Spotlights: A legal career built on creativity and collaboration, with Giovanna O'Malley

In our latest Legal Disruptors Spotlight series we meet Giovanna O'Malley, a legal professional who has built a flourishing consultancy career by reimagining how legal can truly support business goals.

From her start in corporate admin in the US, to founding her own consultancy in Ireland, Giovanna demonstrates how embracing collaboration and bringing creativity to the legal field can set someone apart in an industry not often known for its creative flair.
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Creating a career with key mentors and connections

Giovanna has taken a more scenic path to her legal career, one that has consistently allowed her to use her creativity rather than follow the typical, more conventional route.

Her education was focused on the arts rather than law, with business playing a secondary role in the background. The introduction to law started in a corporate admin role, where the love for contracts and law first began. She then moved to a logistics company and was launched into the legal department working under the General Counsel who, “really mentored me and just allowed me to use talents that I never knew I had.”

Since then, Giovanna has developed her in-house legal experience across US corporations, from logistics to software. In recent years, she relocated to Ireland, allowing her to take a step back to explore her next role.

“I needed a break from the corporate environment, but I didn't want to get out of the legal sector. I've made so many connections throughout the years and even though I'm not an attorney, I do have a lot of experience, especially with contracts.”

And this was the catalyst that began Contracts by Color, Giovanna’s own legal consultancy, created to help businesses in the US and EMEA problem solve through better contract processes.
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Disruption through collaboration

Disruption of the legal norm didn’t start when Giovanna became a consultant, it started with a people and business first approach, applied throughout her career.

“For example, my approach to contracts - rather than coming from the legal side, I always understand the business first and understand how business can integrate effectively with legal.”

However, this may not come naturally to every legal professional. Legal teams can be too focused on risk and don’t always balance the risk with the business’ goals. For legal to be the most successful it can be, it requires building close bonds and understanding the wider organization.

“The sales team and I would tag team each other, take calls together and get the contracts done more efficiently and effectively. We owned the process and the terms together.”

Modern legal teams have a chance to shift from being reactive and risk-averse, to being business partners who can balance business goals and legal risk.
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The move from reactive, to proactive

To create this balance effectively, Giovanna offers the following advice:

1. Seek mentors beyond legal, someone in sales for example. Understand their role, goals and negotiation style to help you align legal processes more effectively, “I've got a good number of mentors that I see negotiating on calls and with contracts, and I admire it!”
2. Stay creative. “Being in the legal industry, everything is primarily black and white. So, work with the business and sales more creatively and together you’ll think of something that will get the job done.”
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Can technology further enable legal collaboration?

For time-pressed in-house teams, Giovanna believes legal tools can be a lifeline for managing document churn and speeding up sales cycles, all of which improve collaboration and business relationships.

“With AI tools, you’re able to have contracts located centrally and to send out multiple requests to people that need feedback from various departments, versus having individual conversations or e-mail chains. These tools are fantastic because they centralize everything!”

However, Giovanna is clear about the limitations of AI and legal technology and cautions against overreliance without human legal oversight.

“Use AI and legal tools as a foundation but then do engage with the subject matter expert or counsel. You need the expert to make sure you’ve dotted your I’s and crossed your Ts at the end of the day.”

These experts are crucial not only for setting up legal tools and workflows, but for reviewing the output of legal technology to ensure it is accurate and aligned with constantly evolving laws, regulations, and tariffs.
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Five proactive tips for any legal professional

Giovanna is a powerful reminder that the legal role doesn’t have to be a role of strict structure or constant rule setting. By putting people and business first, embracing collaboration and having a reflective approach on technology, legal teams can set themselves up for success.

To get started, consider Giovanna’s top 5 tips:

1. Build a close bond between business and legal, and do this from the start, not before it’s too late.
2. Have mentors from other departments and be a mentor across the business and with your legal peers too.
3. Understand and promote to your business that the subject matter expert is vital. No amount of technology can replace such experts.
4. Be creative “when you're trying to get business done, you’ve just got to get creative.”
5. Finally, stay on top of changes and developments by making time for seminars, conferences and networking opportunities.

For Giovanna, it’s all about a meeting of minds, working together, sharing ideas, and driving change as a team. Whether that’s legal professionals collaborating to solve challenges or entire organizations aligning to achieve shared business goals.

If you would like to learn more about Giovanna, her insights and how Contracts By Color can help legal teams of all size, follow her on LinkedIn and explore the consultancy offering at www.contractsbycolor.com.