Microsoft’s Jason Barnwell Joins Agiloft As CLO

Well-known legal ops expert, Jason Barnwell, has left Microsoft for CLM pioneer Agiloft to join as its CLO. At Microsoft he spent more than 15 years in senior legal and business leadership roles, most recently serving as General Manager and Associate General Counsel for Monetization and Business Planning.

The company noted that at Microsoft he guided digital transformation initiatives as GM and Associate General Counsel within the company’s Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs organization, ‘blending cultural and technical innovation to enhance performance and business impact’.

During his tenure, he oversaw the legal strategy behind Microsoft’s global contracting engine, streamlining data-driven legal processes connected to multi-billion-dollar procurement spend across the company’s global supply chain.

In short, a top hire who knows a lot about tech and legal services combined…and especially the contracting needs of large corporates.

Eric Laughlin, CEO at Agiloft, commented: ‘Jason knows how to unlock the potential of legal teams, harness AI and data, and make contracting a true driver of business value. At the same time, his leadership sends a signal to legal leaders everywhere of what modern contracting that drives real business value can achieve. I look forward to seeing how his impact will set a new standard for what modern data-first CLM can do – for our customers and the industry as a whole.’

And Barnwell added: ‘It is energizing to step into Agiloft now, where we get to show what is possible when smart systems, AI, and talented teams come together in legal operations. Contracts are where the human, the process, and the machine meet, and most teams get buried in repetitive work, so the opportunity cost is huge.

‘My focus will be to create patterns that scale: smarter workflows, talented teams that lift each other up, and legal operations that influence significant business outcomes. I am thrilled to join Eric and the team in unlocking new ways for legal teams to have meaningful impact with transformational AI solutions.’

Congrats to both.