Chris Lal’s cross-town move from Tilly’s Inc. to Alteryx Inc. was brief, but while the professional role is similar the business terrain for the top company legal specialist at each firm is quite a bit different.
Lal was general counsel at Irvine-based retailer and e-commerce company Tilly’s from 2012 to 2016. The publicly listed company (NYSE: TLYS) is valued at about $200 million, and sells clothes, shoes and other apparel. While he was there, Lal won a Business Journal General Counsel award in 2014.
He joined Alteryx Inc. (NYSE: AYX), also in Irvine, as chief legal officer in August 2016, the year before the data analytics software maker went public. It’s now valued at nearly $10 billion.
“When I joined Alteryx in 2016, I stepped into a fast-paced company, focused on managing growth across its entire business—from people, to locations, to customers, to sales—and preparing for an IPO,” Lal told the Business Journal last week. “Although I was at a new company, my role was very much the same—legal advisor, business strategist, protector of the corporation’s assets and reputation.”
Alteryx says Lal is “responsible for all legal affairs, including intellectual property, licensing, contract negotiations, compliance, and corporate governance.” Lal is also the corporate secretary.
Alteryx, one of the hottest Orange County tech companies in years, has about 1,500 employees and offices around the world. Earlier this month, Silicon Valley veteran Mark Anderson took over as chief executive from co-founder Dean Stoecker (see story, page 10).
Lal’s team has built out a global legal organization capable of managing a rapidly scaling business, including developing customer contracting standards and playbooks and managing risk, compliance, regulatory and governance as a global, public company.
“In private practice, the diversity and sophistication of the work and the ability to collaborate with and draw on the expertise of law firm colleagues are tremendous,” Lal said. “As a lawyer within a company, however, you have the luxury of focusing on just one client, and you’re able to become fully immersed in the business and its long-term goals in a way that private practice doesn’t allow.”
Previously, while serving as vice president, general counsel and secretary of Tilly’s, Lal oversaw legal affairs related to Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Stock Exchange compliance, Federal Trade Commission matters, e-commerce, intellectual property, and labor and employment.
Before Tilly’s, Lal served as general counsel at Thompson National Properties, Sunstone Hotel Investors (NYSE: SHO), and RemedyTemp, helping these companies through various stages of growth and corporate change.
He began his career at O’Melveny & Myers LLP in 1998, as a member of the corporate and securities practice, where he advised clients on matters including public securities offerings and private placements, corporate finance transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance.
Lal holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and received a J.D. from the University of Southern California in 1998.
