Witad Awards 2023: Legal/compliance professional of the year—Lauren Carroll, GLMX

Life is full of “what if?” moments. While today Lauren Carroll is GLMX’s general counsel and chief administrative officer, she almost ended up working in fintech in a non-legal capacity. In college, she interned at financial companies and was torn between pursuing business or law. Making a judgment call that the economy was performing poorly at the time she graduated, she went to law school, a decision GLMX today is no doubt grateful for.

Carroll blends her legal and business experience in her work, which recently has involved helping GLMX with its intellectual property program by analyzing whether there is a need to apply for patents and trademarks as the company increases in stature. “As we become more of a brand that people are going to recognize in this industry, it’s important to protect our trademarks and any patents. We have a patent already so it’s just making sure we don’t want to also apply for others,” she says.

Carroll thrives as part of a small team, which means she has taken roles at a number of startups. Working within such a team that is part of the larger GLMX entity, Carroll enjoys the feeling of achieving something bigger and better with the business, and feels that GLMX’s strong vision of what it wanted to achieve really appealed to her.

Besides a strong sense of teamwork, Carroll believes her determination has been key to succeeding at GLMX. After taking an unorthodox route into the legal/compliance business by forgoing a long period of time spent at a law firm before moving in-house, Carroll has worked her way through the ranks and has accrued a significant amount of legal and commercial knowledge.

Looking forward, she says that a significant expansion of GLMX is coming in the next year.

“I think we’re going to continue a lot of our jurisdictional expansion as customers want to bring on their trading parties and other countries, as well as product expansion. On the compliance side, we’re looking to hire in new countries as well as expand. We’re going to need to hire more staff in other countries and make sure we’re compliant doing that,” she says.

At a time when tech companies are making cuts and laying people off, Carroll is grateful for GLMX providing her with the opportunity to grow in a friendly environment. Despite her large workload, she is raising two children and regularly volunteers at their school. She also mentors law students looking to get into fintech and navigate their careers. And the workload doesn’t seem to faze her. “It’s just great―I like being busy and continuing to grow,” she says.