Laura Proctor

Laura, tell us about your career history and expertise

I’ve been working in marketing now for over 20 years. I actually started out in business to consumer (B2C) and then moved into business to business (B2B) fairly early on, almost by accident. Once I did though, I stayed there. Over time, I found myself specializing in technology businesses, moving through sectors like telecoms, hosted IT services, cyber security and now legal tech.

What keeps me in tech is that it’s fast-paced, challenging and constantly changing. High-growth businesses in particular are exciting because you’re always on a journey – the market evolves, the product evolves and the business evolves with it. My background is originally in content marketing, so storytelling has always been really important to me. You have to offer value to your audience. If you’re clear on your message, clear on what makes you different and clear on why you exist, everything else flows from there. That’s something I try and keep front and center in everything we do. I’m proud of the brand we’ve built at Summize – it’s bold, disruptive and intentionally different from more traditional legal players.

What first attracted you to Summize?

I’ve been at Summize for four years now, and what initially attracted me was the people. I knew some of the individuals involved in the business through previous roles and investors, and reputation matters a lot to me. The first question I always ask myself is whether it’s a team I’d want to be part of.

When I came into the office for the first time, Summize was much smaller and I could immediately see the opportunity. It felt like being handed a blank sheet of paper. The brand existed, but the messaging wasn’t yet clear. At the time, the product focused on contract summaries, with a clear ambition to move into a full contract lifecycle management (CLM) solution.

For marketing, product-market fit and vision are everything. I could see where the business wanted to go and I knew there was something solid to build on. But just as importantly, I enjoyed the people. Being able to have open, honest conversations and genuinely enjoy working together is critical, and that’s been a big part of why I’ve stayed and grown into the role I’m in today.

What does it mean to be a CMO at Summize?

Being a CMO at a scale-up means wearing a lot of hats. Sometimes I forget I’m a CMO because you adapt to whatever the business needs at that moment. Marketing skills are incredibly transferable – project management, operational thinking, people leadership – and I’ve applied those across sales operations, customer initiatives and other areas of the business over the years.

Looking ahead, being CMO is about making sure we continue to stand out in a crowded CLM market. It’s about telling compelling stories, bringing customer voices to the forefront and clearly explaining the real value Summize delivers.

I hadn’t worked in legal tech before joining, but I immediately understood the problem. We’ve all experienced the frustration of contracts slowing things down. At scale, that pain is multiplied across an organization. With AI, the direction of the product and the ideas we’re developing, my focus is now on telling that story in a way that builds trust, credibility and advocacy, both within our customer base and in the wider market.

What do you find most interesting about the legal tech space?

For me, legal has been one of the last departments to truly go through digital transformation. Sales, marketing, finance and HR have owned established tech stacks for years, and legal teams are now finally getting the seat at the table and the budgets to match.

What’s exciting is that contracts aren’t just a legal issue – they’re a business-wide challenge. Legal tech can make legal teams more efficient and reduce stress and burnout, but what’s even more powerful is unlocking the knowledge that’s traditionally been hidden inside contracts and making it accessible across the business.

The sector is going through a huge period of growth and change, particularly with AI. It’s also crowded and sometimes confusing, which creates real opportunity to help legal teams simplify – to understand what they’re trying to achieve and how AI can genuinely support that. There’s still a huge amount of greenfield opportunity, with many legal teams only just starting this journey, and that makes the space incredibly exciting.

What does the future look like at Summize, and what are you most excited for?

What excites me is the variety and momentum. Every single year at Summize feels like a new role because the market, the tools and the opportunities keep evolving. We’re in a strong growth phase, and that unlocks new ideas, new experiments and new ways of engaging with customers.

I love that marketing at Summize touches so many parts of the business – from how we attract talent to how we support customers long after they’ve signed. It’s that breadth and depth that keeps the role interesting.

Most of all, I’m excited about continuing to build a brand that people trust and return to, supported by customer advocates and legal influencers who genuinely believe in what we’re doing. There’s a lot ahead of us, and that sense of possibility is what makes coming to work every day enjoyable.