Jay Mandal, a new CodeX Fellow, describes himself as an “executive and entrepreneur,” and he’s been very active in both those arenas. Mandal most recently spent a year at Optimizely, a website optimization platform that has more than 7,000 customers (backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark Capital). He previously was CEO and co-founder of Law Pivot, which was acquired in 2013  by Rocket Lawyer. Mandal spent two years with Rocket Lawyer, where he was senior director and head of its legal advice business.

A Stanford undergraduate, Mandal earned his B.A. in Economics (with honors) in 1996, and was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to India in 1996-97, before heading across the bay to the University of California Berkeley, where he earned his J.D. in 2000.

Mandal’s early career jumped in “two”s— he spent two years at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison as an associate in the buisness and technology law group before joining the IPpro Services India Private Ltd. as a founding team member and head of U.S. Operations—while also serving as the head of U.S. Office and Attorney in the corporate law group at Nishith Desai Associates—for two years. The next two-year stint was as an associate in the corporate and securities law group at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman (2004-2006) before breaking the duets by spending three years at Apple as senior corporate counsel (he was the lead mergers and acquisitions lawyer and on the commercial law team).

Mandal then spent the next three years at Law Pivot, which was funded by Google Ventures and Sequoia Capital’s scout program. “LawPivot was an online legal marketplace in which individuals and small businesses received legal answers from lawyers,” he explains on his Linkedin profile.

THREE QUESTIONS

Q:  What will you be focusing on at CodeX?

Mandal: “Mentoring entrepreneurs in the legal tech space—in other words, they can learn from my mistakes as an enterpreneur! I’ll also be exploring different ways that CodeX can prepare law students and legal tech entrepreneurs with the skills, resources and strategies necessary to be successful in Silicon Valley and beyond.”

Q:  What do you see as the biggest challenge for the legal industry?

Mandal: “Leaders in the legal industry suffer from cognitive dissonance. They know that the march of technology and legal automation into their practices is inevitable, yet hold onto the traditional, bespoke practice of law to maximize profits. They need to understand how to avail the benefits of technology without being threatened by the new ways of practicing law—online legal services, e-discovery, legal marketplaces, etc.  Leaders and governing bodies in the industry are resisting these innovations when it would in fact democratize access to law. What they also don’t realize is that adopting these innovations could lead to greater demand for legal services and benefit all lawyers.

Q: What is your favorite distraction when you need a break from work?

Mandal: I love watching Bollywood Indian music videos, especially with my wife and two babies. The kids are big fans, but they have no choice because that’s all I show them on TV! The videos also give me inspiration for the music videos I direct for my brother-in-law’s Bollywood rock music (which is secretly my second career).

Monica Bay is a CodeX Fellow and a freelance journalist for Bloomberg BNA Big Law Business, a columnist at Above The Law, and an analyst and consultant. She is a member of the California Bar and can often be found at Yankee Standium. Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu. Twitter: @MonicaBay.