tim Parilla joined the team in March of that year and held it down as the sole legal team member for half a year before making his first legal hire: Jonathan Greenblatt, VP of Legal at LinkSquares.
Unlike most in-house counsel, Jonathan didn’t start out in big law. After graduating from George Mason University School of Law, he went straight in-house and hasn’t looked back since. For over a decade, Jonathan has worn multiple hats at multiple tech companies, from Human Resources to executing commercial contracts.
Now, as VP of Legal at LinkSquares, part of Jonathan’s role has been to figure out how to foster relationships with other business units and while also scaling the legal team with the rest of the company.
Pit Stop at the Peace Corps
Before law school, Jonathan wanted to see the world and “get a sense of what’s out there, especially after the bubble of college,” he said in an episode of Cockpit Counsel. So, for two years and some change, Jonathan lived in Baku, Azerbaijan as part of one of the first Peace Corps groups to visit and stay in the country after the fall of the Soviet regime.
Living in a small village where he knew almost no one and didn’t speak the language taught him how to navigate a new environment and build relationships with new people. Being able to learn quickly and build relationships with people is a skill that has served him in every experience since, including as VP of Legal at LinkSquares.
Coming to LinkSquares
Jonathan joined LinkSquares in October 2021 and immediately got to work. From his previous decade of legal experience, he knew the key to a good working experience was building strong relationships, especially with the revenue-driving teams.
“The most important thing is to build relationships with business teams so people know that I’m here to support,” he says in conversation with Tim. In any high-growth stage company that emphasizes sales as a revenue function, alignment between legal and sales is crucial to success. As a result, Jonathan has made a strong effort to work well with the revenue business units, taking time to explain what he’s doing and fostering understanding between teams so that they can work together instead of trying to undercut each other.
Growth Mindset
In addition to working with good people and building strong cross-functional relationships, something that’s important to Jonathan is working in an exciting space with a high-growth mindset. Like most leaders in the SaaS industry, Jonathan is always looking for evolution – whether in title or opportunity. He is always looking to learn something new and be in a place that fosters his growth mindset.
One of the challenges he’s faced in his year at LinkSquares has been figuring out how the legal team fits into existing processes. As a high-growth company, LinkSquares is at the stage of systematizing and streamlining processes as the company scales. Understanding where the legal function comes in and whether or not they should be included is something he has on his plate, using his past experiences as a barometer to figure that out.
That aligns well with one of the first tasks that Tim Parilla assigned to Jonathan: putting together a plan to build out the legal team in a way that scales with the business.
Using the insight provided by the tool, Greenblatt has a good idea of the work that exists and the work that needs to be done. When making hires, the business needs always comes first: addressing the pain points of the requests coming in, figuring out what resources are needed, what role could plug that hole, and making sure each candidate is a great culture fit - an equally critical factor in building out a team.
Jonathan’s Advice
Jonathan is an incredible asset to the legal team at LinkSquares. A regular attendee of hot yoga, he has this advice for newbies: “Prepare yourself to do your best and not try too hard. You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing.”
Listen to Jonathan’s conversation with GC Tim Parilla on this episode of Cockpit Counsel. Subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode.
